"This requirement makes full-time schooling impossible, because schools simply don’t have enough room to teach every student while spacing them so far apart. But that requirement, chosen hastily last year, turns out to be useless. The most important scientific advance is the recent conclusion that the guideline that students must maintain six feet of distance in schools has no value. David Zweig reported for New York last week that 'the CDC’s six-foot guidance and tethering school openings to community transmission does not reflect the science'.... [A] trio of doctors in the Washington Post, likewise concludes, 'Keeping students three feet apart instead of requiring them to stay six feet apart won’t make students or teachers and staff less safe.'... But that crippling and hastily erected barrier has remained in place even after it has been proven useless.... [O]pponents of reopening have managed to maintain the appearance of controversy... by emphasizing uncertainty about the precise level of danger, explicitly or implicitly setting a baseline of zero risk as the correct standard for resuming school...."
From "Just Reopen the Schools Now" by Jonathan Chait (NY Magazine).
Chait quotes a WaPo columnist, Valerie Strauss, who insists that "There is no such thing as learning loss." Strauss opines, dreamily [CORRECTION: The author of these quotes is Strauss’s guest columnist, Rachael Gabriel.]
Learning is never lost, though it may not always be “found” on pre-written tests of pre-specified knowledge or preexisting measures of pre-coronavirus notions of achievement....
We have all learned, every day, unconditionally… They learned to take gym class on YouTube, that people you have never met can be your greatest teachers, that the ability to go outside and play during the day makes every day brighter, and that their safety depends on the decisions of others.
Yeah, you are always learning something. You can learn how to play video games. You can learn how to take naps... and drugs. Oh! The places you go when you don't leave the house!
Or go play in the yard. And stop being so prejudiced against different types of learning! They're all worthy of respect in the rainbow of education.
And if you ever think you're missing out on learning, don't go looking any further than your own backyard. Because if it isn't there, you never really lost it to begin with!
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133 comments:
---Or go play in the yard. And stop being so prejudiced against different types of learning! They're all worthy of respect in the rainbow of education.
---And if you ever think you're missing out on learning, don't go looking any further than your own backyard. Because if it isn't there, you never really lost it to begin with!
You are in rare form.
"And stop being so prejudiced against different types of learning!"
This is prejudiced in itself. In fact, racist.
Who says learning should be a priority at all?
All this learning and education and stuff is just a form of white supremacy that serves the interests of Asians.
Learning inevitably produces inequity. Equity requires no more learning.
People who insist on learning need to be reeducated.
The six-feet rule is based on science.
A five-feet rule would be to little.
A seven-feet rule would be too much.
So, a six-feet rule is just right.
hmmm
the guideline that students must maintain six feet of distance in schools has no value.
the lockdowns had "no value"
mask mandates don't work (
but HEY! i've figured out, where we've Heard All This Before
The ONLY REASON, that mask mandates don't work, is because..."People aren't complying properly!"
for a fun game, think about Communism; and compare it to all these mandates!
It's True; that Communism has failed (and Failed, BIG LEAGUE!) EVERY place it's been tried.
But! That isn't because Communism doesn't work...
It's because people aren't IMPLEMENTING Communism correctly!!
It's True; that Mandates have failed (and Failed, BIG LEAGUE!) EVERY place they've been tried.
But! That isn't because Mandates don't work...
It's because people aren't IMPLEMENTING Mandates correctly!!
If we, REQUIRE; under penalty of Law, that people MUST OBEY MANDATES
we WILL (slightly) reduce the incidence of Covid!
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/mask_mandates_do_not_save_lives.html
Of course, there is near zero risk of COVID-19 killing any of the students - we are in mop bucket territory, where the kids are probably less likely to die of COVID-19, than drown in a mop bucket - or be killed in a school shooting, for that matter.
We know what is really happening here - it is being driven by the teachers. Mostly being good Democrat soldiers, they have to panic. Mostly because Orange Man Bad. But also because they don’t have to go to work, instead get to work from home, and they no longer have to deal with their more disruptive students, who just fade away with remote learning. And still get paid. Most of the teachers, being fairly young, are not in that much danger either. That’s, of course, irrelevant.
Of course, it is egregious. For one thing, they are delaying herd immunity, while getting full pay for significantly less work. But they have been a significant Dem party power center for decades. Several decades ago, it was determined that more than 1/4 of the delegates to the Democrat’s national convention were school teachers - more than any other identifiable constituency.
Children are the least valued members of our society.
I refuse to read the Washington Post, given they are blatant propagandists who care none for the truth. If I wanted to read garbage, I would find something like the Weekly World News. It's not true, but at least it is entertaining.
Assuming this is in context, Valerie is making the typical mistake of thinking all people are like her. This is how we ended up with new math and other garbage that does not work for the large majority of students. Yes, some people are better off learning on their own and they will be fine. That's not everyone. That's not even a majority, and if you were to make me guess it would be less than 5%. Students require various levels of structure for education to be effective ranging from basic guidance to pretty much you will sit here until you learn something, damnit.
I suspect that Valerie and her readers would not be all that concerned if half the population can't read. Our elites seem rather insistent on having peasants to rule over.
The only good point she may have, and it is probably unintentional, is that our education system is currently terrible. We would be better if many of these schools never re-opened, but they would have to be replaced with something that actually worked. Of course, that would actually require that they care about the proles, which they do but only in a vague, intellectual sense.
Could someone please tell me how to make my name appear again? Elliott A
The science ALWAYS was a distance of 1 meter. That distance included engineering multiplier. ( a number picked to insure no failure, a guess) Like all numbers of this type, each "expert" adds another multiplier.
For schools, there are thousands of schools that have been in full session since early August. Not a single of those schools had a noteworthy problem. Thousands of laboratories across the Nation, and across the globe. No issues.
