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THREAD: I think this piece by @JoshuaMound poses some useful provocations. I also think to some extent he sets up a straw man (specifically @AlecMacGillis). It is possible to both acknowledge systemic inequities AND support in-person elementary school. https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/neoliberal-education-reform-scapegoat-teachers-covid-19-reopening-school
I'll just use myself as an example. I'm very on-record as being pro-elementary school reopening. I also noted that when MacGillis' piece came out, it was yet another illustration of how much poverty, not education, drives academic/child outcomes. https://twitter.com/ehaspel/status/1310645018890305536?s=20
Similarly, I've written entire pieces talking about how if we truly want to keep schools closed without causing massive damage to families and children, we need to think about much bolder solution than we have to date-- this was from July: https://www.romper.com/p/opinion-we-should-pay-parents-to-stay-home-29370801
I don't fault a single teacher for feeling wary about returning. And we must always acknowledge the yawning racial gaps in who COVID impacts. I think there are some on the Right who think this is "lazy teachers"; I honestly haven't heard that sentiment on the Left.
AND I also think those opposed to reopening underestimate how bad this is for young children & moms in particular, and again, disproportionately people of color. It's not just academics, it's the child care and family financial insecurity that it causes. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/08/parents-juggle-work-and-child-care-during-pandemic.html
Even setting aside academics, remote schooling is not an unalloyed good. It comes with real costs to kids' & adults' physical, mental, socioemotional well-being (and in some cases, yes, their mortality). So it's a balance, a tradeoff, a question of risk. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2771180
Is it fair that we ask schools to perform all these functions? Maybe not. But it's not new, and absent a radical policy shift I don't think is coming, right now we have to contend with the question in front of us, not the question we wish we had. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/opinion/coronavirus-schools-child-care-centers.html
(For all the heat @ProfEmilyOster gets, btw, she's been clear since her first book that everyone is going to have a different risk tolerance and qualitative opinions on quantitative data, which is a-OK. The goal is making sure we've got as accurate a data picture as possible.)
I look at the elementary school data and feel that the benefits outweigh the risks. I look at the high school data & feel that the risks outweigh the benefits (community transmission levels as a mediator, of course). Others - on both sides - land in different places. That's fine!
(As an aside, I'll also note that since few of us in this arena are epidemiologists or infectious disease specialists, an outsize weight should be given to those expert opinions, which are certainly not in consensus but appear to me to lean in one direction)
We also all need to hold our opinions loosely in an era when information/data shifts rapidly. Remember, we used to disinfect our mail lo those many... 6 months ago. I'm not a huge fan of blogger Scott Alexander, but he always puts his "epistemic status" at the top of his posts...
...basically, 'how confident are you about what you are saying/how open are you to being wrong?' and I think that would be useful here. I can say that I am personally around a 7 out of 10 on my certitude around elementary schools: it's a solid opinion, but I could be convinced.
What I don't want to happen is for this debate to devolve into a sense of:
"You don't care about teachers lives!"
vs.
"You don't care about kids well-being!"
I actually think both sides largely (not always) operate in good faith. We just come to different conclusions.
"You don't care about teachers lives!"
vs.
"You don't care about kids well-being!"
I actually think both sides largely (not always) operate in good faith. We just come to different conclusions.
Now look: I'm not saying I'm an archetype of a pro-school reopening liberal. But I also don't think I'm alone. We can have a much more useful conversation if we agree that you can be for getting elem. kids back without being against teachers or missing the anti-poverty boat. /fin
(P.S. Last thought here -- it is certainly true that the education system works terribly for many students of color. It's also true that the earliest grades are absolutely essential for learning how to read, and that's awful hard to do over the computer.) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/better-fall-possible/613882/
