Note: There are exceptions and counterpoints to pretty much everything in this post. There are students who will absolutely be at a disadvantage without an in-person return to school. These students should be prioritized in terms of providing in-person learning, which could potentially be done safely for them if those who can learn from home do so. This post speaks to the experience of families who are in a position to keep their kids home, and why remote learning would benefit their children as well as others.
Agreed. It's why we're having this conversation and not just closing up shop like we're Sam Goody.
What "essential service" is a public school primarily meant to provide to its entire population? Education (it's a broad term, but it generally covers the top priority of a school). There are certainly secondary services, such as meals and child care, that are important to the population and essential to members of that community. These are two different parts of the equation.
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| No matter how much I spent there, Sam Goody is no more :( |
As for the educational aspect, while it's what we're used to and what we know we like, education does not need to be delivered in person. Since the spring, teachers have been preparing for a new form of education, regardless of whether or not their schools are opening. We have been considering what worked and didn't work in the Spring (more on that later), and relying on colleagues near and far to guide us as we work hard to ensure valuable and engaging learning experiences for our students. We are learning new platforms and abandoning some personal preferences so that we can be consistent across the building (I have had to figure out Microsoft tools instead of my usual Google Drive, and it hurts).
Many families rely on public schools to feed their kids, and at least in Seattle, that has not stopped. My high school has had tables set up outside the building for safe and sanitary meal distribution. At these pickup locations, SPS has also made a wide variety of free reading materials available for students at all grade levels.
Then there's the child care aspect, which is also a challenge to many teachers who are also parents of school-aged children. This is a big challenge to consider in keeping schools closed, as there's no easy way around it. It's not like a child care center can be opened much more safely than a school. That said, if schools were closed to the general population, as they have been, it would allow space for a small number of staff to safely supervise and work with the students whose families absolutely cannot accommodate them working at home. For those arguing that it's not fair to allow some students in and not others, consider that it would also not be fair for those students to be held to the same standards as those able to learn and work in a safe, comfortable, home environment. Ensuring equity for those families means that other families fortunate enough to not be in these circumstances might have to make that sacrifice.
On top of all that, schools that reopen are unlikely to be open for full school days, and many extracurricular activities may not be able to take place this fall, at least not in person. Speaking from my experience as a director for my school's drama program, we are planning a production that can be produced and rehearsed virtually, as many summer programs have been doing these past few months.
"Our kids will fall behind!"
Behind who, exactly? The rest of the world? For whatever it's worth, American students have lagged academically behind those in other countries for quite some time. As of 2015, when the last PISA 
(Programme for International Student Assessment) was administered to 15-year-olds from a range of developing and developed countries. According to Pew Research, the results "placed the U.S. an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science." This was during the Obama Administration, before COVID-19 closed schools and even before the election of Trump. For what it's worth, a study conducted a few years earlier showed that American adults fared even worse compared to counterparts elsewhere in the world. This not only takes some wind out of the "falling behind" argument, it also shows that the American education system was in need of some serious updating to keep up with the times. This includes providing equity for all students, especially those historically furthest from educational justice (this involves ensuring that all students have access to technology that allows them to participate in online learning); revising reading lists so that they are inclusive of writers and perspectives from multiple cultures, backgrounds, etc.; removing stigma from mental health and learning disabilities; using Restorative Justice methods rather than punishments to address behavior.
Last spring is a non-factor - most countries closed schools and very few opened back up before the end of the school year. In most of those countries, however, there were much stricter regulations around travel and mask-wearing, and people generally abided by them, so many schools around the world are opening back up in person for the fall, because it's been deemed safe. In the United States, very few areas have been able to get the virus under enough control to re-open safely, and based on what I've seen from both my drives around Seattle as well as news coming out of places like Georgia and South 
Dakota, it'll be some time before we do (if anyone dies after catching COVID at the Smash Mouth concert, "Literally Died To See Smash Mouth at Sturgis" should be etched on their tombstone).
The risk in students truly falling behind and disengaging from school lies much more in districts that re-open and then have to close down again, or where groups of students and teachers are quarantined. They likely don't have a Plan B and will be in the same situation that they were in last Spring. Add to this the anxiety that an informed student might have attending a school before they are confident in its safety, and the tension that could build in a classroom every time someone sniffles or sneezes (which can happen without being infected by COVID). This sets up a very tentative learning situation, and the more students learn of other districts closing back down, the more of a possibility it will seem to them. They're counting on us to be the leaders, but are likely aware that going to school in person will increase their risk of getting sick, so how much confidence should they then have in that leadership?
Perhaps I'm biased because I work here, but I've been grateful for Seattle's relatively early commitment to a 100% virtual start to the school year. I wish we didn't have to, but the virtual setting will relieve much of the stress and complication of attending school in person at this time, and having the time to prepare has allowed us teachers to move forward much more confidently than if we made a tentative in-person return. We also have time to learn and experiment with digital platforms and even take steps to make education more equitable. As our IC (Instructional Council) has said, the students furthest from educational justice should be kept at the core of our planning.
"Virtual learning this past spring was a bust!"