Democrats chant "follow the science" but by example are science illiterate, and innumerate.
It's remarkable that COVID-19 devastates very old people (75+), but not young people.
I have an amateur theory about the reason.
The Spanish Flu devastated young people, but not old people. One explanation is that old people had been exposed to a similar flu several decades later, and so old people were rather immune to Spanish Flu.
Now, my amateur theory:
I wonder if people who are old now were exposed to some contagious disease several decades ago, but people who are young now have not been exposed to it. Somehow, the old people's decades-old exposure caused some relevant change in their immune system. Because of that change, old people now suffer a weakened immunity to COVID-19.
In contrast, people who are young now are able to endure COVID-19 as if it were a rather ordinary flu virus.
The "science is settled" phrase should be stricken from the written and spoken word. It's a joke.
Three feet, you say? Not 39.37 inches? Not 23.5 inches?
The six-feet rule is based on science.
It depends on the transmission mode (e.g. fecal transmission).
A seven-feet rule would be too much.
Perhaps not. A study from a Wuhan military institute back in the early part of 2020, reported that viable viruses were detected up to 3 meters away from the source. In another study inside patient rooms, viable viruses were only detected in and around toilets and ventilation shafts.
So, don't forget to wear your N95 and follow strict protocol. Oh, and don't forget your goggles. The eyes are a window to social and viral contagion. Otherwise, the viral spread, but not disease progression, follows the same pattern everywhere, irrespective of restrictive mandates, short of complete and progressive isolation.
"Chait quotes a WaPo columnist, Valerie Strauss, who insists that "There is no such thing as learning loss.""
My two grandchildren are doing OK, but they have two parents and grandparents who have shouldered the burden. But the school district they are in (and my granddaughter is a teacher in) is all of a sudden in a tizzy about starting in person classes again. I asked why bother now, this school year is drawing to a close. The answer I got was the district is in a panic because 75% of the black children have not been participating in remote learning. There's your learning loss right there.
It's remarkable that COVID-19 devastates very old people (75+), but not young people.
The evidence demonstrates that disease progression is correlated with comorbidities correlated with age. Fat is beautiful is a comorbidity, which may explain the high incidence of progress in America. Also, malnutrition (e.g. Vitamin D deficiency) affects immune system function and is a statistically significant factor.
Unless I'm mistaken, the general rule in Europe has been 1 meter since day one.
Somehow we forget that there's this big laboratory out there called "the rest of the world".
Follow the Science ! Unless the teachers unions object!
The rainbow of inclusive exclusion (i.e. black, brown, and white) is a weird symbol to associate with human life.
What crap. Yes, the kids living in a 2-bedroom apartment with one computer (maybe) available for three of them, the oldest one tasked with keeping the younger two on track while Mom is working, aren't experiencing any loss of learning. This loss of time won't harm their educational outcomes at all.
Check your privilege, silly writer.
When I was in law school we learned that education was a fundamental right, so much so that school districts had to accept and educate illegal alien children.
The varying levels of on-line access have turned out to be a modern-day "separate but equal."
Yet no one seems to bring up these seemingly fundamental issues.
Seems that teachers will do anything to keep the work-less hours-from-home-for-the-same-pay lifestyle.
What a cloisterfuck. Technically, teachers (and professors!) who never come face to face with real students in real classrooms should no longer be classified as essential workers. Doing so mocks those who do deal with a live public -- people like doctors, nurses, and grocery clerks.
Teachers have no idea if students are learning anything when most don't turn on their video or audio.
My kids would be thrilled if our society decided that playing outside all day was equivalent to school.
Every Friday in my region, the local newspapers free mini-newspapers. The newspapers are about a dozen pages, featuring local news and containing lots of shopping coupons. These mini-newspapers are thrown onto everyone's driveways, whether they want the newspapers or not.
Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, I was at an estate sale with my wife. I was done looking at the home's books, and so I was waiting on the home's driveway for my wife. There was one such mini-newspaper on the driveway. Since nobody was living in the home any more, I picked up the mini-newspaper, as if it belonged to me, and browsed through it.
The first page featured a long article, which was said to be one of a series about local people who had died from COVID-19. This article was quite long and continued on to an inside page. The article described this man's life -- how he had served in World War Two, how he had come home from the war and had founded his own business, and so on and so forth.
Anyway, one of the article's final sentences mentioned that when COVID-19 terminated his life, he was 101 years old.
True story!
The 6 foot rule was never science. At least not in the sense of it being actual science, based on testing, and retesting by others who achieve the same results. No- as Tucker talked about the other night...
"It turns out the research that formed the basis of that law came from a German hygenicist called Carl Flügge. It was Flügge who decided that six-foot separations were necessary to slow the spread of pathogens. The CDC went with Flügge's judgment. What the CDC didn't tell us was that Karl Flügge had been dead for nearly 100 years. His research on social distancing was published in the 19th century, before most Americans had electricity or indoor plumbing. So why is that research still guiding public health policy in this country in 2021? It's a good question, and experts don't seem to have a good answer."
Science these days seems more a consensus agreement than actual science. How's your climate today?
Freeman Hunt, am I correct in thinking that you homeschool your children? What ages are they? My husband and I decided that we were no longer going to subject our kids to public school, and we are now homeschooling for the first time (starting back in August) with a 14 and 12 year old. Suffice it to say that I often feel I'm in over my head, but we definitely have a lot of good days and great experiences, and we're never sending them back! I tried to keep them enrolled in the band program for awhile, but even ended up pulling the plug on that.
I always like to see when you post! :)
The 6 foot rule was never science.
In the UK they use the 2 metre rule, which is much more scientific. It's metric!
Nice bit of sarc, Althouse! ;-)
But that crippling and hastily erected barrier has remained in place even after it has been proven useless..
Not at all. It helped to destroy a president to the point that massive vote fraud was successful.
