Impossible Back-to-School Choices & Don’t Be Like Erica

Everything feels like a slog these days. I’d rather ignore my feelings and binge-watch Netflix instead. In years other than the dumpster fire that 2020 is, we’d be going through last year’s school supplies, buying items we don’t have, and getting excited for fall leaves and new friendships while hoping middle school is kinder than it used to be. 

But, 2020 is a dumpster fire for the most part, and we have until Wednesday to decide which option to choose for school. Luckily, 100% full-time, in-person isn’t an option. 

(also, I’m so angry about all of this – hence, the appeal of Netflix) (also the graphic I made below)

Impossible Back-to-School Choice Options:

Option one: Hybrid learning. Middle school kids are split into two groups. One group goes to school Monday and Tuesday, and the other on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday will be online learning for both groups, and the days they’re not at school, they’ll learn online. 

How does a parent choose whether to send her sweet, lonely, almost-sixth-grader to school two days a week or not? 

One one hand, why would I dare risk it?

On the other, less than half the kids will be in school at one time, and each grade will have cohorts – a group of kids that stick together, six feet apart, and/or wearing masks. Certainly better than the photos online of mass amounts of teens smushed together in a hallway. 

Not perfect though. I mean, schools shut down in March with fewer cases popping up daily than are now. And how good will people really be about masking? 

Option two isn’t an option for us. It’s synchronous learning, where your kid is on his computer at home watching the live classroom, following along. Hello, but no way in all the worlds does my son have the patience or discipline to make this work (although that’s what he’d be doing with option one on his days not at school). 

Option three is 100% online but supposedly with “a more established schedule than we had in the spring.” You sign up for the home-school group and, well, I’m not sure what this means, but better find out before Wednesday. 

I don’t know what to do. 

I’ll tell you this though:

Don’t be Like Erica

100% online is more appealing due to parent comments on the school district’s Facebook page. Here are some direct quotes, in case you need more reason to question the existence of sanity in this country.

Oh, before we start, Tucker came over to my computer to ask what I was doing, and saw my Photoshop graphic and asked if he could add something. The following is his version. Can you see the difference?? It’s like finding Waldo, but sadder…

Anyway. Don’t be like Erica, or Lisa, or these other random people on our school district’s Facebook page.

Direct quotes with my commentary in italics below:

“What’s the reason behind forcing kids to wear masks all day?” 

Um. M-kay. Science says it works, and also, it just works, and also even if it doesn’t work, why not try to protect the most marginalized among us by wearing a mask? We wear seatbelts even though we have airbags. Doh. (also schools are giving students multiple outdoor mask-breaks when they can)

“My kids have been in camp all summer and aren’t sick, so school 5 days a week is a no-brainer!” 

M-kay. Here’s your school lunch. Out of 10,000, one has Anthrax in it. The odds are low so eat up, sweetie! 

“Doing this in March through May would have been helpful.” 

Sure. It would have been, except in March through May, people still thought COVID would be contained by the end of the school year. The idiot in the white house said it’d be over very quickly. Too many people believed him, and nobody’s ever lived through a pandemic before who’s still alive today. 

Lisa makes a good point (NOT): “This was not the case during flu season, strep throat or any other airborne ailments? How are these children supposed to build immunities without exposure to viruses?”

Lisa, you’re an idiot. Go read some science stuff about the difference between flu and COVID. Or maybe talk to somebody who wasn’t allowed to visit a family member or friend in the hospital because of COVID. People with flu are allowed to have visitors. Without masks, even! Different times, friend! Idiot. 

Here’s Erica!

Impossible Back-to-School Choices & Don’t Be Like Erica

Erica’s pretty fired up…

“That’s crap. Sorry that I want more for my kids and not live off me their whole life!! Education is the most important thing. It’s one thing no one can take away from you and it will take you to great things in life!! I’m sorry that I don’t want my kids holding a sign saying I need food!! I have high expectations and these schools are not setting the bar high for these kids. How many of you have taken your kids anywhere during all of this?? But yet they can’t sit in a classroom and learn but they can go to Walmart!! Interesting!!”

Erica… *deletes 1,001 words*
Ok Erica, yes, education is important. But you have to be alive to learn, as far as we know. Your kids learning in-person two days a week and the rest online doesn’t mean they’ll be holding a sign on the side of the road. Also? How many people who hold signs on the side of the road have you spoken to? Do you know their stories?

Taking kids to the store with a STATE MANDATED MASK is not the same as sticking 25 of them in a small room with improper ventilation and a lesser person than I am would say ‘I hope you get it,’ because how about reading some stories about people who thought it was no big deal? Just saying. 

Saving my favorite for last, also from Erica. (don’t be like Erica)

“So am I getting my Taxes back and teacher’s salary since I’ll be teaching my kids?? District obviously is not teaching this year. If people can take their kids to the grocery store, to any other stores, getting haircuts, and etc. the kids can go to school. Very hypocritical when you want elearning but have your kids in other public places but a classroom. Smh.”

Um. People without kids pay property taxes too, and why is forcing you to teach your own kids three days a week better than forcing a teacher to do it while risking their health? OMG. You deserve a teacher’s salary for being at home during a pandemic?? For real?!

Note: Erica told us she has two master’s degrees and mentioned if you get a haircut, and they only cut ⅓ of your hair, that you’d only pay ⅓ of the price. Um, Erica, your master’s degrees probably should have taught you… um, never mind. I was going to make a snobby comment about grammar and science, but I only have a bachelor’s degree.

But. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t pay at all for 1/3 of a haircut, but you do you, girl! Make your point like a boss! FFS. 

I had more I was going to include, but like I said at the beginning, I’d rather binge-watch Netflix than feel what I feel when reading the rabid anger of uninformed people.

It started as funny, me saying “OMG Robert! Have you looked at the comments?!” but has since turned to a silent “OMG Kristi. What is this world?” 

I didn’t include some of the comments from folks talking about how so many kids die from chickenpox each year (um…really???). 

I understand there are families who are unbelievably burdened by not having kids in school as an option so they can work. But it’s not the school’s responsibility to fix this. It’s the government’s, and society’s, and it’s up to us to create a village where we support those who need our support. Be the helper and all that.  

Gah.

Anyway, I don’t know which box I’ll check at the very last second on Wednesday. When I’m not sitting on the porch swing, trying to listen to my inner gut about what to do, I’ll be watching Netflix, and not the comments that continue to come in on the district’s FB page. Hopefully, anyway. 

What about you? What is your school district doing to start the next semester? Do you feel safe sending your kids back if it’s an option? Here’s to each of us getting through this with sanity and health. And remembering kindness wins, and to not be like Erica with her privilege and master’s degrees.

This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post, with the prompt of “Back to school,” which was decided long before back to school looked like it does this year.