Yeah, maybe. Some teachers with foresight were able to do some preparation for remote learning, but I personally didn't expect to be out for the remainder of the school year. I also had a Kindergartner whose education I became almost entirely responsible for, and who demanded much of my attention and energy. Fortunately, the quarantine began in mid-March, when students had already completed about 3/4 of the school year. While I ended up omitting some of my curriculum, I was able to establish a routine for students to get weekly practice using the skills and knowledge developed up until that point. Remote learning in September should and will be a different story. Beginning the year virtually will allow us to set appropriate expectations and protocols for remote learning that can then be carried over as we move back towards an in-person model.
"Kids need to socialize!"
Absolutely. My daughter, Chloe, is an only child and doesn't have siblings. I'm her primary playmate, though she often prefers my much-busier wife. We've been lucky this summer to have found some camps that followed strict safety precautions, so she's attended some of those, and we've also been "bubbled" with a few other families from her Kindergarten, so she's been able to play with a few of her friends. She's starting first grade at a new school this year, and I would love for her to meet and play with her new friends this fall, but there's no way it can happen safely.
Think about the way kids play - they run, jump, push, pull, swing, hug, tackle, spit, sneeze, slobber - they're adorable, but not the most sanitary people around. Anyone who's following re-opening procedures know that kids won't be able to play in the way that comes most naturally to them. 
Can you easily imagine first graders playing freely while keeping their masks on and distancing? To quote Vizzini in The Princess Bride - "Inconceivable!"
Kids who go back to school in person will be carrying the added anxiety of an ongoing pandemic in addition to the usual anxiety of school. They are also still kids, who are capable of the cruelest yet most innocently stated remarks. It used to be humiliating to fart in the middle of class, but farts are funny. Some of these kids might hear a sneeze and then spend the rest of the day worried that they could've caught something. Their imaginations run wild. An elementary classroom could easily turn into a production of The Crucible Junior - "I saw Goody Proctor with her mask off!"
On top of that, they're going to be in much different classrooms, where desks are isolated and shields 
separate them from their classmates and teachers. It reminds me of one of my favorite moments in film, from 2001: A Space Odyssey. A group of primates in prehistoric times leap about, playing, fighting, generally being primates. One takes hold of a bone and flings it into the air, and as the camera follows its trajectory into the air, the film cuts to outer space, and the bone is now a spacecraft flying through the void of space, isolated on all sides for cold, remote, miles. This is how I see the transition from the school environment in prior years compared to the environment of schools this fall. In fact, my concern is that an in-person return could do more harm than good for kids whose families can accommodate and support remote learning. These kids can be in a warm, comfortable, HUMAN environment rather than what could very well look more like a sterile laboratory than a classroom designed for kids. They can interact (virtually) safely without masks, and see each others' faces. In the classroom, they will be 
separated by space, if not also by plexiglass. They'll be further separated by the masks that will obstruct much of the facial expression that can help teachers spot frustration, excitement, interest, or confusion. From my own experience, I can say that learning students' names with their faces covered will likely be much more challenging than without (virtual meetings also display students' names, so here's hoping I learn them faster this year).
"Teachers already don't have to go to work all summer, and now they want to get out of doing their jobs!"
To be fair, I haven't really heard this, but I'm sure that some crankypants somewhere has said or thought this, so I'm addressing it. In our classrooms, we already struggle with the realities of the world as it is currently is, the added challenges of poverty, trauma, learning disabilities, bullying, puberty, school shootings, racism, homophobia... I could go on, I trust I don't need to. Now they are being flooded with conflicting information about a pandemic that affects people very differently - some get through it with nothing more than cold symptoms, others are hospitalized for extended treatment, and others die. Imagine you're a kid and you're already confused about the world, and then all of a sudden thinking that if someone sneezes it could kill you. Now try to get them to listen to why they should use an Oxford comma and really invest in that.
Since the Spring, teachers have been looking at what worked and what didn't when we all dove into remote learning, and have been working over the summer to structure a day and a school-wide system to keep this from being any more challenging to students as it is. Teachers who have used physical materials for decades of teaching are now learning new technology and platforms. We are preparing pre-recorded lessons so that synchronous learning sessions are used productively and students do not drift 
off while a talking head lectures them. For my part, I've been looking at the videos my daughter has been learning from on PBS Kids and YouTube (our favorites have been Xavier Riddle & the Secret Museum, Molly of Dinali, and Jack Hartmann's educational music videos), and considering what they do effectively to engage kids. I'd like to create videos that, much like those binged by my daughter, are concise and re-watchable, and since I haven't done much film making or video editing in the past ten years that's some other work that I'm doing, and I'm sure I'm not the only one self-teaching crash courses in platforms such as Adobe Spark and iMovie.
We are also establishing school-wide expectations that students are expected to follow, such as logging in to meetings on time, dressing appropriately, and refraining from use of irrelevant or inappropriate virtual backgrounds. While many teachers were early adapters of blended learning and have maximized the use of technology in the past, many are not and they are adapting in a very concentrated period of time compared to their more tech-savvy colleagues.
We're all challenged right now. Understanding our own levels of privilege and those of others, as well as the various challenges that they may be facing, can help us do right by our kids and the teachers who will end up gladly risking their lives to do right by them as well.
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