When I was substituting in high schools and dealing with sullen teenagers who were not interested in learning anything, I'd say to them, " I think compulsory education should be abolished." I have to admit that their shocked faces were amusing and also that the statement got them motivated to learn, because reverse psychology seems to work.
So now the kids are crying to be able to go back to school and the teachers who don't want to go back. LOL. Maybe when they all get back to class the students will behave better and public school teachers will be more respected and feel more appreciated? The silver lining. I hope so.
You are correct original mike, everyone was happy schools were full remote they found out nearly a third of all students, in our case all are minority, have logged in zero times this school year. Teachers and unions fought it but board of Ed has pushed to full reopen.
Valerie is making the typical mistake of thinking all people are like her. This is how we ended up with new math and other garbage that does not work for the large majority of students.
I remember how one fad was anti-phonics. The fad was "see and say" so that spelling was not a factor. Kids were supposed to look at a word and choose how to say it from appearance or shape of the word. This resulted in appalling spellers. My ex-wife had to take English 100y in college, and it was called "Dumbbell English" by the students. Since I knew her then, I would remind her once in a while. She angrily denied that she had had to take Dumbbell English but she had. That is not the reason we got divorced.
Isn't that going to be the thing, though- the great divide between those who can work from home and those that can't? It wasn't a problem previously because the vast majority of people didn't work from home, but the panic has now created a large class of people who "worked" from home. Now, some of the home-workers can actually do their jobs from home with no loss of real productivity, but the truth is that most of them can't, and we have pretended for a year now that they can. Now we are going to have to tell some of those people they have to start going back to real work.
I am retired, but most of my job could never have been done from home- I would have needed to have an organic chemistry lab in my garage along with regular access to very expensive equipment like HPLCs, FT-NMRs, and mass spectrometers. If I had been still working for my old employer, I would have been assigned to home work for a period of time, but I wouldn't have actually been doing anything really productive for the company itself- for me, it would have been a long paid vacation. I can imagine this is going to be at least 90% of the people who worked from home during the panic.
The sad part is that there are parents who would be willing to say 'ok, then, if schools aren't going to open, I'll take on the responsibility' (in whatever form that takes).
The 'just two weeks' has screwed these kids out of a formal education - key word, formal.
Kids are forced (sic) to go to school because they don't know what they need to know to survive (let alone succeed) in the real world. Adults are capable of self-learning because they can see what they need to learn (and may or may not follow through on it).
Re wild chickens comment:
I did a presentation Sunday afternoon on an history topic with several other contributors. It was via Zoom, and we maxed out at 100 participants, except, only the presenters were visible. It was very disconcerting to not be able to 'read' the audience, I just had to assume they were engaged and understood where I was going in my part of the program. I believe many teachers have been in that position for almost a year. I developed a large measure of understanding and a grudging respect for what they must have been dealing with all along.
And that same divide will apply to the students who have been schooled from home. Some no doubt benefitted from home schooling, but those students are either extremely self-motivated learners or had very, very conscientious parents. I suspect everyone else has been left behind to a detrimental degree that will be hard to remedy, if we ever do.
How many of this blog's younger readers have heard of "The Wizard of Oz"? Born after, oh, 1985. Show of hands, please.
But let's cram infected illegals (that Joe Biden invited here during the debate) all together, and then release them into the country to infect the rest of us. Hell, the Democrats ALL promised the illegals free healthcare during that same debate...and they are trying to the invasion on Trump???
My point above being, that they sure aren't following the CDC's advice there, are they??
six foot rule - definition
A distancing rule ostensibly to prevent viral contagion, created and promoted by short men in an attempt to prevent taller men from being photographed next to them thereby revealing their actual stature.
"There is no such thing as learning loss." This is awesome advice. We can fire all those teachers we don't really need!
"There is no such thing as learning loss" says poster child of said affliction.
.
One big thing American children learned over the past year is that our adults are totally incompetent.
"The most important scientific advance is the recent conclusion that the guideline that students must maintain six feet of distance in schools has no value."
If we all actually valued learning, we would learn that the most important scientific advance is the recent conclusion that most of the supposedly scientific guidelines for the pandemic response--about distancing and masks and lockdowns and school closings and contact tracing and surface cleaning and hospital overload and ventilator use--had no value. Or worse, destroyed value.
From that we would infer that "following the science" is the least scientific thing that happened in the age of panic.
tcrosse said...
The 6 foot rule was never science.
"In the UK they use the 2 metre rule, which is much more scientific. It's metric!"
Worked for Bonaparte. In gym class the other boys would laugh and call him names, "Hey, Little Corsican, must be all of 1.5, eh?" Napoleon would counter, "Not scientific. It's 3.8! METRIC, brie-eating bitches!" And then he put them all on the Prussian front lines.
The stupid is strong in these "educators."
Ordinarily I would just say, they are not being paid to think. But here I think I can safely say, they are being paid not to think.
It's almost as if everyone like me who stated all the facemasklockdowndistance religion is bullshit are the actual scientists!
Fucking evil idiots.
Tar and feathers are too good for these frauds.
Fraudci's head should be on a pike.
stlcdr said...
The sad part is that there are parents who would be willing to say 'ok, then, if schools aren't going to open, I'll take on the responsibility' (in whatever form that takes).
The 'just two weeks' has screwed these kids out of a formal education - key word, formal.
My wife used to be a teacher and volunteers in our youngest's school. Because of her familiarity and competence she often serves as a counsellor to the principal.
The public education systems are already moving to treat this year as a lost year for math in particular (their reasoning being that other subjects don't necessarily build on each lesson, they are already very repetitive, so the misses there are being made up for in the regular curriculum). They aren't going to fail kids but they're going to change future curricula to include more review of work previously assumed to have been mastered which will slow down all future math classes.
