Should Our Kids & Teachers Be Forced Back Into Classrooms?

Should our kids and teachers be forced back into their classrooms? I go back and fourth on this issue. And now, that we have had our first, and hopefully the last, child in Clark County Nevada to die from complications from COVID-19; it has given me even more reason to ponder this question. Even though this child died here in Clark County; this is a national issue that every family will need to think about.

This is concerning to me because they have been talking about sending our kids and teachers back to in-person schooling, in the Clark County School District this coming fall. We need to ask ourselves a few questions:

• Do you feel that your kids are safe enough to return to a germ filled classroom environment?
• If so, what precautions if any need to be taken?
• Will the kids be able to practice good hygiene and social distancing?
• Do any of you have teachers in your families who would be risking their lives to be in classrooms full of kids spreading those germs around like they do?

Do you think they, the kids, their families, and their teachers, are safe to return to school?

With todays technology could teachers continue to have classes online, like they have done from the beginning of the pandemic – especially elementary aged kids – or are we too afraid of change? When the pandemic first happened and they closed the schools here in Clark County. The school district purchased thousands of Google Chromebooks to hand out to the students. And they were all given login info for a new program app by Google called “Google Meet“. (Pic Below🙂

A teacher can have all of their kids, their full classroom, online together, and be able to see, listen to, and teach every individual kid using Google Meet. They can see and hear every student at once, or individually, the more students the smaller each individual video becomes. The “Classroom of the Future.” Facebook has also done something similar with their “Facebook Rooms” app.

Most everything they do in a classroom, can be done in an online video chat. We have seen countless Science Fiction movies where kids are learning in a virtual classroom setting with handheld devices. Or with the teacher in one location and the students in another; so this is not a new concept; but with mostly everyone having access to a smartphone or laptop these days, this Sci-Fi concept can now be a reality.

At the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns, The Clark County School district was able to buy, (at a huge discount) enough Google Chromebooks for almost every student to use while they were stuck at home so they could still attend school. Maybe we should just continue doing this until we are all sure it is safe for them, their teachers, and all their families, to return.

All the major tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, and even the US Government, have been trying to push for a new world with internet access for everyone. Soon that will be a reality. And so with apps like google meet and facebook rooms, these companies see a future where we can do business and teach classes with more people online in a virtual meeting place. It seems that with this pandemic the future has come early.

As someone with a teacher in our family, (my sister) and a houshold where more than one person is at high risk of death from covid; it is a scary proposition to think of her back in a classroom full of students. For years, every “sick season” she has brought home all manor of sickness. From comon colds to the flu.

Eventhough all of our immune systens have been strengthend by being exposed to a lot of different germs, and that we have learned to be extra careful washing our hands often and so on, we still end up getting sick.

And then, once one person has it, we all get it. It seems to jump around to everyone in our house. “Mak’n the rounds” we call it. None of us are very excited about the thought of my sister being exposed to COVID-19 and bringing home the coronavirus.

We take care of our mother who has asthma and a heart condition, it would be devastating to my sister if she brought home COVID, and it ended up killing our mother. But my sister is a wonderful teacher, who cares about giving her kids the best education she can. And can’t see herself doing anythinh else. It’s who she is. And she will absolutely go back into her classroom to teach whenever they tell her she has to.

But I have seen first hand how much she and other teachers spend of their own money for school supplies and other things essential to teach their students. And they do not make hardly enough for what they do. I for one would not be able to do that job, especially for the tiny salary that they make. And with this COVID threat, they desearve some kind of hazard pay if they are forced to return to the classroom, especially when they have access to technology where they could simply teach from home and be safe.

There is an argument that schoold districts get plenty of money and that there is no reason to raise taxes or give them any more. I happen to agree with that. Except for the fact that I have personally seen that all of that money they do get, never seems to end up where it needs to. Which is in the classrooms, or paying the best teachers the best wages. It seems that the majority of the money ends up in the pockets of shool board members instead. The board votes to give themselves more money, you know, for new cars, big houses, pay raises…etc. And all of the the teachers, who we should be protecting, honoring and paying the most, always seem to get the short end of every stick.

In Nevads one of the biggest sales pitches to voters to legalize Marijuana, was that the sales tax money from the proceeds was going to go to the shools, but for the first couple of years after legalization, the schools saw none of that money. In a smoke-filled back room deal somewhere, the state legislators changed the bill and that money went into the state’s “Rainy Day Fund” instead. It wasn’t until just this year, that the school district began to see some of that money, but it never seemed to get down to the classroom level where it is needed the most. We need to change things like this and make sure that the voters are getting what they vote for.

There is too much curruption in Government. Which is why no one can seem to trust anything their Government tells them. Some say that the Government is lying, that the pandemic is not nearly the danger they are telling us it is. While still others. Are convinced that it is the exact oppisite, that the Government is lying to them and it may be much much worse than they are letting on. But the one thing that we can almost all agree on, is that the Government, while either local, state or federal is hard to trust. And so no matter what the truth may actually be, the teachers are getting the brunt of the consequences of that curruption.

So, if we force them to go back into the classrooms before we know for sure that it’s safe for them and their students to do so, we are only hurting ourselves, and our kids’ futures.

Of course, this is just one man’s humble opinion, and everyone who believes that the pandemic isn’t real, might tell me that I am wrong here, that it is stupid to keep kids home…

…to which I say, you might be right, and the threat from COVID-19 might be minimal, but why take the risk with our kids, if we don’t have to?

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