WEIGHING THE BENEFITS AND THE RISKS
Zoë Wallace
Head of Political and Global Impacts
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Secretary and Outreach Officer
Last week, San Diego Unified School District and Los Angeles Unified School District announced their plans to reopen schools digitally in the fall. This announcement comes in the midst of a surge in coronavirus cases in the United States, particularly in Southern and Western states. Many countries that were once struggling to contain the virus now have low enough numbers to completely reopen schools in the fall, but the United States has not handled the virus as effectively. This comes as a result of the Trump administration’s lack of strict measures against the spread of the virus, general misinformation and conspiracy theories, and the political polarization of this pandemic. The Trump administration recently announced a campaign to completely reopen schools in the fall, sparking yet another partisan debate. In this article, I will assess both the benefits and the risks of restarting in-person schooling, as well as provide insight into the reopening plans of other countries.
Why should we do in-person learning?
Many students have reported that they are not learning as well through online learning techniques. Likewise, most school districts across the country were completely unprepared for a situation such as this, and the forced shift in teaching styles was just as new for the teachers as it was for the students. Because of this, the teachers were untrained and unprepared for this dramatic change, making learning much more difficult for the students. It is also much more difficult to make kids come to class or turn in work when they can be met with no real consequences such as detention or suspension.
On top of this, kids usually will find it easier to concentrate on their work in a classroom environment where the teacher is able hold them accountable for staying on task. Distractions are much more likely to happen at home, and students may pretend to have technical difficulties if they do not want to come to class.
Humans are social animals, and children learn much of their social interaction skills at school. Body language and vocal tones are much more difficult to express and recognize over zoom or google meets, and these components can be crucial to a student’s understanding of the lesson.
Although COVID-19 is a very real risk, measures can be put into place to make the school environment much safer, such as temperature checks, smaller classrooms, masks, social distancing, wiping down desks after use, open-air classrooms, and satitizing the school every few days. Other measures include implementing a half-day schedule, splitting the student body into two groups to reduce the amount of people on campus at one time and turning in every assignment electronically so that teachers do not have to touch paper assignments that could be carrying the virus.
There are health and safety risks to online learning as well. Social isolation has been shown to increase the likelihood of depression, anxiety, and suicide in a person, as well as increase the risk of dementia, heart diseases, and strokes. At school, students are more likely to have an escape from an abusive householdl, or even report their abusers to teachers or staff.
During the pandemic, many parents have lost their jobs or at least have been doing their jobs from home. This has allowed them to look after their children while they are being schooled. If schools reopen, parents may start to go back to work and reopen the economy. They will no longer have the responsibility of looking after their elementary school kid or being their homeschooling teacher when their real teacher was unable to convey the concept of a lesson adequately over zoom.
Why should we continue online education?
The biggest risk of going back to in-person education is COVID-19. Although kids are less likely to die from or transmit the virus, as many kids tend to be asymptomatic, teachers and staff members are at a much higher risk of sickness, permanent damage, and/or death due to the coronavirus. Similarly, when kids return home from school to their families (sometimes including grandparents), they may infect others in their household and cause a large amount of damage. Students who are immunocompromised or have immunocompromised family members will probably choose not to attend in-person school, but if they do they will be at a high risk of dying or causing the death of a family member.
Elementary school teachers know this well: it is hard to get children to listen to the rules. Ann-Marie Malone, a mother, is quoted saying “My son is in kindergarten and I'm constantly reminding him to wash his hands with soap, keep his mask on and try not to touch his eyes. It's exhausting and I can't imagine how difficult it will be for the teachers to have to enforce these rules while trying to carry on with lessons.” This is a sentiment many parents may relate to. Even if schools say they will implement social distancing and make every child wear a mask, some kids will break the rules. This is an issue in middle and high school as well, and older kids may have more autonomy to meet outside of school without regulations and spread the virus this way.
Also, although school districts are considering trying to mitigate safety risks with certain measures, some are unrealistic or may do more harm than good. For example, most schools have indoor classrooms with lackluster ventilation capabilities. Without more funding, these schools will become hotspots for the virus since it is more easily spread in indoor, less ventilated areas. Another measure being considered is limiting the number of students per class. Unfortunately, they must consider the fact that there are a certain (and limited) number teachers employed by each school, and although they may attempt to hire more teachers, some schools cannot afford paying more salaries. The idea of half-days, where half of the student body will come to school in the morning and half will come in the afternoon will not be easily implemented, especially since many parents will be forced to leave work halfway through the workday to pick up their child from school.
What are other countries doing?
As of April 30th some schools in the Netherlands (a country with much less cases) have reported a new schedule for in-person learning. Children would go to school from 8:30 to 12:00 AM every other day, and use Skype for online education on the alternating days. It is important to consider the fact that the Netherlands, as well as all of the countries soon to be mentioned, are currently in better stages of defeating the spread of the virus than the United States (the US has the most COVID-19 cases and deaths out of all of the countries in the world currently).
A school in South Korea is implementing temperature checks, sanitization of common areas, face masks, social distancing, hand sanitizer, and a cancelation of field trips and after school activities. The Yangzheng Primary School in Hangzhou, China is having its young students create one-meter hats to get them accustomed to social distancing. They are also checking for fever at school gates and enforcing a strict mask policy. The students of Dajia Elementary School in Taiwan are eating lunch while surrounded by personal protective barriers that look like small cubicles.
Denmark was one of first countries to close its schools after learning of the virus, and its reopening of schools included no mask policy. Social distancing and hand washing was emphasized instead, and because of the relatively few amount of cases, these measures have been mostly successful.
Conclusion:
Should schools reopen in the fall? Or should education continue to be online? There is no clear answer, as there are benefits and risks to both options. Although the federal government is clearly leaning towards a reopening, some school districts have made different decisions and are choosing to start off the year virtually. In the meantime, we must wait for the announcement and hope that the schools will choose the option that preserves the most life while raising a well-educated generation.
** Now that I have you here, this is your reminder to register to vote if you havent already! **
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