They know this isn't true for everyone but it is true for the least competent and least effectively parented cohort which is who they manage the schools for.
So if you made extraordinary efforts to ensure your kids were learning understand the schools are going to waste their time and prevent them reaching their potential.
What strikes me is the "helplessness" in what is written about the opening of schools. No contemplation of adapting, innovating or overcoming. No educator dares to try to make an alternative sage-on-a stage work demonstratively better.
The real question is how many kids have been able to overcome the "school helplessness" that is far more prevalent today. And why not, done right, and known about since at least the 1890s, there are a lifetime of topics that most will feel they cannot learn without a teacher in a classroom/conference room. It's big bucks, often enforced to maintain a license. What kind of world would it be if people, kids, adults, just went around learning things on their own?
In the past, after break the child to the classroom by 3rd grade, the college student would be pushed to overcome the helplessness, with the most successful offered places in graduate programs. But today, school helplessness is never challenged in some majors.
In spite of the fact that schools exist for the sake of education, there is many a school whose pupils show a peculiar "school helplessness"; that is, they are capable of less initiative in connection with their school tasks than they commonly exhibit in the accomplishment of other tasks.
--How to Study and Teaching How to Study (1909) by F. M. McMurry, Professor of Elementary Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Science takes a knee to intuitive science.
Fauci himself said recently that in the absence of data they have to make a judgement call. Social distancing makes sense, but somewhere between French kiss and infinite distance there is a point of diminishing return to distancing. Nobody knows for sure where that point is. They needed to come up with a number. In some countries it was 1 meter and in others it was 1.5. I don't have a problem with judgement calls, but they should be labeled as such and they should be balanced against other factors.
I object to the blind obedience to "The Science" and "experts". Those are words used to get you to shut up and stop asking questions. You don't want to be a denier, do you? At best the "experts" are making a subjective call based on the limited information they have, and it probably is wrong to some degree.
"The public education systems are already moving to treat this year as a lost year for math in particular …
So if you made extraordinary efforts to ensure your kids were learning understand the schools are going to waste their time and prevent them reaching their potential."
Interesting. I'm already tutoring my granddaughter in math. I'll just keep it up and she'll be extra-far ahead.
"Fauci himself said recently that in the absence of data they have to make a judgement call.…"
I can't figure this comment out. Best I can come up with is {judgement call} = {make shit up}
It's almost as if everyone like me who stated all the facemasklockdowndistance religion is bullshit are the actual scientists!
Discounting for chance and other factors, you are, they are. The viral spread, short of complete and progressive isolation, universal N95 or better following strict protocol, and goggles, is independent of restrictive mandates.
Postoperative wound infections and surgical face masks: a controlled study
Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers
Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses
"Fauci himself said recently that in the absence of data they have to make a judgement call.…"
The data is there and has been since as early as the cruise ship, and exponential declines that preceded enforcement of restrictive mandates. The intuitive science, political congruence, demands a leap of faith and often force.
This assumes that it's safe for kids living in apartments in the inner city to go outside and play.
Privilege.
"Nobody knows for sure where that point is. They needed to come up with a number."
One that was large enough it was obvious that "something was being done", yet not so large that everybody would be required to stay in their houses forever.
"Six feet? Sounds good to me. Let's run with it."
Blogger Yancey Ward said...
“Isn't that going to be the thing, though- the great divide between those who can work from home and those that can't? It wasn't a problem previously because the vast majority of people didn't work from home, but the panic has now created a large class of people who "worked" from home. Now, some of the home-workers can actually do their jobs from home with no loss of real productivity, but the truth is that most of them can't, and we have pretended for a year now that they can. Now we are going to have to tell some of those people they have to start going back to real work.”
My last profession, that of patent attorney works just fine working from home. Sure, I have been retired for much of a decade, but I mostly worked remotely anyway. Know one patent attorney who was working out of NYC. They decided to move elsewhere, spent a year or two switching to a national client base, instead of a local one, then moved to a resort community in the CO mountains. After I left my last in house job, in about 2000, my clientele was always been national, and working remotely worked great.
“I am retired, but most of my job could never have been done from home- I would have needed to have an organic chemistry lab in my garage along with regular access to very expensive equipment like HPLCs, FT-NMRs, and mass spectrometers. If I had been still working for my old employer, I would have been assigned to home work for a period of time, but I wouldn't have actually been doing anything really productive for the company itself- for me, it would have been a long paid vacation. I can imagine this is going to be at least 90% of the people who worked from home during the panic.”
My kid’s fiancé is in a similar position. They do water quality testing (if you know where they live, which you might, if you follow my posts, you might accurately guess their employer). For a couple months, they were able to pretend to work, doing long delayed training. But ultimately, they didn’t have access to the lab equipment they needed to test the water. People drink their water, so actually testing it was ultimately deemed essential, and the vacation was over. My kid’s situation wasn’t as dire. During the fall, they could go into work maybe once a week, play with their lasers, then spend the next week at home playing with the numbers. But after the first of the year, they had a new product to support, and has to go to the office 4 days a week to work with the engineers.
Yeah, bringing the lab home isn't an option.
If you ever again vote for a levy or school bond issue - after all this bullshit foisted upon us by the teachers and their unions - you need your head examined.
The comments on that article are just amazing. People do not know how to think.
I would have needed to have an organic chemistry lab in my garage along with regular access to very expensive equipment like HPLCs, FT-NMRs, and mass spectrometers.
Why don't some real estate people set up such labs on a part time basis? They have done so with other office equipment. Maybe too expensive an investment.
Blogger n.n said...
It's almost as if everyone like me who stated all the facemasklockdowndistance religion is bullshit are the actual scientists!
I've posted a couple of times on this but those who are members of the mask religion are not interested.
