Should Schools Reopen in the Fall

Episode 91 Show Notes- Should Schools Reopen in the Fall

Episode Description

Most schools should fully reopen this fall. This isn’t about politics and it doesn’t matter whether you are a republican, democrat, conservative, or liberal. The fact is that keeping schools closed will have a devastating long-term impact on education. From students and parents to teachers and administrators, as well as all support staff like custodians, bus drivers, clerks, etc., all will suffer major consequences with prolonged closures. We need to put politics aside and stop the fearmongering. The science is in and there is no good reason we shouldn’t reopen schools this fall. Professor Giordano has 15-years of teaching experience and he will explain how distance education does not mean students are learning.

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Intro

Welcome everyone to another episode of The PAS Report Podcast. This is your host Nick Giordano.

Today, I am going to bring up a topic that shouldn’t be political. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a republican or a democrat. It doesn’t matter if you are a conservative or a liberal. I want to explain why we should reopen schools. This is an episode that every parent, teacher, and administrator should listen to regardless of political affiliation.

At The P.A.S. Report, I have a very broad audience that spans all political ideologies. The point of this podcast is to inform you the people so that you are able to come to your own conclusion. I don’t hide my conservative point-of-view, but I also breakdown complex issues in an easy to understand format.

So, in this episode, I am going to explain what I mean by fully reopen. I will move into the science of why the schools should reopen. Then I’ll discuss the impact on students and parents, as well as teachers, administrators, and other school staff. By the end of this episode, you will have a clear understanding of not if schools can reopen, but why they must reopen.

Before I jump in, go to The P.A.S. Report website and sign up for the newsletter while you’re there.

What do you mean schools should fully reopen?

I am sick and tired of the moral shamers out there who will yell and criticize anyone who says they want the schools to reopen. I am sick and tired of those that scream you don’t care about kids or teachers if you call to reopen schools.

The fact is that no one out there should be marginalized or publicly shamed because they call for the reopening of schools. In fact, I am going to break down exactly why schools should be reopened. My analysis will consist of science, facts, and common sense.

This episode will equip you with the information you need to pushback against anyone that tells you that schools should remain closed.

Reopening schools this fall is necessary. And when I say to reopen, I am talking about fully reopening in most places. Obviously, caveats exist depending on where you are, and this episode will not take a one size fits all approach. Also, safety measures do have to be addressed because all students, teachers, and administrators should be operating in a safe environment which I will get to later.

Unfortunately, we try to oversimplify everything and every issue in the United States. When it comes to reopening schools, it is no different. Every district has its own complexities. Now I can’t breakdown every district, so I am going to have to take the macro approach.

Throughout the United States, you have a variety of schools all taking different approaches. Some have already announced that the school year will start off with the school’s being closed, and they will go with a distance education/remote model. Other schools have announced that they will have the student body rotate every other day. This is a hybrid model that on the days that students are not in school, they will utilize the distance education model.

And there are many schools that haven’t decided yet. They hope to open, but they are not sure if they will.

What I find unusual is that for most places, it shouldn’t even be a question. If you live in a county where there are zero or a handful of coronavirus cases, there is no good reason for the schools not to fully reopen. I mean I can understand concern if you are in one of the epicenters, but if there is hardly any cases in a particular district, there is no good reason to keep the school closed.

For places like New York City, it becomes a little more complicated due to the population density, but even there, the proposals being generated are illogical. So, New York City has announced it will try to reopen schools and rotate the student body on an every other day basis. Other districts throughout the country are also toying with this idea.

But it doesn’t make any sense. Consider this, New York City recognizes that with schools rotating the student body every other day, there is going to be a massive need for childcare. I want you to think about this logically. If we can expand childcare services, why can’t students go to school? I mean are childcare facilities somehow immune from coronavirus?

Also, if students are coming in on a rotating basis, the teachers and administrators will still be exposed to the entire student body. Sure, they may have fewer students each day, but they will still be repeatedly exposed to the student body.

But most importantly we have to take a look at the science.

What does the science say?

We are constantly told that we have to believe in science and data. That we must listen to the experts. But who are these experts and what science do we have to believe? Let me explain. When people say we have to believe in science and data, what they really mean is that we have to believe the science and data that fits their particular narrative.

Always be wary when someone says to believe the science, because the second you bring up science that goes against their preconceived biases, they will follow-up with listen to the experts.

