Covid 19 Part XXVIII- 71,942 ROI(2,050 deaths) 51,824 NI (983 deaths) (28/11) Read OP

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

Hi thanks for the response but I have no interest in a dialogue with someone who places no value on education, I could go further but I have my suspicion as to your agenda here.

Arghus wrote: »

I don't agree with your opinion on the benefits a, lets say, formal education provides for a child. I think it's a bit reductionist to be honest, but I don't really want to get into an argument of whether a child can do with or without school for up to a period. We could be here all night.

Is it essential is it non-essential? I think it's essential up to a point. Is it essential in the same way food and air is? Well, no, but is that what we're arguing here - semantics? About what constitutes essential in the most literal sense of the word.

Furthermore, I also think the question of schools is about more than just a child's education. There's also the wider considerations about how it effects the life of the parents. Will they be able to work if they have to potentially look after a gaggle of young kids all day. How will that effect their employers etc, etc. Not every parent can provide the necessary level of socialisation or education by themselves - it isn't just something that's eminently doable right across the board en masse for an indefinite period of time. Not everybody has the means.

And I also think realistically the government felt that they had little choice but to stick to their guns as regards schools - and yes, being closed from March did stiffen their resolve. Parents wanted their kids back in school, kids wanted to go back. Imagine the absolute political firestorm that would have ensued if they'd closed the schools and said "don't worry provide them with a bit of socialisation and they should be okay for up to two years" - that would absolutely never fly in the real world, no matter how theoretically sound it may or may not be.

Wombatman wrote: »

From today......


Education is essential. OK, will give you that one. But people a missing out on something here. Education can continue remotely, off site.

Of course we can't go there either for fear of the teaching unions.

normanoffside wrote: »

And yet we have one of the strictest lockdowns with little prospect of getting out of it and health experts sneering at our 'bad behaviour'.

ArthurDayne wrote: »

But Arghus, do you see the fundamental problem with saying that it can be understood before saying it cannot be justified? Ask yourself why you think it’s understandable. It’s understandable because, ultimately, you know full well that people are penned in and just want some form of social outlet. We have crap weather, it’s winter, people are fed up and stressed. Going to grab a few takeaway pints with a couple of friends is a small respite from months of life being turned into mere existence.

Whatever one wants to say about its necessity, it’s the natural consequence of people’s ability to have social outlets be suppressed that they will simply crave a social outlet — it is simple human nature, regardless of how necessary it is. You may as well ask why people ever talk to eachother and why people ever make friends — it is part of our instinct. The problem with this latest idiotic example of outrage reactionism is that it only makes even more inevitable the very things people on here claim they want to avoid. The more people are prevented from doing these things, the more inevitable it is made that even light loosening of restrictions at Christmas will lead to an outpouring of peoples’ pent up desire to, basically, have a bit of craic and a taste of normality.

The hypocrisy laden in these decisions is sometimes head spinning. We are told house parties are a terrible issue and yet at every turn we seem determined to create the environment where even people long past the housepartying stage of their lives will fancy it. We are told we must suppress getting a feckin pint in a window and drinking it outside, all with the apparent goal in mind of getting numbers to such a point that we can open up more at Christmas — which only makes it more likely that the virus will spread all the more, only this time the young spreaders will be more likely to be around older relatives.

Yes, in the grand scheme of the universe, getting a takeaway pint doesn’t feature too highly in the hierarchy of needs — but the absolute strict necessity of something is not the only determining factor in saying whether a decision to ban it is stupid or disproportionate.

Wombatman wrote: »

If they can spend most of their spare time dicking around of Minecraft or Fortnight they can manage online schooling for a few weeks.