JaimeRoberto @ 1:13: "...somewhere between French kiss and infinite distance there is a point of diminishing return to distancing."
I am visualizing here a 2-D graph: x-axis is distance and y-axis is...what? Risk? No. Because (ceteris paribus) risk will decline monotonically with distance. There's no "good enough" point resulting from that (exponentially decaying) curve.
So the y-axis has to be...what? It has plot both the risk curve dropping and some other curve --a proxy for Impossible To Live Like This. Which climbs with increased separation. Then you look for the intersection of Risk Reduction and Impossible To Live.
Intuitively this is all very nice but what data should be used to feed the plot? Our masters prefer one set of data --way out to the right-- because they feel little or none of the costs of the Impossible To Live curve. They keep those costs low by just breaking their own rules when they like.
I think the public has seen enough of the hypocrisy that they have dumped the graph and are mostly ready to go back to real life. That shift is going to occur in a nonlinear way over the coming weeks.
As for the teachers; I know and admire a few but I have come to despise the position they have adopted here, and the job they've made of things.
I had a student in one of my classes who taught 8th grade math in the Philadelphia school system.
She told me that the typical student entering her class was doing math at the 4th grade level.
Does this lost year mean that the typical student will be performing at the 3rd grade level?
who taught 8th grade math in the Philadelphia school system.
She told me that the typical student entering her class was doing math at the 4th grade level.
Every Child Left Behind was not, is not limited to Atlanta, Georgia.
There is nothing more religious in the US today than "Science."
Everything the Regime has told us about COVID is a lie.
There is no science in any of it. Not one skeptical thing.
Now go wear your mask and repent.
tcrosse said...
"The 6 foot rule was never science.."
Six feet to rule them all,
and in the darkness bind them.
Meade said...
tcrosse said...
The 6 foot rule was never science.
"In the UK they use the 2 metre rule, which is much more scientific. It's metric!"
Worked for Bonaparte. In gym class the other boys would laugh and call him names, "Hey, Little Corsican, must be all of 1.5, eh?" Napoleon would counter, "Not scientific. It's 3.8! METRIC, brie-eating bitches!" And then he put them all on the Prussian front lines.
Will you ever forgive us moral degenerates who questioned the experts who told us how to deal with COVID?
With apologies to Nietzsche:
What after all are these empty schools now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of the State?
Had my teeth cleaned today. They had a high flow air filter system in the corner that used UV and ESP. Then they also had a retractable hose thingy that they kept near my mouth to suck up all of the aerosols and run that through the same type of treatment.
You can build a covid effective air purification system for about 30 bucks using off the shelf common items at your local home Depot.
The six feet thing is some old school isolation rule. Saw a documentary about the Challenger explosion on Netflix a few months ago. One part they showed a reporter writing a bike at the Cape along with Christa McAuliffe who told him hey we have to stay six feet apart because "I am in quarantine."
Now:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-fauci-masks-covid
Bruce Hayden,
We know what is really happening here - it is being driven by the teachers. Mostly being good Democrat soldiers, they have to panic. Mostly because Orange Man Bad. But also because they don’t have to go to work, instead get to work from home, and they no longer have to deal with their more disruptive students, who just fade away with remote learning. And still get paid. Most of the teachers, being fairly young, are not in that much danger either. That’s, of course, irrelevant.
The point about disruptive students is a good one, one I haven't seen brought up much. In some ways, Zoom teaching has advantages for some teachers, and not just the "not showing up" part: Their classes are now basically self-selected, which generally means that the best stick around and the worst vanish. This is an advantage for the remaining students as well, of course, but for them there are contravening disadvantages, like no personal contact with anyone. But for the teacher that's less of a problem.
Of course, there are kinds of study that simply do not work over Zoom, at all, and my husband (who teaches in such an area) has had the devil of a time trying to figure out what "orchestra" even means in the current context, let alone how to convey it remotely. Though he has three days' wort of after-school live orchestras now, as of last week, so that's something.
My wife's suburban Tucson high school has been open 4 days a week since the end of January. When Spring break is over next week, they will be back full time. So far no problems.
In defense of teachers, they are asked to conduct in person classes AND on-line classes for kids whose parents do not send them to school. It's an extremely busy work day for those who really want to teach.
Since we do not live in a blue state and I am retired, it is hard for me to fully appreciate the crap that people have been through for the past year. I am tired of wearing masks, but I do it out of politeness. Otherwise the greatest inconvenience is the problem with travel-related WuFlu protocols.
So much for flattening the curve.
I would often question my high school principal brother, if teachers are professionals, why do they need a union. Answers were not forthcoming. My guess was to protect the non-professionals (read: non-performers) in their ranks.
Francisco D,
In defense of teachers, they are asked to conduct in person classes AND on-line classes for kids whose parents do not send them to school. It's an extremely busy work day for those who really want to teach.
Sprich mir darueber. That is the absolute worst of the "hybrid" model -- trying to teach both to Zoom and to the actual, live students right in front of you, without appearing to favor either. As you say, if done properly, it's at least half again the effort as a straight one-way-or-the-other class.
Thank you, ex-madtown girl! That's great. Yes, we homeschool, and we have two the same ages as yours. However, now the same two drew seats for one of the top public schools in the country for next year. Hm. Ponder, ponder.
Pros: Could be a good environment. Nice clubs. Nice peers. Probably excellent instruction. More attention from instructors. Would save us many thousands of dollars that we now spend on education every year.
Cons: Could be a bad environment. Might have terrible peers. Already pay for excellent instruction. Youth culture is especially bad right now, not normal youth culture bad--does one want one's kid immersed in it? Goes completely against my non-conformist, highly skeptical of all authority bent.
Still, the school is ranked in the top tenth of one percent for public high schools nationally. Does that mean anything? Who knows. Would it have any added value over what we do now? Who knows. It would be helpful to be able to look into the future at the outcomes of both choices.
