About 1,000 more people died of COVID-19 yesterday than died at Pearl Harbor. Yesterday and the day before, the death toll rang in with hundreds more lost to the virus than died in the 9/11 attacks. Southern California available ICU beds now stand at ZERO percent! We could have done so much better. We should have done so much better. 

“Virtually every health professional I know believes that the pandemic in
the US could and should have been better controlled than it has been. Bad
mistakes rarely lead to only temporary damage.” (The tragedy of the post-COVID “long haulers” – Harvard Health Blog – Harvard Health Publishing)

But “I shouldn’t have fallen off the horse” is a useless sentence. You can’t unride past horses. You can’t undo past mistakes. You can work fiercely, and with some success, to mitigate damage, though — which is what we must do now. 

I retired from a Title One school in an area with poverty rates that always
ran near 90% or above. That school population was nearly 100% children of
color. So I am terrified of what’s happening with the achievement gap this year
— because online and hybrid schooling tend to work much better in wealthy
areas with ample experience with technology and parents who can work at home.

Nevertheless, UNTIL THIS LATEST WAVE PASSES, WE SHOULD CLOSE MANY SCHOOL DOORS. No child should go to school where the ICU bed situation has spiraled out of control. Readers, see San Francisco on verge of “catastrophic situation” as COVID-19 cases increase and ICU beds run low – CBS News and try the search “ICU bed shortage.” Swaths of this country are running near the edge now. 

I guarantee readers, those open schools are part of the COVID surge. I have already shared information about my vet, whose elementary age son brought the virus home. He made a quick recovery. His parents and older siblings did not.  Medical friends of mine have been knocked down for weeks at a time. One is waiting to get into a clinic for people who have long-term symptoms, but the first available appointment is in MARCH. She’s a doctor, too. The vet’s story is admittedly one small slice of personal experience, but nonetheless reflection should make the connection clear: It takes one infectious person to get everyone in a household sick. As of weeks ago: 

Eduhonesty: Advocates for open schools have pointed out to me that the cops, firefighters, electricians, road construction crews, airline pilots, car mechanics, and plumbers are mostly working. They argue teachers should therefore be in the classroom. But that argument ignores one potent factor: The cops, firefighters etc. CANNOT work from home. You can’t interview a witness, put out a fire, fix someone else’s car, faucet or wiring, or fly a plane from a home office. But you can teach children from that office. 

We have been teaching remotely for months now. We are getting steadily better, too. This is a new skill and teachers are asking for help and sharing what works online. The learning curve has been steep and we are all concerned about those areas that have been running tech-light. I don'[t have the data yet but I am 100% certain that we will eventually document that wealthier districts produced better results from online learning. (The bright side: Hidden costs of the U.S. system of funding schools are being highlighted as never before. That lack of technology can no longer be shrugged off.)  

But I am going to repeat myself: A kid can recover from not learning metaphors or similes “on time.” That kid will not recover from bringing home the virus that kills Grandma Velma. In our economically disadvantaged areas, multigenerational homes are common — one more way to manage financially in areas of high housing costs especially. 

I’d also like to observe that classrooms are not police stations, firehouses, airports, construction sites, or other people’s homes. Schools are their own unique category of crazy. Little kids don’t understand masks or germ theory. Adolescents have always made the mistake of believing themselves immortal. And kids are sometimes jammed into those classrooms and hallways like sardines auditioning to be canned. A classroom is so different from the adult world. Teachers in pre-K and early grades have to worry about kids drinking the hand sanitizer.  (More children ingesting hand sanitizers due to manufacturing lapses: FDA – ABC News (go.com))

Please, reader, look at the map above. Do we want to open Chicago schools at this time? The same dark red blotches can be seen along much of the East Coast. COVID-19 is now the number one cause of death in the United States. WE MUST SHUT SCHOOLS WHERE THE SYSTEMS ARE BEING OVERWHELMED. Any teacher knows classrooms are germ factories, giant petri dishes filled with coughs and snot and even occasional vomit. 

People and CHILDREN who can be home right now SHOULD be home — and districts should be working nonstop to make sure that students have all the technology they require to succeed in remote learning.