Head Tale

Regina Public Schools to return to in-class learning on May 3, 2021. https://t.co/YZayV5QOJv pic.twitter.com/OHaAUGGPED

— Regina Public Schools (@RegPublicSchool) April 26, 2021

Regina Public Schools has announced that students will return to school on May 3 and there is lots of debate on social media and elsewhere about the decision.

Five Reasons It’s Good To Send Students Back To School Right Now
1. I’ve seen it firsthand and also talking to our kids’ teachers and other parents, it’s clear that distance learning, even if workload and assignment complexity are reduced, is more of a struggle for kids in terms of self-starting and motivation and creating boundaries between “home” and “school” among other overriding stresses since we’re STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF A WORLDWIDE GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

2. Many students have parents who are still working or even if they’re at home, are not well-positioned to help guide them for other reason since parents, no matter their background or education level, might still have to focus on their own work and/or aren’t trained as teachers.  (We’re fortunate that our kids are 13 and 8 so can be home alone, are relatively responsible, etc. but there are days where Shea and I are both at work and the kids miss their classroom meetings or don’t make much progress on homework during the day or whatever.)

3. Some parents don’t have enough (any?) devices and/or an Internet connection to support distance learning.  Or, if they do, one family of four might share a single laptop or whatever so those kids, already likely at higher risk of not doing well in school, are falling further behind.

4. Teachers do their best work one-on-one in person as do students.

5. At some level, you have to trust the people elected to the school board (a few who I know personally) to make the right decision  and I’m sure they wouldn’t make this decision if they didn’t feel the benefits outweighed the risks.

Five Reasons It’s Not Good To Send Students Back To School Right Now
1. The biggest reason by far is that, by pretty much every measure, Covid is worse in Saskatchewan than when schools were closed a month ago.

2. The government had a great opportunity when they shut schools to prioritize teachers (and anyone else who works in schools – EAs, receptionists, janitors, etc. etc.) for vaccination in anticipation of this moment to decrease the risk to school staff.  But unfortunately they didn’t do that so many school staff members are going back unvaccinated.

3. The variants are more virulent and communicable than the initial Covid virus and there is some debate if some of the accepted measures – six foot distance, cloth masks – are even as effective in preventing variant spread as initially thought?

4. When the first closures happened in March 2020, the City, schools and public libraries made a joint announcement about the closure.  This showed unity and also, frankly, provided some cover to each organization if they were going to be criticized as they could point to the other “partners” as making the same tough decision.  With this decision, Regina Public Schools is “jumping ahead” of other orgs that are currently shut down until at least May 10.

5. On the flip side of trusting the elected school board trustees, I have a small niggling worry that this decision might at least partly have been made because of pressure from the provincial government to align with their political priorities, either overtly or even covertly.  I wish this wasn’t even a thought in my brain but given that the Sask Party has repeatedly made decisions based on politics rather than science throughout this pandemic and most recently. had a very heavy-handed response to a motion by Regina City Council to ban advertising by oil & gas companies, I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibilities – again, even if not an overt threat, could it be in the back of mind of decision-makers that they don’t want the blow-back of crossing a very popular (and occasionally vindictive) provincial government? 

At any rate, the decision is made and since Shea and I aren’t in a position to home school or keep our kids out, we will simply have to hope that this works out and the kids can get through the remaining two months of the school year.

(I observed to one person that if schools get shut down again in the next two months after closing/opening/closing during the past year, that’s even worse as, because at that point, I think another shutdown only happens if something horrible occurs – a massive outbreak or worse.)