|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
“Why should I social distance and wear a mask outside when my parents never do?” –
A 6th grader
Just putting a mask on for school is not parenting.
I do not think schools should have been re-opened when they did. And yes, I know schools play an important role in students’ educational achievement, health, and well-being, et al.
As COVID-19 cases again surge, who knows where student and school personnel numbers will be when this column appears.
PLEASE BE GRATEFUL OF THEIR EFFORTS
There is no discussion. In-school COVID cases are NOT the fault of schools. I’ve been subbing part time at a school that has done everything humanly possible to ensure an almost 100 percent hermetically sealed school. It has been a Herculean effort.
You can’t move six feet without being reminded about social distancing. Giant arrows on the floor show the one-way direction through the halls. Needless to say, students always have in hand their cell-phones and not hand sanitizer; though they are begged to do so.
Even with the use of a megaphone–when needed–you simply have the best scenario given the situation. As much as you think, school personnel cannot just follow a COVID safety playbook. There is no cookie cutter approach to this virus.
There is no purpose in wearing masks or social distancing if the moment students are released from class (even w/controlled dismissal) they are all over each other. Selfies, recording Tik Toks, hugs and kisses galore and playing “Among Us” is simply a disaster waiting to happen.
And no, it’s deadly to just say “kids will be kids.”
A DEADLY UNPERFECT PERFECT STORM
Many have called kids going back to in-school learning “a perfect storm waiting to happen.” As usual, schools have become ground zero in all of this and the target of blame. Parents across the country are questioning educators’ efforts. My answer is simply – “take your child out of school.”
As much as you think there is a singular prophylactic approach to this, there is not. Having a plan is worthless UNLESS it’s fulfilled to perfection and orchestrated perfectly by students.
My school has done every single “thing” they could/can do to ensure the utmost safety of the students.
But there is one frustrating and exhausting variable they simply cannot control…. the kids. However, it’s not the school’s responsibility. But there is a method that has proven successful some of the time with kids – it’s called parenting.
STOP MASKING THE TRUTH
Just as we teach kids not to talk to strangers, to share suicidal thoughts and depression, to report bullying and avoid surfing the internet’s X-rated material – parents MUST put the reality of COVID-19 right in their face.
From what I’ve seen throughout the country, students simply do not get the severity of what is going on. Students have no sense of reality and how serious this is. As parents mask their kids and drop them off, they do not have the right to abdicate responsibility. Students must be aware of prevention and the consequences.
IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT
We are so quick to always blame schools’ ability to manage this pandemic. Look, we all know that this hybrid teaching is simply not working. However, the schools are doing everything they can, given the situation. “Not working” is not the schools’ fault and we need to just stop pretending it is.
Pretending at this moment everything is perfect is confusing for children when life is showing them that it isn’t. You owe them the truth no matter the age. Don’t worry about scaring them. Tell them about intubation – now that is scary.
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, Founder of The Student Success Project and Think Factory Consulting. He can be reached at 305-788-4105 or email at ritchie@thinkfactory.com and on Facebook and You Tube as The Student Success Project. NOTE: Guest contributor Lori Moldovan – Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern, was again unavailable for this column due to her extremely heavy caseload related to the pandemic.
