JP Liz V1 wrote: » So teachers don't want kids who travel abroad on holidays back but what about teachers who travel abroad for holidays?
wirelessdude01 wrote: » Where are you getting that idea?
lulublue22 wrote: » President of the National association of principals and deputy principals spoke to an oireachtas committee according to RTE.
JP Liz V1 wrote: » https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/parents-who-bring-children-on-holidays-abroad-are-jeopardising-return-to-school-in-september-covid-committee-told-39347296.html I may have picked up wrong
kowloonkev wrote: » Schools forced to close again in Hong Kong after a new outbreak and a number of teachers and students infected, although too early to know yet if it transmitted in the school buildings. All students and teachers were wearing masks as much as possible. When you think that one asymptomatic person could pass to another, and then another, several weeks/months could go by without knowing it's in the community, especially when most cases are asymptomatic.
wirelessdude01 wrote: » Never spoke of not taking them. The point he was making was that if people bring it back from abroad and it becomes prevalent in the community again that schools might not be able to fully open again.
morebabies wrote: » If by September we are in the same situation as we were at the peak or perhaps worse, has the Department given any indication of what will happen? If the outbreaks are not localised and pretty widespread for example.
sideswipe wrote: » Weren’t they finishing up for Summer Hols anyway?
wirelessdude01 wrote: » Think they had two weeks left. Just told to lock up and start their holidays now.
markodaly wrote: » I would have thought teachers were made of more hardy stuff.
iguana wrote: » It's a virus it neither cares what you think nor what profession whatever host it finds itself in has. You can't argue with it, you can't tell it, it's denying children their rights, you can't bluff it, or goad it, or shame it. It's literally just a noncellular entity with absolutely no ability to care about what any of us think, or want or argue or will really, really hard to happen. And I hate to break it to you, but teachers are just regular human beings with a variety of capabilities in their immune system, just like the rest of humanity. They don't get a special injection of medical nano-bots at Mary I. So regardless of the fact that the virus doesn't care about what you would have thought, it was still an utterly baseless thought to have had in the first place. We are in the relatively lucky position of being on school holidays while schools in other countries are open. We can see that clusters have happened in schools in Israel. And now possibly in Melbourne, connected to what may be the harshest lockdown conditions in a western democracy. We can see that it is absolutely possible for clusters to form in schools, so the postulation from a couple of months ago that children can't spread the virus is now almost certainly wrong. The simple fact is that based on our current understanding schools absolutely pose a risk of creating a super-spreading event. If we have another wave in the 20-21 school year, the odds are schools will close. And I suspect that in a country our size, schools are more likely to close nationally than just locally because I don't see a scenario where we close all schools in Dublin for 6-8 weeks, while schools in the rest of the country plough on. It will create too much disparity in how the curriculum can be adhered to nationally. As for a child's right to an education in this country the family is recognised as a child's primary and natural educator. The state isn't derelict in it's duties towards children if it has to close schools for public health reasons because it leaves the vast, vast majority of children with their primary educators. And yes, it can be very, very hard to teach some kids at home. Especially teaching an older teen in subjects like maths/science that the parents may have forgotten/never known or a language they don't speak. But it's 2020 and there are plentiful resources online to fill in gaps. I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't suck to be stuck home-educating if it wasn't a deliberate lifestyle choice but that brings us back to the fact that it's a virus and it doesn't actually give a shït how any of us feel about our lives.
JDD wrote: » I don't agree that if there's a cluster in a school in Clontarf, every school in the country will need to close. Even if there's a cluster in four schools on the Northside, it doesn't mean that every school in Dublin needs to close. That's nonsense.
JDD wrote: » If schools are closed across the country during a second wave I will not be home-schooling my senior infant and third classer. I work full time, and that is how the mortgage is paid. While flexibility was given during the first wave, it will not be given during a second. No amount of online resources will mean that my primary school children will be able to educate themselves in the absence of me stopping work and teaching them for 3 hours a day. Even if I did do that, what they would learn is miniscule in comparison to what they would learn in a classroom environment.