(Oh, and it's run by a conservative.)
Achilles said...
"Will you ever forgive us moral degenerates who questioned the experts who told us how to deal with COVID?"
How is it my place to forgive you "moral degenerates" or anyone else for anything? I never told you or anyone else how to deal with COVID or who to question or not to question.
On March 7, 2020 I did share what I planned to do to deal it— basically, try not to get infected and become a spreader. I said we all have our own moral choices to make but I never passed moral judgment on you or anyone else. If I'm mistaken, feel free to show me where I did and I'll apologize to you or anyone else who I referred to as a "moral degenerate."
Otherwise, feel free (after you get your shots, Achilles) to kiss my ass.
For the record, I believe President Warp Speed led our nation through the pandemic and ensuing economic crisis better than anyone else could have (or is) and I'm proud of my votes in Wisconsin that helped get Trump elected in 2016 and 2020.
"In defense of teachers, they are asked to conduct in person classes AND on-line classes for kids whose parents do not send them to school."
That's the case with my granddaughter.
I don't envy the decision you have to make, Freeman.
ex-madtown girl said...
...
My husband and I decided that we were no longer going to subject our kids to public school, and we are now homeschooling for the first time (starting back in August) with a 14 and 12 year old. Suffice it to say that I often feel I'm in over my head, but we definitely have a lot of good days and great experiences, and we're never sending them back! I tried to keep them enrolled in the band program for awhile, but even ended up pulling the plug on that.
...
Mommy Binx and I homeschooled both of our children from K-12. Wonderful experience and no regrets. The only involvement with the public school was sports (eldest was on the ski team.) Mommy Binx gave up her day job as part of the effort and I gave instruction on maths and the hard sciences in the evenings. I would recommend you network with other local homeschoolers and share resources/expertise - homeschooling doesn't necessarily mean you have to go it alone.
I was in the middle of a Teams staff meeting for work. We were being trained on how to give the state standardized tests online this year. About 3/4 through the training, the asst principal announced that he had just received an email from the district to stop any such training. Apparently there was an attempt to suspend the test this year, and use the results of a different test they're still going to take instead. Immediately a dozen teachers starting writing in chat that this means that the district is going to force us back to work and give the tests in person.
You can't reason with them, they're literally hysterical.
that is some really fine spot-on snark, Ann.
Thank you.
I would often question my high school principal brother, if teachers are professionals, why do they need a union.
To protect us from assholes. Teachers were the first targets in the cancellation wars. I was called into my principal's office three times last year because of parental complaints. Each time my union rep was there. (at my principal's request)
However, I am opposed to governmental employees being in unions philosophically. I would not oppose legislation that would prevent government employees from being in a union.
LOCKDOWN ANNIVERSARY! Reviewing ALL the Lies and the Liars Who Told Them!
As a first approximation, everything The Experts said about Winnie Xi Flu was nonsense on stilts.
Now let's do Climate Chaos.
"To protect us from assholes. Teachers were the first targets in the cancellation wars."
I haven't heard that observation before. Thanks.
MikeR said...
The comments on that article are just amazing. People do not know how to think.
**************
C'mon, MikeR ---TELL us how to think---and WHY.
Up to it?
Meade said...
How is it my place to forgive you "moral degenerates" or anyone else for anything? I never told you or anyone else how to deal with COVID or who to question or not to question.
On March 7, 2020 I did share what I planned to do to deal it— basically, try not to get infected and become a spreader. I said we all have our own moral choices to make but I never passed moral judgment on you or anyone else. If I'm mistaken, feel free to show me where I did and I'll apologize to you or anyone else who I referred to as a "moral degenerate."
Otherwise, feel free (after you get your shots, Achilles) to kiss my ass.
For the record, I believe President Warp Speed led our nation through the pandemic and ensuing economic crisis better than anyone else could have (or is) and I'm proud of my votes in Wisconsin that helped get Trump elected in 2016 and 2020.
I am sorry you feel that way.
remember that guy? the one from florida? or was it vermont?
the guy that spent ALL his time, telling us how super smart he was, and how stupid we were?
that guy that was ALL IN on lockdowns, and then pretended that he wasn't?
that claimed that the Governor of florida was INTENTIONALLY trying to murder him?
who told us that we should ALL wear a mask, for the rest of our lives?
why Then told us, that we should ALL wear 2 (or 3!) masks, for the rest of our lives?
who said the only reason mask mandates were COMPLETELY ineffective was, laws weren't strict enough?
What ever happened to him?
This is a new beginning.
The Skeptics are much stronger now thanks to the last year.
Everyone is waking up to the failure of religious thinking.
And this is not an attack on Religion. If you are Religious you should be skeptical and confident in your paradigm. You should challenge your beliefs daily.
And you should feel free to challenge what people tell you without fear of attacks by people who are afraid and have weak beliefs.
@Unknown -- click on Unknown then Edit Profile and fill out your profile preferences, display name, with your nom de plume. Don't forget to save at the bottom of the page.
Gahrie said...
To protect us from assholes. Teachers were the first targets in the cancellation wars. I was called into my principal's office three times last year because of parental complaints. Each time my union rep was there. (at my principal's request)
However, I am opposed to governmental employees being in unions philosophically. I would not oppose legislation that would prevent government employees from being in a union.
The problem here is voluntary association. In this case the complete lack of it.
We are forced to pay your salary.
Invariably some segment of the people forced to pay your salary are going to disagree with how you do things. The only way to avoid such disagreement would be pure fascism.
The solution that would work is school choice.
That is not the solution that fascists prefer for definitional reasons.
---Tar and feathers
Also due for a comeback.
Closing schools was stupid. Masking kids is stupid. Social distancing between desks is stupid. Less than 2% of all “cases” of under-18 people have symptoms. Kids don’t need your extraordinary spacing or anything else but to be back in the classroom like before. Why is this still being debated?
