Some school districts are open. Some are closed. Many are using online instruction after being forced by our state to continue the charade that it’s a reasonable stand-in for traditional education.
We are passing to our children no shortage of problems, some old and some new. When the governor forces our schools closed, we’re not providing them the resources they’ll need to solve these problems — knowledge and tools that, as a society, we’ve promised to them. Our children need to experience and learn social skills, communication skills, how to interact with their peers and all manner of things beyond the “three Rs” that simply can’t be passed through a computer screen.
I hope they’ll forgive us for putting our desires before their needs. Cowardly, we put their best interests aside until we adults are vaccinated. A vaccine, a shield, that we deny them. Shame on us for not giving our future at least the tools they’ll need to clean up our messes.
We shouldn’t be discussing if and when to open the classrooms. We should be discussing how we’re going to make up for so much lost time. After that, how did we come to such a place that statists like our governor and so many others have such broad control in our local lives and decisions.
Matt Pergar
Unity