Last September, when our NYC children returned to in-class schools without any hybrid or remote options, I found the discussions in the NYC Sub-Reddits to be very enlightening as to the problem with how to make the best decisions in the face of COVID.
There were 4 clear themes, and these all seemed to be fairly equally weighted in the ‘discussions’ online that I saw:
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Many parents felt that the decision to have all kids in school was good, that remote learning was harmful to their children and that kids needed the normalcy of being in-class with teachers.
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Many parents felt that the risk to them and their families if COVID was allowed to spread through schools, and from schools to homes was crazy and that their children needed remote options.
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Many teachers felt that it was impossible to teach remotely and that it was good to have all children and teachers back in the classroom.
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Many teachers felt that it was too dangerous to them, and their families to be in a classroom full of kids who might be spreading COVID.
You know what, they were all correct! For them. I know this is feedback from last fall, and that literally was a different world, but my point is that at any given point, there is no real right answer for how to proceed.
The President of the United States last night in his SotU said that remote workers need to go back to offices. My NY State Governor and the NYC Mayor keep saying the same thing. I get it, they need me to go back into a Manhattan office so I can eat lunch and get my haircut and do other things on my lunch break that help small businesses and low wage workers. But fuck that! I have no intention of ever going back to an office daily again. That said, I get the argument.