"I don't envy the decision you have to make, Freeman."
Thanks, Mike.
Let me also mention that some of the new math and other educational ideas are not necessarily bad. Many of the tricks work just fine for persons with advanced knowledge and skills and can be quite beneficial to those sort of people. However, you typically do not start the teaching process with advanced tricks since it is just confusing. You end up slowing down the learning process in order to teach something that 80%-90% of the students will never use or need. It is like starting drivers ed. with drifting lessons.
if teachers are professionals, why do they need a union.
My wife is member of the teachers union and believes that the union does absolutely nothing for teachers in the Tucson area. However, she is also a life long Democrat and the union is the conduit for contributions to the DNC.
Every now and then she talks about getting out of the union, but I know that won't happen. Being a Democrat is a religion. Incidentally, the union is a primary source of negative political gossip which is entirely directed at Republican office holders in Arizona.
I think the school crisis might just be enough to get Governor Hair Gel recalled. Whoever replaces him will be as bad but the recall might get their attention.
Probably
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-covid-class-war-heats-up-michael-lind
Meade: "Otherwise, feel free (after you get your shots, Achilles) to kiss my ass."
There are zero peer reviewed studies which indicate covid can be transmitted via oral/rear hind quarters contact.
"My ex-wife had to take English 100y in college, and it was called "Dumbbell English" by the students."
I went to a state college in the late '70s.
We could take a test to pass out of English 101 so I took it.
I am nowhere near AA's proficiency with diagramming sentences and other arcane bits of the language, but none of that was even on the test. It was shockingly, walk-in-the-park easy.
I was amazed that anyone could fail the test and still be considered 'college material.'
NY Times, LA Times, Axios Admit DeSantis Might Deserve Credit for Handling Covid
"There are zero peer reviewed studies which indicate covid can be transmitted via oral/rear hind quarters contact."
Thank you.
Kiss it.
"Kiss it."
I wouldn't have thought he was your type, NTTAWWT.
: )
Some random observations from a guy who has worked from home (programmer) for a Fortune 50 company since 10 days before the World Trade Center fell due to some people doing some thing.
We started home schooling darling daughter in autumn 2019. She had already skipped first grade and it was time for middle school. Seeing the absolute shite of a public middle school here and its trans-fetish and what it is doing to middle school girls, it was a no-brainer. She is now going to be 2 years ahead of her peers in math and that's her weakest subject.
My sister in law teaches in an 'all comers' parochial school in a large metro area. They've been schooling in-person all year. They have not had an outbreak despite a handful of Wu Flu cases here and there. The public teachers unions and their handmaidens in the media can never seem to find a private school teacher when doing new stories on schools and Kung Flu.
A local private (non-parochial) school sent mailers to all the local houses advertising upcoming enrollment for next year. Main selling point? 100% in person schooling.
My co-workers who were in-person at our Large Corporate Headquarters building are chomping at the bit to be let back. A handful want to be remote forever, like myself. As far as metrics go, we've been more productive in the last year than at any point previous. Any impacts (positive or negative) on productivity for the programming class is a rounding error. Lots of other things count for a lot more in the grand scheme of things.
We could take a test to pass out of English 101 so I took it.
We had English 100a and b. If you scored high on a screening test, you could skip them and go a one semester English 101. I scored high but there was a very cute girl sitting next to me in English 100a. I decided to stay and it was a mistake. My future wife flunked the screen and had to take 100y but she had been subjected to the "see and say" reading fad in school.
Serious Question, about School Bond Issues
WHAT are we paying these taxes for? Can somebody fill me in?
I scored high but there was a very cute girl sitting next to me in English 100a
Priorities: boys chase girls chase boys.
"There are zero peer reviewed studies which indicate covid can be transmitted via oral/rear hind quarters contact."
I'd still wear a mask.
Had my teeth cleaned today.
Had mine cleaned yesterday. Nothing special, I'm vaccinated and the dental hygienist was a Covid-19 survivor :) As is my doctor.
The problem here is voluntary association. In this case the complete lack of it.
Nobody ever asked me who should work for the DMV.
We are forced to pay your salary.
Well, the County of San Bernardino is, but I get your point.
Invariably some segment of the people forced to pay your salary are going to disagree with how you do things.
Happens all the time. Some times it's satisfied by parent teacher conferences, sometimes by runs for the school board.
The only way to avoid such disagreement would be pure fascism.
Nope. Benign neglect works very well. Sadly the vast majority of parents simply don't give a shit. Often not just about your kids, but their own too.
The solution that would work is school choice.
I support charters, vouchers and online schools. I believe in competition and parental choice.
That is not the solution that fascists prefer for definitional reasons.
I won't address the motives of the unions and their leaders. I don't know them. But as to the teachers, they aren't jack booted thugs, they're hysterical old ladies. The Left has spent more than a year trying to terrify these people and it worked. Calling them names, appealing to science... none of that matters. You have to make them FEEL safe, and the catch-22 is that you can't.
Then there's this: https://nationalfile.com/inventor-of-pcr-test-said-fauci-doesnt-know-anything-and-is-willing-to-lie-on-television/
Meade: "Thank you. Kiss it."
Try to be a liitle more coy. Desperation is not a recipe for "pick up" success.
Two week we'll flatten the curve!
"Fauci himself said recently that in the absence of data they have to make a judgement call.…"
I can't figure this comment out. Best I can come up with is {judgement call} = {make shit up}"
Very much so, but if you disagree you are "anti science"(tm). So science is done by "Judgement Calls." Sorry Carl Popper, science is not refuteability, it's being in accord with a "Judgement Call."
This Lysenkoism from lock downs to global warming is an example of how, when the democrats say something is a crisis "proved" by science; that you must kowtow to, they mean that it is a facade constructed to advance their policies.
