To open or to not open our nation's schools has been a controversial item of debate for months and even more so in recent week as this "pandemic summer" comes to a close. So much has been written about it. Everyone has an opinion on the matter. Parents, many of whom work full-time and don't have alternative child care options or the ability to work remotely or while simultaneously child-minding, have strong opinions and are really struggling. Kids, many of whom have been shuttered in their homes for months already (and missed out on the end of the last year) are suffering. Healthcare workers and public health officials have opinions (the AAP information from June is here), and they're not all identical. Teachers, school employees, and administrators have opinions. Politicians have opinions (even if they're not fact-, science- or reality-based) and there is a political slant to everything. Everyone is nervous and no one knows how this "Sophie's Choice" will play out. But when all of those opinions are at odds with one another, who gets to decide the path? In a time when "safe" and "risky" are not binary but on a spectrum, can we not agree that there is not one solution that works for every family's unique circumstances and attempt to "do our best" to have some flexibility in options available (even if there truly aren't any good options)? This complex issue is not black and white. And even with our local public school *supposed* to start in two weeks, although the start date is likely to be pushed back another week until the end of August, our school district still hasn't decided/voted/ communicated their plan, with their formal board meeting scheduled this week, which feels to us in the dark as if they don't even want to commit to any plan.
I have never been inclined to home-school my children for many reasons, mainly because I am not an educational professional (and am severely lacking in patience and creativity-- bless the people who have chosen formal careers as educators or who actually want to do this) and I firmly believe in the importance of supporting public education in our country. I am many things-- a mother, a reader and lover of learning, a writer (well, blogger), a highly educated working professional, a birthworker, a physician and surgeon with on-call hours, but I am not a natural-born teacher, nor is staying home with young kids for all hours of the day something I enjoy or at which I am proficient. My (and others') kids deserve and I am confident will obtain a far more well-rounded education and will be more tolerant of others with a less narrow worldview when they learn from peers and teachers with a variety of backgrounds (including races/religions) and viewpoints, which is how the "real world" works. I am less concerned about my child's learning how to read this year, and more concerned about him learning about how to respect and treat others (and not be a bully). [If "All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten," what happens if Kindergarten is cancelled?]. I am also a far more better and more effective parent when I'm home because my kids are mentored by, taught by, and loved by a village of competent caregivers and teachers while I do meaningful work helping families in our community thrive during my "day job".
That being said, for families in this pandemic who have the resources and an at-home parent willing and able to provide a safe learning space and time for their kids, I completely support a home-based option and distance/virtual learning based on the district school's curriculum (which is far preferable to opt-out homeschooling as then the local school district and residents get the benefit of public funds, as would be the case in "normal times" as well), which truthfully is likely the safest option for our current public health. Many parents will voluntarily choose this option for excellent reasons (and naturally lower potential in-person class sizes, which is great). Nevertheless, I am also of the opinion that we need the option of daily and full-time (not AM/PM or some hybrid mish-mash) in-person public (particularly elementary) school for the children and families who don't have other reasonable or safe options, especially for those students with special needs, with the addition of provided safety measures. Many parents, even if willing, don't feel comfortable or aren't able to home-school their children (last week, I saw in my office a Spanish-speaking postpartum mother of three including a 6-week-old newborn, who was in tears contemplating how she is going to care for a newborn while educating [in her non-native language] her older boys, who have been out of school since March, acting out, and who don't have internet at home. She cannot contemplate ever returning to work and thankfully had state medical insurance for her kids and birth which was not tied to her employment but is still in an incredibly terrible position, and I didn't have much to offer her except sympathy and shared grief). There are many of us who feel that the harms of virtual KG outweigh any benefits (see an article my mom sent me, "Can I opt out of Kindergarten?" [if virtual]).