So, before I get to the actual science, I just want to tell you to don’t be a sheep. Human existence has always made great achievements by pushing back and asking questions. When you are told to listen to the experts, what they are really saying is shut-up. It’s always important to ask questions. It’s always important to challenge ideas, beliefs, and people. We are not lemmings, nor should we be. The idea of shut-up, obey, and comply, has doomed many societies.

While experts may have comprehensive knowledge in a particular area, while they may display authority in a particular subject field, experts can still be wrong. Moreover, like everything else in society the experts have become politicized where some push an ideological view and their “expert” opinion. Also, I’ve met some extraordinarily smart people. A hell of a lot smarter than me. But some of these people have zero common sense. Sure, they may know everything in a textbook, but life doesn’t operate as a textbook. It’s not neatly organized from chapter to chapter.

Just think about the amount of information that exists out there. Let’s just look at the field of medicine. Each year 560,000 medical articles are published, and 20,000 medical trials are conducted. Doctors and health care providers struggle with time, and they have to balance their professional life and their family life. Do you think it’s even remotely possible for healthcare professionals and experts to keep up to date with the onslaught of information that is released every day on top of dealing with patients and taking care of their families?

Unfortunately, many “experts” are overconfident in their abilities. I never refer to myself as an expert because I recognize there is much I still don’t know about every aspect of life. I have an extensive background in government, politics, teaching, and education, yet I don’t pretend I’m an expert.

So, let’s take a look at the science. And remember, we must believe in science. First, I’ll show the data with Coronavirus, and then I will show the data with distance education.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, which is the leading authority on pediatric healthcare and bases all opinions on evidence-based science, states, “the AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with the goal of having students physically present in school. The importance of in-person learning is well-documented, and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of school closures in the spring of 2020.” (AAP)
A study conducted in Iceland could not find one instance where a child, 10 years old or younger, transmitted coronavirus to an adult, and children in this age category are much less likely to be infected or get seriously ill. (Science Museum Group/UK Medical Research Council/University of Oxford)
Another study conducted by the National Centre for Immunization Research and Surveillance, which is based in Australia, tracked 15 schools, and found coronavirus transmission rates within the schools at .23%. (NCIRS)
Another study conducted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, which is one of the most prestigious organizations, issued a report stating that younger children and those with special needs should attend school in person, and schools should prioritize reopening, “especially for grades K-5. (National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine)
The Journal of Pediatrics has stated that the scientific evidence indicates, “children do not tend to spread the novel coronavirus between themselves, nor do they appear to regularly infect adults,” and Dr. William Raszka, a Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist with the University of Vermont’s College of Medicine, stated, “Generally, the younger you are, then the less likely you are to transmit to other children or adults. With precautions, schools should reopen.” (US News)
In fact, studies from Chicago, Massachusetts, Italy, South Korea, Iceland, Australia, Britain, and several other countries all state the same thing- that children are much less susceptible to coronavirus virus, and even when they do have it, the symptoms are not severe and they are unlikely to transmit it to adults. We are not talking about just one or two studies. This encompasses over 700 scientific publications.

When you have all these different studies, in all these different places, all basically saying the same thing, I would say that’s pretty compelling. So, if we say we are worried about the children, these studies should put you at ease. In fact, trying to find out how many children died of coronavirus is extremely difficult to find. New York was the epicenter of coronavirus, and the only number I could find was 3 children dying from complications of coronavirus that led to Kawasaki-like symptoms.

In fact, if we were to use the Coronavirus standards for the regular flu we see each and every year, we should be closing down our schools every year then. Now, for those of you who want to complain, “He’s comparing coronavirus to the flu. Blah, blah, blah.”

I recognize they are different, but the flu is far deadlier than the coronavirus when it comes to kids. About 30,000 children, ages 17 years old and younger, will require to be hospitalized with the flu, and approximately 700 of them will die.

Let’s look at more science and data. This time at the effectiveness of distance education.