iguana wrote: » If we have a cluster in a school or four and those clusters are traced completely and cut off before they lead to community transmission, then absolutely, just closing those schools/businesses that are traced will be enough. If we have community transmission in a village or small town and it's contained then just shutting schools in and around the area could be enough. But if we get significant community transmission somewhere like Dublin or Cork then the odds are all schools in those cities and their suburbs will have to close. And I genuinely don't see a scenario where we close down a very significant number of schools for extended periods while leaving the rest open. To be totally honest, I really don't see a scenario where we have significant community transmission in one of our cities but it hasn't spread enough nationwide to trigger significant restrictions across the country. That doesn't mean I believe that kind of community transmission will definitely happen again. But if it does, I don't believe any school will remain open. I hope we can have a full, uninterrupted school year. I believe it's possible that we will. However it's also possible that a time will come that it's no longer safe and if it isn't complaining that teachers aren't made of 'hardy stuff,' is just pointless. Do you genuinely find that? My experience of children that age is that they are basically hard-wired to learn. No matter what they are doing day to day they are learning at an enormous rate. My first class seven year old has been learning at a rate that far, far exceeds how he had being doing at school. (To be entirely fair though, there had been some issues at school that had hopefully been resolved in the weeks before lockdown.) But since March his reading ability has raced through several levels. His vocabulary has grown impressively. He has cracked mental multiplication and division, just from the joy of broadening his understanding of numbers and how they relate to real life. He has grown increasingly proficient at typing. He has designed, created and programmed a number of fairly complex multi-level platform games, complete with playable characters that he's designed to move with a range of motion through stop motion animation techniques, using Bloxels and Scratch. His understanding of history, social history, social responsibility, politics and viral biology has grown far beyond what I ever understood at seven to the point where he independently 'invented' variolation as an idea to end the pandemic. And that's with me having been sick from mid-March to the end of June and not doing any of the learning projects I'd planned for home-schooling. I don't think there are any real worries about the academic learning of children that age. As a species we have evolved to learn through play and interactions at that stage of development. I do have huge worries about social development. It's clearly not emotionally healthy for a child to have absolutely no interactions with other children for months on end. In your case your children have each other but only children or children who's siblings don't live with them or have too large an age gap for meaningful child to child interactions are at a serious disadvantage. But ultimately the virus doesn't care. And that's the mistake way, way too many people are making. It doesn't matter how good our reasons are for wanting schools to open. It's a virus, the best reasoning in the world is still utterly futile. If it finds a host it replicates and looks for new hosts. If schools facilitate spread, schools have to close.
wirelessdude01 wrote: » Your seven year old is doing multiplication and division?
combat14 wrote: » hong kong schools closing....https://www.thejournal.ie/hong-kong-close-schools-5146566-Jul2020/#comments
s1ippy wrote: » The news at one there just had someone on there, not sure who, saying that children who go on holidays will be allowed to go back to school, but then put the caveat on it that the two week self quarantine might still be there by then. Jesus Christ give just one bit of clarity.
meeeeh wrote: » I was talking to a teacher friend who basically said our kids (small country school in relatively middle class area) will be fine but she has a girl in her 1st class who doesn't know what 'red' means. She teaches some more disadvantaged and Traveler kids. For every child who self teaches themselves division and multiplication, coding and politics, there are kids who are struggling with basics and possibly suffering neglect. Saying every seven year old will be fine because my child is fine is neglectful and reckless. Unless we don't care about kids whose parents don't have time, desire or skills to plan their learning projects. Edit: just to add considering how many countries went back to school or never closed schools there very very few issues connected with schools around the world.
Do you genuinely find that? My experience of children that age is that they are basically hard-wired to learn. No matter what they are doing day to day they are learning at an enormous rate. My first class seven year old has been learning at a rate that far, far exceeds how he had being doing at school. (To be entirely fair though, there had been some issues at school that had hopefully been resolved in the weeks before lockdown.) But since March his reading ability has raced through several levels. His vocabulary has grown impressively. He has cracked mental multiplication and division, just from the joy of broadening his understanding of numbers and how they relate to real life. He has grown increasingly proficient at typing. He has designed, created and programmed a number of fairly complex multi-level platform games, complete with playable characters that he's designed to move with a range of motion through stop motion animation techniques, using Bloxels and Scratch. His understanding of history, social history, social responsibility, politics and viral biology has grown far beyond what I ever understood at seven to the point where he independently 'invented' variolation as an idea to end the pandemic. And that's with me having been sick from mid-March to the end of June and not doing any of the learning projects I'd planned for home-schooling.
