Traditional, Virtual or Cyber. Those are the choices we have this school year. With the pandemic of Covid-19 still "reaking havoc" on the world, what is the right thing to do? The safest would obviously be keeping them home and doing virtual or cyber. The most convenient for a lot of people would be sending them to school.
If you are a single parent, or both parents work, the easiest thing would be to send them to school regardless if that's truly what you want to do as a deciding parent. If one parent is a stay at home parent or could easily transition into one or work from home, then keep the children home. But then what do you do? Virtual or Cyber?
The rise in numbers really want you to sit down and wonder, are they truly correct? You hear all the time about false positives. Are those numbers really taken off our counts? How is someone really getting false positives? When you really come down to think about where these tests are manufactured... China? Obviously across seas over there somewhere right? Who's really to say that these tests are legit? The rise in numbers of children transmitting the virus is scary and definitely takes a toll on a parent's mind.
What would happen if MY child got this virus? Would they overcome it, would they suffer, would they (gulp) die? You definitely don't want to subject your child to this and you want to do what is right and best. Though what you can do isn't always what you should do.
Living with a weakened immune system (Lupus), scares you to say safe. I wear a mask when I go into a store or business as well as through any drive thru. Seeing all the people who "don't care about anyone but themselves" not wearing their masks really freak me out. My mask protects YOU, your mask protects ME, WEAR YOUR MASK for people who CANNOT contract this disease, like me!
So, having a weakened immune system and being a stay at home mom, really put my decision into play easily. I didn't want to feel selfish by not sending my children and keeping them away from their friends and school, but I didn't want to feel selfish by sending them and having them subjected to this virus.
My children are virtual schooling! My (step)daughter is going into 9th grade (Sr. High), my son is going into 7th grade (Jr. High) and I have 3 younger elementary sons in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. Our senior high is getting a new building (not that they need one, and that's a whole other discussion for another day), and due to the pandemic they are behind. Sr. High will do the first marking period virtually and that is the only thing that hasn't changed. Elementary and Jr. High were both given the option of Traditional, Virtual and Cyber. Jr. High is now changed to Virtual for the first marking period because the school district has come up with this genious idea for social distancing and sending the 4th and 5th grade now to the Jr. High from every elementary school.
Our school year was also supposed to start August 31st. It has now been pushed back to September 8th. We still have yet to get class assignments or anything pertaining to virtual learning. Next week is the LAST full week of summer vacation! When will we be receiving this information? Who knows? I don't think the school district knows. They are so not with the program.
I guess it's too much to get concerned parents the information that they need.
Personally I feel with the rise in numbers, especially younger people, it should all be virtual. I understand that some households it's not ideal but given the enough time to prepare, it could be okay. Then again, this spring wasn't prepared for!
So some discussion questions.
Are you a parent, step parent or guardian?
What state do you live in?
Do you have multiple options for schooling this 2020-2021 school year?
What are you choosing and what ultimately helped you make that decision?