A comprehensive study conducted by Spiro Protopsaltis and Sandy Baum showed found startling results. Students, especially the underprepared, special needs, and disadvantaged students, underperform and experience poor outcomes. More importantly, gaps in educational attainment across socioeconomic groups are even larger. Also, online education is increasingly expensive and does not produce a positive return on investment. (George Mason University)
Another study conducted by Columbia University found that students taking online courses are more likely to fail and drop out. (National Education Association)
The American Institutes for Research and the University of Chicago did a study randomly placing some students in an online course and some in a face-to-face course. All students placed in the online setting scored lower. (EdWeek)
Another study by Karl Alexander at John Hopkins University showed that students learn less when not in the traditional classroom environment.
According to scholars at Brown University and the University of Virginia, the spring school closures will cause the average student to have lost as much as a third of what they were expected to learn throughout the academic year. (Brown University)
Another study from researchers at Harvard examined student achievements in Math. They found that through late April, student progress in math declined by half as opposed to an in-classroom environment, especially in the low-income zip codes. (Opportunity Insights)
Estimates exist that show impacts for the average student could be as much as them falling seven months behind academically.

Now in full disclosure, there was a study done in South Korea that found children between the ages of 11-19 can spread the virus as much as adults. (NY Times) But the overwhelming amount of data shows that at the very least, all K-5 students should return in the fall. And I believe the data also shows that grades 6-12 should also return, but precautions do have to be taken which I will get into later.

Which is it? Are we going to believe in science? Or are we only going to believe science for a particular narrative?

Now the studies I mentioned deal with coronavirus and distance education. I can go through a litany of studies that also show the negative impacts of school closures on mental health as well, but we would be here all day.

Distance education is not learning

Now I want to focus attention on the students and parents. For the parents out there, you need to fight like hell to get schools reopened. If schools remain closed, the students and parents will continue to be short-changed.

Unfortunately, too many people believe distance education is a viable alternative, and as a full-time Associate Professor with nearly 15 years of teaching experience, I can tell you that distance education is not education. In fact, it is a scam of epic proportions.

Continued school closures will have a detrimental impact on students, parents, and faculty, but students will be the ones to suffer the most. And as educators, if we are being honest, distance education does not mean students are learning, and many parents witnessed this exact thing when many of the schools closed in the Spring.

And the overwhelming majority of these same students will now clearly enter the fall school year at a clear disadvantage because as the studies indicate most students fell behind. Once the schools closed, it quickly became apparent that students, parents, and teachers became overwhelmed. In some cases, students simply stopped doing the work. IN other cases, parents were doing the child’s work for them. Some schools did away with standard grading and just pushed students through even when classwork was missing, incomplete, or illustrated that students did not have a clear understanding of the material.

As someone that teaches in both the in-person classroom environment and the online environment, I can tell you from personal experience that the critical components to education, particularly learning and the ability to think critically, are nonexistent in online platforms. Not only are students learning less, but they are also forgetting much of what they have learned.

Even top-tier students are falling behind. Also, there is virtually no real interaction between faculty members and students. Because of this limited interaction, parents have to become full-time teachers even though many parents have not been trained as educators.

Keeping schools closed will continue to have a disastrous impact on the student body, and unfortunately, the decision-makers aren’t taking all the drawbacks into account.

The reality is that when it comes to distance education, parents are essentially homeschooling our children. While parents are supposed to assist with the education of their children, they are not primary educators. Also, many can’t take over nearly full-time teaching duties and maintain their work-life balance. I know people who say homeschooling is better, but the fact is that that is not a viable option for most parents and families.

Here are just some of the challenges that both parents and students face:

First, parents may not have the education levels necessary to teach their children as they may be unfamiliar with the subject material. The reality is that the subject material has changed dramatically from when they were in school. Also, they may have forgotten much of the material that they learned.
Another problem is that a growing number of students come from single-parent households. These students will be at particular risk because the parent has enough going on just trying to put food on the table. They may not have the ability to stay on top of their child(ren). Distance education requires an extraordinary amount of self-discipline that many children and young adults lack.
Also, students in lower socioeconomic areas are at the greatest risk because they may not have English speaking parents. They may not have the technological capabilities. Most importantly, they may not have the family structure or live in neighborhoods conducive to a safe academic environment. Amongst this population, these students already fave achievement gaps, and those gaps will certainly get worse. It’s not like these people can just hire private tutors.
Even middle-class households face challenges. Most homes have one computer. Those in rural communities may have trouble connecting to the internet. What happens when a parent has 2-4 children in school, and they all need to use the computer? What happens if parents have to work remotely.
Parents with special needs children are at an even greater disadvantage because they may not be trained or equipped with the necessary tools to teach their children. This is one of the most vulnerable communities, and we risk pushing these students back to a point where they may never be able to catch-up.
When it comes to self-discipline most students between the ages of 11-21 are not known for being entirely responsible and many lack the self-discipline that’s necessary in distance education. This would be one of the biggest challenges and students in this age from grades 6-12 will be at great risk of falling behind. That’s why when distance education was first rolled out many years ago, it was geared towards those seeking graduate degrees or professional development. It was geared towards those that already have careers and have the required self-discipline.
Another issue is that many assume that children come from safe homes. The fact is that schools can serve as a safe place for vulnerable students living in an environment of chaos. In fact, teachers are one of the first people to become aware of child abuse incidents. If schools remain closed, how many children will be locked down with their perpetrators where rampant abuse will occur on a nonstop basis?