I have heard teachers say that they feel that any suggestion of the option to allow any in-person learning means that those of us who hold such an opinion selfishly wish them ill health or death (which, as health professional who took a vow to "do no harm," I find ridiculous). I've had to stay off social media because of hearing so much of this "side" of things admittedly from my left-leaning friend group, as if things were that simple. I do, of course, acknowledge and validate that teachers, like all of us who work with people, fear for their health and safety. But instead of doom-scrolling and fighting that urge to shout back on that part of the internet (or actually posting responses/my thoughts on the matter), which tends to be unproductive and draining, I am semi-privately blog-ranting here. But what moral choice do doctors, nurses, or other "essential workers" have when they're torn between scrambling for childcare or having to have their kids bounce around day-to-day to different caregivers' homes with school closed or only open part-time and no after-care programs (which is far more health-risky), so that they can continue to serve their community in the time of a public health care crisis (like many other families, we have no family to rely on, with our closest family 12 hours away and my parents on another coast)? How do we do the least amount of harm to and do the greatest good for our families and communities and prevent generational trauma when our jobs are to keep our own patients healthy (especially when there are numerous other things besides COVID-19 that could kill or harm them especially when put off, which we deal with every day), but we have to ensure that our kids are watched and safe, too? When a childcare crisis in a public health pandemic is a public problem, why will individual parents (most often mothers) be most likely asked to or expected to cut hours or sacrifice their careers to stay home and sub-optimally educate their kids? Why isn't public education (including early childhood education/preschool) in this country considered essential, prioritized, universally publicly well-funded, and why THE HECK don't we pay our heroic teachers accordingly?!
In the time of COVID, all of us have had to adjust our lives and work to some degree (some more than others). Outpatient doctors have been navigating the new, awkward world of telehealth for months now, and we're getting better at it, although it's been extremely difficult and exhausting. We've been donning surgical masks and face-shields for those visits that are in person, and N95s in the hospital. Even though we doctors did vow to "do no harm" and practice medicine ethically to preserve lives, we did not voluntarily enlist in the front lines of a war to risk our health and lives to keep our patients or neighbors healthy while abandoning our own kids' safety, well-being, and futures. What's even worse is that other non-medical but essential workers are still going to work daily faced with exposure and risks of bringing infection home to their families without the same access to PPE or level of compensation. I am extremely disappointed in hearing that some teachers, who have chosen a career in service, would actually strike/refuse to come to work to educate schoolchildren when the option of in-person learning has been provided/chosen after careful deliberation balancing all of the concerns I've already mentioned.
When we (well, most of us) all stayed home to "flatten the curve" and buy time for preparedness, why hasn't our federal government stepped up or made a plan to provide money for public schools to have partitions, sanitizer stations, PPE, and ramped-up virus testing to prepare for a return to group settings? Why haven't public schools figured out how to provide physical spacing/barriers, outdoor classroom environments, or utilize additional, alternative learning spaces (shuttered libraries, parks, or recreation centers or even middle/high school space while those groups learn virtually) for their elementary schoolers/early learners to make in-person education as safe (and effective) as it could be, balancing mental and physical health as well as education, which is the steppingstone for future health and well-being? Many of us doctors are perfectionists and hate that this virtual/in-person hybrid is less effective and less satisfying than the "usual way" to practice medicine, and we don't feel like we're doing our jobs very well or effectively. However, we didn't have the option of opting out of trying to make it work or procrastinate on a solution and we had to jump in, deal, adapt, and and adjust our workflows as we've gone along, which I'd also expect of the school system. This moment calls for some very creative solutions which are time-sensitive, and it has been so frustrating to me (even though I've gotten much better in sitting with the reality of the inability to make any plans) that it doesn't seem that anyone is trying particularly hard to find or implement them (or, if there are thoughts or plans, to at least communicate them in a reasonable and prompt fashion, even though I am all too aware that local COVID-19 prevalence is a moving target and no one wants to be "responsible" for a potential outbreak by making the "wrong call.").