Monday is Grandpa Liberation Day.
I’ve spent the last year covering for mom and dad so they could go to work. 10 hour days with twin 5 year olds and a 7 year old. The 5 year old will go back to school 4 days a week next Monday. Mid-April, the 7 year old will return to school 4 days a week.
For a 71 year old, this has been incredibly exhausting. When mom gets home at 4:30, I go to bed and wake up the next morning at 6:30 and do the same thing again.
I think the kids are OK. Mom and dad and I have focused incredible energy on keeping them committed to learning. This shit has got to be impossible for most parents to manage because they don’t have a grandpa living in the garden apartment.
My grandkids have also been very fortunate to have one another as playmates. The one kid families must be hurting.
Sadly the vast majority of parents simply don't give a shit
The vast majority of parents correctly understand they have no ability to influence the system and any effort to do so is therefore a complete waste of time.
My youngest's school here in Florida has been open since last fall. They closed for a few days months ago when a student tested positive. But other than that, kids are putting on masks and going to school.
CDC "guidance" is being driven by something other than science.
I do dearly love the Althouse reference to Oz. A strict reading of Dorothy's line suggests that if you don't have a thing, you should never have it. I hope it means only that a child should stay within safe boundaries.
I am afraid that Valerie is of wealth and was highly educated. She thinks that there has been no harm in lack of personal teacher contact and children's futures have been improved by not going to school. OK, close the schools. No you can't, schools support Adults, not kids. We need illegal migrants to increase school attendance because school cash is paid by students per day. Teacher's Unions need more kids as grist for the mill.
Mann would be rolling in his grave if he knew that kids needed to walk in the prairies instead of learning to read.
Valerie thinks that the elites don't need the lower class aspiring to take their kids place. They need to wander in the fields and be non competitive.
"Jersey Fled said...
I had a student in one of my classes who taught 8th grade math in the Philadelphia school system.
She told me that the typical student entering her class was doing math at the 4th grade level.
Does this lost year mean that the typical student will be performing at the 3rd grade level?"
Good point. If students are tested to see where they are after a lost year, this testing will also reveal where all their lost years of education have left them. For this reason, I think the teachers' union position nationally in most Big-Blue-Flunk cities will be "no testing and everyone to be promoted", even students that have not attended a day of school since last March. In Wisconsin we are better off. Two women are running for state superintendent of schools in Wisconsin (April election), and one, Deb Kerr has a record showing she will know how to test for lost time and assist in student recovery. Deb Kerr has a track record from her time at Brown Deer school district, where she was known for testing all students, including those coming in through school choice from districts in Milwaukee City. She developed vigorous programs to assist them at whatever point in their education, she found them. She also supports charter schools and home schooling. If elected, Deb Kerr could have an influence beyond Wisconsin boundaries when she successfully re-integrates the lost-to-covid students into schooling.
I think one consequence of this virus hysteria is going to be the implosion of public schools. There is already a huge demand in the black community (sorry Crack) for school vouchers and charter schools. One major factor that got DeSantis elected in Florida against a black opponent was school choice. The teachers' unions got this 100% wrong and will pay a heavy price. Sure, there are drug addicted parents and "Baby Mommas" that don't care but that is less than half the black population.
There was a voucher proposition in CA about 20 years and it was defeated by white suburban parents. This fiasco will subtract a large share of that vote if it comes up again.
My son told me that 52% of the signatures on recall petitions on Newsom are registered Democrats.
The vast majority of parents correctly understand they have no ability to influence the system and any effort to do so is therefore a complete waste of time.
I spent a year going to the local schoolboard meeting. Kids were in the lower grades and I thought I might get involved.
The schoolboard has no power. Financials or all locked in to a formula by law. No way to make any substantial influence there. Curriculum? Rubber stamp(follow the experts) Teachers? Union.
There was not a single thing of influence. I offered to put in a different American History text book. No money. I said I could get donors to pay the whole bill. Not allowed by law(although I never could find the statute.) I had an acquaintance that had been on a year. He was going to clean up the financials. Its impossible, they don't use standard accounting practices so audits are impossible.
"I spent a year going to the local schoolboard meeting. ... I thought I might get involved."
My father spent something like a decade on the schoolboard for the same reason. Came to the same conclusion. You can tinker around the margins, but you can't make fundamental changes.
"you can't make fundamental changes."
Amen. by design. This applies to all government things.
When you are 23 you have to decide if you are going to be a government person or a productive person,,,
chaser:
https://computingforever.com/2021/03/16/the-impending-financial-collapse-crypto-and-anti-lockdown-protests/
Chait quotes a WaPo columnist, Valerie Strauss,
No, Chait quotes a "Strauss column written by one of her guest authors", namely Rachael Gabriel, who claims that
"There is no such thing as learning loss."
Nad yet no one will really ding the media or pols that trashed those that wanted schools to re-open. And yet no one will laugh in the face of the idiots that call the D's the Party of Science (POS).
"Blogger Fernandinande said..."
I like you're view point. You seem to be from NM(los alamos?). In my early Mining Days I worked for Kerr Mcgee Nuclear in the Uranium Mines in Grants and Crown Point. Got another degree and became a "statistician". If you work on a mac laptop you become a "data scientist"
Michael K: "My son told me that 52% of the signatures on recall petitions on Newsom are registered Democrats."
I suspect your FBI daughter might already have been assigned to "investigate" (harass/intimidate/set up?) those valid signatories.
JaimeRoberto @ 1:13pm,
I certainly do have a problem with judgment calls, and so should you when they are made by people in Fauci's position! That is simply not their call to make, and if the technical experts really don't know, their answer should be "We don't know." Anything else just amounts to dishonesty.
Rosalyn C. THANKS!
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