This was originally going to be a comment about an article here at DailyKos (“This rant by parent of two students regarding school re-opening raises many interesting points”), summarizing a Facebook rant by Joe Morice, but appeared to be getting too long. Hence, I’ve moved it to a whole new story.
By my count, this story is 6 screens full, and the original rant is 9 screens. But there’s a lot of important stuff here, and I’ve selectively deleted a few points.
Summary: Joe is dismissing the arguments for going back to 2 days a week of face-to-face education. (Boldfacing is mine, to make this easier to skim.)
- “My kids want to go back to school.”
Earlier today, I saw a video of Mr. Trump being asked about whether students should go back to face-to-face classrooms, and he essentially said this. Joe’s response comes closer to the truth:
I believe what the kids desire is more abstract. I believe what they want is a return to normalcy. They want their idea of yesterday. And yesterday isn’t on the menu.
- “I want my child in school so they can socialize.”
As I think more on it though, what do we think ‘social’ will look like?
- “My kid is going to be left behind.”
Left behind who? The entire country is grappling with the same issue, leaving all children in the same quagmire. [...] I believe the rhetorical answer to that is “They’ll be behind where they should be,” to which I’ll counter that “where they should be” is a fictional goal post that we as a society have taken as gospel because it maps to standardized tests which are used to grade schools and counties as they chase funding.
I posed the following question to 40 people today, representing professional and management roles in corporations, government agencies, and military commands: “Would your company or command have a 12 person, 45 minute meeting in a conference room?” 100% of them said no, they would not. These are some of their answers:
“No. Until further notice we are on Zoom.”
“(Our company) doesn’t allow us in (company space).”
“Oh hell no.”
“No absolutely not.”
“Is there a percentage lower than zero?”
“Something of that size would be virtual.”
We do not even consider putting our office employees into the same situation we are contemplating putting our children into. And let’s drive this point home: there are instances here when commanding officers will not put soldiers, ACTUAL SOLDIERS, into the kind of indoor environment we’re contemplating for our children. For me this is as close to a ‘kill shot’ argument as there is in this entire debate.
Later on, he says:
I will summarize my view of the School Board thusly: if the 12 of you aren’t getting into a room together because it represents a risk, don’t tell me it’s OK for our kids.
- “Children only die .0016 of the time.”
This was discussed in the article above.
- “Hardly any kids get COVID.”
One can reasonably argue that, due to the school closures in March, children have had the least EXPOSURE to COVID. In other words, closing schools was the one pandemic mitigation action we took that worked. [...] Put another way, you cannot cite the effect without acknowledging the cause.
- “The flu kills more people every year.”
First of all, no, it doesn’t. Per the CDC, United States flu deaths average 20,000 annually. COVID, when I start writing here today, has killed 133,420 in six months.
And when you mention the flu, literally everyone in the country tells you stay the f- away from other people. [...] The flu kills people every year [...] because there are people who are a--holes who don’t care about infecting other people. In that regard it’s a perfect comparison to COVID.
- “Almost everyone recovers.”
You’re confusing “release from the hospital” and “no longer infected” with “recovered.” I’m fortunate to only know two people who have had COVID. One my age and one my dad’s age. The one my age described it as “absolute hell” and although no longer infected cannot breathe right.
Saying you’ve recovered under these circumstances sounds like a line from an old Monty Python skit: “They point to my record of treatment of athlete's foot sufferers [by dynamite] — eighty-four dead, sixty-five severely wounded and twelve missing believed cured.”
- “I’m not going to live my life in fear.”
You already live your life in fear. For your health, your family’s health, your job, your retirement, terrorists, extremists, one political party or the other being in power, the new neighbors, an unexpected home repair, the next sunrise. [...] I’ve got news for you: that ship has sailed. It’s too late. There are two kinds of people, and only two: those that admit they’re afraid, and those that are lying to themselves about it. [...] And fear is the respect for the wide world that we teach our children.
Proverbs 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Replace “Lord” with “world” to make the same point.
- “I talked it over with my kids.”
Listen, my 15 year old daughter wants a sport car, which she’s not getting next year because it would be dangerous to her and to others. Those kinds of decisions are our job.
- “The teachers need to do their job.”
How is it that the same society which abruptly shifted to virtual students only three months ago, and offered glowing endorsements of teachers stating, “we finally understand how difficult your job is,” has now shifted to “screw you, do your job.” There are myriad problems with that position.
- “Teachers have a greater chance to being killed by a car than they do of dying from COVID.”
Per the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the U.S. see approximately 36,000 auto fatalities a year. Again, there have been 133,420 COVID deaths in the United States through 12:09 July 10, 2020. So no, they do not have a great chance of being killed in a car accident.
- “If the grocery store workers can be onsite what are the teachers afraid of?”
A grocery store worker, who absolutely risks exposure, has either six feet of space or a plexiglass shield between them and individual adult customers who can grasp their own mortality whose transactions can be completed in moments. A teacher is with 11 ‘customers’ who have not an inkling what mortality is, for 45 minutes, six times a day.
- “Teachers are choosing remote because they don’t want to work.”
Many teachers are opting to be remote. That is not a vacation. They’re requesting to do their job at a safer site. [...] The people who spend the most time in the buildings are the same ones electing not to send their children into those buildings. That’s something I pay attention to.
- “What does your gut tell you to do?”
Shawn and I have talked ad infinitum about all of these and other points. Two days ago, at mid-discussion I said, “Stop, right now, gut answer, what is it,” and we both said, “virtual.”
A lot of the arguments I hear people making for the 2 days sound like we’re trying to talk ourselves into ignoring our instincts, they are almost exclusively, “We’re doing 2 days, but …”
And then has a final word, to put the Covid-19 death rate into perspective.
At the time I started writing at 12:09 PM, 133,420 Americans had died from COVID. Upon completing this draft at 7:04 PM, that number rose to 133,940.
520 Americans died of COVID while I was working on this. In seven hours.
The length of a school day.
Once again, you should read the whole thing.