1) Here are my thoughts about #Quebec's "updated" return to school plan. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/jean-fran-ois-roberge-announces-more-details-in-covid-19-school-plans-1.5680294

2)Masks. In Quebec it will be grade 5 and older required to wear masks. No masks are required in classrooms. No social distancing in classrooms. See what they did right here? There is no reason to reduce class sizes. With magical thinking they've solved the space issue

3)Masks cont. Even visitors can remove their masks when in a classroom. Why? I thought we were at least creating a bubble of 25-30 kids plus and adult or two? Well, one more visiting adult shouldn't matter, right? More magical thinking.

4) Social distancing in the classroom--teachers and staff still have to stay 2m away in a class. Why? What do they know about aerosols and ventilation that makes them think 2m is enough? Are they not reading the latest research about kids transmitting the virus?

5) If a child tests positive--not only will the school not shut down, but the class will still run as long as others don't test positive. Parents will get an email that there is a case in a classroom or in the school. But then what? Can you keep your child home because of that?

6) A child with COVID will still be required to continue school work from home--parents will have to stay home with them. Can you imagine the stress level on the family?

7) If a child shows COVID symptoms (which look like a normal cold in many cases), it's up to the parents to keep them home. How many parents give their child a Tylenol and send kids in no matter what?

8) If a child displays COVID symptoms at school they "will be escorted out of the school by a staff member wearing protective equipment who will wait with them until a relative arrives." So, your going to send a child with COVID in the middle of winter to wait for their ride?

9) It seems it would take a massive outbreak to shut down a school. And when they do, they expect teachers to switch to online teaching within 24 hours? Who trained them? Who prepared children for this? Where is the digital infrastructure? Did any of this happen this summer? No.

10) Further, if it takes a massive outbreak to close a school, how do you expect to continue instruction if a majority of staff and students are sick?

11) Just because infections today went below 100, doesn't mean the community transmission rate is low enough for these measures. We saw that in schools in Israel where they followed similar guidelines.

12) What I'm not seeing in these recommendations are insights from the latest research on digital learning, aerosols and ventilation, and the infection rates among children.

13) Instead, the Quebec government is patting themselves on the back for a "successful" reopening of schools in the spring--where they had under 50% of students, in socially distanced classrooms, and with low community spread in the regions. It's not the reality we will face.

14) The things the gov is promising in terms of digital learning is non-existent. We should have ended the school year in May and gave teachers and principals the time and resources to develop a year-long plan to move from in-person to online seamlessly.

15) We didn't do this--we had a great summer because three months inside was too hard. Well, we had our chance to prepare and this new update is no where near the plan of substance, flexibility, and responsiveness we need.

16) The plan we have now is one that requires little from the ministry of education, one that relies on magical thinking to go back to normal. This is a pandemic. We can't go back to normal. Ask Florida, Texas, and Arizona how that's working out. end.