What You Need to Know About Sending Your Child Back to School –
The Organic Prepper, Linnea Johnson
As the summer goes on, schools are refining and finalizing how they will conduct school in the fall. Already, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Diego have declared schools will not re-open physical classrooms and others will follow. Many districts have suggested revised schedules, including part of the students attending one day or week and others another day or week, staggered drop-off and pickup times, mask-wearing at all times, social distancing, food brought from home, and no shared use of common resources. Teacher unions are beginning to object to sending teachers, particularly those in the higher risk age groups, back into the classroom and parents have understandable concerns for their children as well.
One way or another, school will not look like it used to this school year, and discipline issues will now include compliance with COVID-19 restrictions. Online learning will deliver the bulk of instruction, with little personal interaction between students, peers, and teachers. While I am a believer in online learning for older and more motivated students, I believe it is not the best learning mechanism for younger children.
Millions of parents, after homeschooling their children for months are seriously considering homeschooling because of the dystopian guidelines issues by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and being followed by most school districts.
CDC Recommendations
In May, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued school reopening guidelines that called for:
- Strict social distancing tactics
- All-day mask wearing for most students and teachers
- Staggered attendance
- Daily health checks
- No gym or cafeteria use
- Restricted playground access and limited toy-sharing, and
- Tight controls on visitors to school buildings, including parents.
School districts across the country quickly adopted the CDC’s guidelines, devising their reopening plans accordingly. Once parents got wind of what the upcoming school-year would look like, including the real possibility that at any time schools could be shut down again due to virus spikes, they started exploring other options. (Source)
Like it or not, you will need to make a decision; send your child to a dystopian school situation or seek an alternative. We’ve already discussed homeschooling here, here, and here.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Let’s talk more about the decision making process. Questions you might ask yourself are:
- Am I putting my child and family at undue risk by sending my child to school in the fall? Check out this article.
- Will my child fall behind because of a chaotic schedule at the school (some days or weeks online, others in the classroom)
- How will school districts measure the effectiveness of this new mode of learning? How will teachers be evaluated? How will my child be evaluated? How will I know my child will be ready for the next grade and has the skills s/he needs?
- What additional vaccination requirements will be imposed on my child and our family if my child attends a school?
- What will discipline in the schools look like in the fall? Will my child or family be reported to the authorities if s/he takes their mask off? Will my family be fined?
- How will wearing a mask all day long affect my child’s health?
- How will I juggle my work schedule to support the schedule the school assigns my child to? If I can’t change my work schedule, who will care for and supervise my child?
- If I’m already staying home to supervise my child’s remote learning, is it that much greater a commitment to homeschool entirely?