My kids have continued to attend full-time group childcare throughout the pandemic, and it has worked remarkably well (and should serve as a model for other schools). While kids can, of course, get seriously sick with COVID and transmit it to family members or caregivers, kids under age ten are a very low-risk group as vectors of disease, especially with safety adaptations and in a low-density rural area with low disease prevalence (and otherwise responsible behavior outside of school). Changes in my kids' "school" days have included: maintaining groups of fewer than ten kids per class, universal mask-wearing by teachers and kids alike (except for naps and socially-distanced mealtimes) and no shoes inside, twice-daily temperature checks, drop-offs outside the door without parents entering and virtual check-ins- and check-outs, and frequent hand-washing. If anyone doubts that even young kids can be expected or trained to wear masks all day and maintains that this is why we can't open public schools, you have gravely underestimated kids and thrown under the bus an effective low-cost, low-intervention and effective public health measure that may help us function reasonably well in society (my at-times defiant two-year-old and strong-willed five-year-old have been doing this willingly and compliantly for months, even when playing outside, and everyone in their two classrooms has stayed healthy [it turns out that masks work pretty well for decreasing the spread of respiratory illnesses besides COVID-19 as well!]). You hear about outbreaks on the news, which is what everyone fears. But why is not equally newsworthy to report on group childcare settings who have stayed open and handled the pandemic flawlessly for months?
We know we (as a family of four, including two kids in childcare and two physicians) risk considerable COVID exposure every day (as in it's not a question of if, but when, we'll be exposed or infected), and repeated periodic home quarantines will be expected and necessary (albeit very disruptive) if any of our kids' or our close contacts tests positive for COVID-19. Nevertheless, Kelvin and I both agree and accept that nothing in life comes with zero risk, and allowing our kids to continue to be enrolled in their childcare (if in-person "school" is closed) is the best option for our working family, especially for our young kids who would certainly struggle mentally, physically, and emotionally at home with a solo unfamiliar "nanny"-like caregiver or us (as would we). Our boys have thrived with being able to continue play and learn alongside a small cohort of peers and have been blessed by the face-to-face (well, mask-to-mask) time with their beloved teachers, even though they haven't seen any other individuals outside of school hours and have not been any other social settings in five months as we've been very strict and careful in our at-home life. In our family's careful risk calculations and "risk budget", their (and our) risk of contracting or incurring serious illness/death from COVID is far outweighed by the benefits to their health/them (and us, as well as the patients in our community) of this childcare system (and we will be forever grateful to the owner and the teachers for their stepping up during this time. Their work is truly heroic, and essential).
The likely option for the indefinite future (since we still haven't heard any firm plans from the school district yet, although we may have more information later in this week after a board meeting) will be to continue paying to keep Iver in a "Kindergarten" childcare room (keeping his quarantine bubble small and consistent), where they'll help him connect for potential distance learning to his public school (or we could attempt to do asynchronous learning in our evenings), although I would prefer him to just mostly play, assuming someone who is an actual teacher tells us what he *should* be able to do academically as a kindergartner (he's already reading some, writing cards, including in cursive, doing Sudoku, and doing double-column math and multiplication tables in his head, thanks to wonderful teachers who like to challenge him and random at-home learning on the fly but no formal teaching from us). He's actually thrilled to stay within this childcare center forever and to never leave his beloved preschool/teachers who we just adore and for whom we are eternally grateful. And while I'd prefer him to be able to attend public school full time (a few half-days or every-other-day/week in-person school is not a workable nor medically safe/appropriate option for families), I recognize my privilege in being able to afford this alternative, while it may be financially out of reach for other less economically well-off families (for whom my heart breaks). I came across a decision tool on the blog of Emily Oster (who writes about evidence-based parenting decisions) to help with individualized decision-making on the topic, if you actually have options. We've all had to make tough decisions to navigate these times, and while others may not choose our same path, it seems to be the best plan and the best balance of harms/disruption/risk for our family and for the community we serve.
with beloved teacher "Ang"
Edited: as of 8/13/20, our school district voted to start the year with distance learning for all students with re-evaluation at six-week intervals. We have had nothing in writing about how "zoom school" will look or any supplies Iver might need. Wish us luck.
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