"If that is correct Shawn then your education system is more screwed than even I thought it could be. "
It is correct. Being able to be sued personally isn't from the education system, it is because it becomes a civil rights issue.
Social distancing is not possible in a school running at capacity. A classroom has 25 or 30 kids in it, typically with 1 teacher. Under a normal schedule that teacher will see 150 or 200 kids in a day. Then go home and correct 150 or 200 kids work, enter their grades in ASPEN, answer parent emails, prep for the next day and repeat. There isn't the teaching staff or floor space to spread out those classes to follow proper social distancing guidelines. It isn't like your hardware store where you can just ask some customers to wait outside.
Even running at half capacity (half kids in school, half kids running virtual and then swapping) my local district can only hit 3' of separation between students. Ditto transportation to/from school. During the shut down that district was killing themselves trying to do best for their students. Deployed technology to those that didn't have it for virtual learning, setup brown bagged lunches for any students that needed them(about half the district students get free meals), and worked like crazy to help teachers completely change how they were providing instruction and to get somewhat over that learning curve.
I never shrugged and said it is all too tough. I took issue with your continued posts saying it is all the teachers fault. That is just wrong and misunderstands the many layers involved. Yes, I think the school in Georgia is doing it wrong, but I also think it is a symptom of a larger problem. If the administrator tried to enforce rules that the states own board of health won’t, that person would not be an administrator for long.
IMO, one of the biggest problems with education is that everyone that went to school thinks that makes them an expert on education. It doesn't. By the same logic... I got operated on, I must be a surgeon now.
The actual experts (those doing it) are discredited based on some experience someone had decades ago with bad teacher(s). How many have observed current classrooms?
Many people running education systems have never been educators. They look for simple answers for complex problems. To actually solve a problem requires understanding the complexity of the problem, otherwise you are just treating symptoms.
Standardized testing is a perfect example.... it assumes all students are the same. They aren't. The brilliant kids are short changed, the kids that are behind are setup to fail, and the kids with other issues are too. I know plenty of kids that know the material, but you put a high stakes test in front of them (pass this or you don’t graduate!!!!) and their anxiety takes over and they blank. A couple of days testing can not adequately sum up a years worth of growth. The tests also mostly focus on content knowledge, which is really only a portion of what teachers are actually trying to teach. They are using the content to teach skills. A science teacher may be teaching biology, but they are also really working on critical thinking skills, analysis and looking at the data/evidence to answer a question. That isn't on a standardized test.
I know many teachers. Of them, 2 that aren't great, the rest are extremely dedicated individuals that absolutely put their hearts and souls into doing their best for their students. During the lockdown several were working 12-18 hours a day 7 days a week trying to do right by their students. Knowing that they weren't as effective as in person (which was tearing them up) and that no matter what, people would take issue with whatever they did. They still did it anyway.
Maybe where you are the teachers are as you say. But they aren’t where I am.
Shawn
