It's pretty fucking unbelievable but not unexpected. They brought the kids back to school to take the fucking state test - I kid you not. Kids who are in school have to take the state test while kids who chose to remain home get "asynchronous" work. So, the kids who came back to school for in-person instruction are getting tested and kids who stayed home are watching Netflix. Nice.

“Open schools!” they yelled.

“Kids need in-person instruction,” they protested.

“Kids need to interact with their peers,” they professed.

“We’re ruining a whole generation of students,” they warned.

Okay. Now we are opening schools. All over the country schools are implementing their reopening plans in an attempt to have students in classrooms during this pandemic. While for many the warning of 1918 came to mind -- when H1N1 suddenly attacked young people and children started dying. Right now, about 21 percent of new COVID cases are children, although they are not dying. My own grandson’s class was quarantined this week due to two students testing positive for the virus. This scenario has been kept quiet in much of the country, but we always find a way to report what’s really happening via the proverbial grape vine which seems to grow even bigger thanks to social media. So while the breakout in our community wasn’t on the news, we all know about it and we all talk about it to people outside of our community. And, truth be told, how could we expect anything different from a virus.

Now we are trying to open schools in Philadelphia where the community spread was much greater and much more devastating than in other places in Pennsylvania. In fact, Philadelphia and the surrounding area dealt with 36% of all the deaths in the state. But, here we are opening our schools. It’s not surprising that in the middle of a pandemic that has killed almost 600,000 Americans most people do not want to send their children to school. It turns out, those yelling, protesting, and warning are really just noise makers since the reality is only 30 percent (give or take) of families decided to send their children for in-person learning.

Not only that, but if you saw the model for this in-person learning, you’d wonder why we didn’t just wait until September. Rather than allowing teacher to continue teaching from home (because, let’s face it, the general population has always had a problem with the way teachers accomplish their jobs), I now have to come to the building four days a week (one day is still virtual for “deep cleaning” which I have yet to see let alone any cleaning -- my floor isn’t even swept) to teach kids who are still home on their computer!  Not only that, but I am not permitted to meet with other teachers, have lunch with other teachers, visit other teachers in their rooms, or commune with others in the building at all. I am virtually a prisoner in my classroom. Next week, I will have students for in-person learning. Next week, six (yes, that’s what I said, six) students will return for in-person instruction. But it will not be school as they are used to school. First, they are only coming to school two days a week. Second, the procedures for entering the building will probably take 15 to 20 minutes at the start of the day while the students who chose to remain at home wait for us to log on to Zoom. I anticipate the end of the day and lunch (the only time of day students are not in my classroom) to also take twice as long as usual. Which brings me to my third point - students are also prisoners in my classroom. They cannot leave - not even to use the bathroom - except for lunch which will be socially distanced so no interaction with peers. I’ve seen it in our schoolyard with the K-2 group. Sure, they’re at recess, each one in his own little circle playing by themselves.  Of course, they have to wear a mask all day except when they are eating breakfast in their classroom -- socially distanced, of course. 

But the real reason they are bringing students back to school has nothing to do with anything that we’ve been hearing for the last year.  It’s not about in-person instruction which our students so desperately need.  It’s not about interacting with their peers which they’re not allowed to do because there’s a pandemic.  It’s not about ruining an entire generation of students. When it comes down to it, the ten lousy days my students will be in school for in-person learning, they won’t be learning anything; they’ll be taking the state test!