In today’s political news - Part 6

Not needlessly.  In an effort to save millions of Americans from covid.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2769034

You can have your opinion too. 

I will fully agree that some kids did not participate in online learning, but in my district if they didn’t it wasn’t because they didn’t have the resources to do it. Our district scrambled at the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020 to make sure that every kid in the district had a designated device and functional internet in their homes. Because we have high speed internet and our kid has her own Chromebook and iPad at our house, we were already set. For the families that didn’t, the district provided Chromebooks or iPads and hotspots. They had district technology specialists available on call to help families that encountered issues. That all continued for the entire following school year when kids were either in 100% virtual or hybrid school.

Some of the responsibility had to fall to the parents or guardians of these kids, it was an unprecedented situation. Part of the reason why my kid was successful was because 1) we made sure she was doing what she needed to do when she needed to do it and 2) we kept her home full time because I knew for my kid the constant switching wouldn’t be a good fit. It really wasn’t too hard to follow what she was supposed to do and when. She had a set zoom schedule for every day. All of the assignments were listed in Google slides daily and they had to be checked off once completed. I could tell at a glance at the end of the day if the work had been turned in or not, which was and is something I would do anyway if my kid was physically in school.

Some of my kid’s friends struggled because their families didn’t do that and they let them get way behind. My kid’s teacher said that a few parents wouldn’t respond to emails or phone calls when kids weren’t turning in their work or showing up for zooms. She literally drove around to each and every kid’s home in her class to check in several times with every family. It’s the whole classic “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” situation.

And further, not every state actually shut things down for an extended period. Schools in Texas and Florida most notably had kids going back to full time in person long before that was the case in my state. My district didn’t go back to full time in-person for all the hybrid kids until early to mid-March 2021. By your logic, the bluer states that kept kids home longer should theoretically be worse off, but I really don’t think that was the case here. My teacher friends here have told me that overall the district weathered the storm quite well all things considered.

As for the school supplied meals, in our district during the shutdown/ when kids were doing hybrid or zoom schooling, ALL families in the district were able (and in fact encouraged) to come to designated schools to pick up literal grocery bags full of free prepared food for breakfasts and lunches including cartons of milk, juice and fresh fruits and vegetables to take home. Usually there were two days a week when the food would be distributed. No names were taken, you didn’t have to fill out any forms. Just show up and tell them how many kids in the family and what grades they were in and they would hand you the appropriate amount of food for that many kids.

We feed kids for free here over the summer months too every year, all kids up to age 18 can eat breakfast and lunch for free at designated schools and community centers every weekday all summer long. All they have to do is show up. Now that Covid is less of an issue they want the kids to come in person to eat their free breakfast and/or lunch. Also in our district, for the entirety of the last school year, ALL kids enrolled in public school could eat free breakfast and lunch every school day. This year it will be back to normal and families will again have to qualify for free or reduced cost meals at school on the basis of need.

Such hypocrites. Here is a wee synopsis:





Isn’t it funny how those with the biggest mouths, the ones who protest the most, are the biggest hypocrites? 🤔

'They' want public schools to fail...

No, no one wants public schools to fail.  We want them to do the job of teaching kids how to read, write, do basic math without a calculator.  When I go in a store and hand that 19yr old a $10 bill and a quarter to pay for a $9.18 item I don’t want to be told I gave them too much money because they have no idea how to make change. I want them to know the difference between there, their and they’re and know how to properly use them. 

No, Republicans absolutely want public schools to fail.  They're attacking teachers and accusing them of being "groomers".  Republicans favor charter and religious schools.  As far back as Reagan.  He promised to eliminate the education department.  Or perhaps even further back to desegregation.  Trump has also pledged to eliminate the Education Department.  He tried when he appointed Betsy DeVos as Education secretary.  She had never set foot in a public school and has also said the Department of Education should not exist.  School choice or parental choice is about weakening teachers unions and public schools and a disguise for privatizing schools, white nationalism and entrenching right wing power.  If students are not educated or taught to think critically, they're more likely to vote Republican.

Are you under the impression that everyone our age can do those things?

She does realize that this is what TFG does every time he says something, right? 

I don't think the people you know are an accurate representation.  Overall, adults in the US perform poorly on math literacy skills.

www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/10/08/230462954/study-u-s-adults-below-average-in-literacy-basic-math

www.edweek.org/policy-politics/americas-literacy-numeracy-problems-dont-end-in-k-12-global-test-shows/2019/11

In math, 70 percent of American adults could perform elementary-level math tasks that were “explicit or visual with relatively few distractors,” like whole numbers, percents, fractions, and interpreting simple tables and graphs. But nearly 30 percent performed at the lowest two levels, meaning they were comfortable only with very basic arithmetic, counting, sorting, and similar tasks.

I have to explain this almost every time I hand over some change. Most cash registers you put in the amount someone hands you and give back what it says do you don’t even have to do the math but … been this way for decades but still some young and old will get confused.