If teaching was so easy, teachers wouldn’t be required to go through several years of training in order to get certified. There wouldn’t be minimum education requirements. I can teach over 200 young adults each and every semester. Yet, when it comes to my 9 and 5-year-old, they run circles around me. I know how to parent. I know how to supplement what they learn in school, but my pedagogy training is for college students, not a 9 and 5-year old. In fact, teachers do much more than teach.

As faculty members, we guide, mentor, and push our students to explore thoughts and ideas. We challenge them to open their minds, to ask questions, and to back up their arguments with evidence. We encourage them to think critically. They are not robots and they shouldn’t be trained as such. No technology in the world can replace the passion students and teachers have for the subject material.

As trained teachers, we learn to recognize body language. We know when the students understand the material that we are presenting, and we know when they are confused or don’t understand the material. We learn to recognize our student’s needs. And when the semester ends, our relationship with many students continues as they are constantly coming back for advice and guidance. I have students from over ten years ago that will still reach out to me with questions they have about a topic, an issue or a problem.

Over the years, the challenges with students and education have become more widespread, and that’s in a normal environment. Smartphones, social media, and technology have advanced and become the norm, and this has created enormous difficulties for teachers and students.

But the overreliance on this technology has had a disastrous impact on the overall mental health of our children. We have witnessed that many students can be noticeably uncomfortable in social situations, and the levels of anxiety and depression amongst our youth have increased dramatically according to studies by the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association. For years, doctors have said that screen time should be limited. Every study shows that screen time should be limited. Yet, now we are going to tell our students to sit in front of a computer for 4, 5, or 6 hours a day?

Now factor in the school closures from the spring, and many parents have witnessed a change in their child(ren) behavior. Anxiety and depression are increasing due to a lack of social interaction with their peers. As parents, think about your own situation. Have you noticed a change in the child’s behavior over the last few months?

And now we may be worsening the conditions where our children are being negatively impacted by the continued closures. Isolating children, and being home nearly every day, produces a very unhealthy environment.

Why teachers, administrators, and school support staff should want schools to reopen

There are nefarious forces out there who have been pushing for the increase in distance education. This movement is backed by the tech giants and a hell of a lot of money. And this push began long before the coronavirus.

The tech industry has wanted to usurp education from the educators for quite some time, and people like Governor Cuomo has already expressed his willingness to allow the tech industry to take over the education system.

And one thing that all teachers and administrators should understand is that nearly all the officials involved in these discussions and decisions have never managed a classroom. They have no understanding of the classroom environment, and most do not understand the faculty-student dynamics. And many teachers have not been trained in distance education where the pedagogy is different.

What ends up happening is teachers may use a combination of online resources for the students to learn the subject material. At what point do parents and others begin to complain and say if YouTube and other online resources can teach our children, why do we need teachers?

Now I have training in the online environment, and I use very little in the way of outside resources. I develop PowerPoints, record lectures, have discussion posts, and an online blog in order to keep the students engaged. But once everything is uploaded, at what point do the powers that be say the course can run themselves as artificial intelligence gets introduced into the education environment and can begin to interact with human-like qualities.

For all the teachers, administrators, and school support staff, the longer schools are closed, the greater your livelihood is at risk and you need to wake-up. For teachers and administrators, the longer the schools remain closed, more people and government officials will say that the old way of teaching is obsolete, and due to the significant cost savings, many governments will be tempted to do away with the traditional face-to-face environment.

How many administrators do you really need in an online environment? The administrative staff is already bloated, and some will use this as a pretext to cut many of the administrative positions. As for teachers, your position is not safe either. For many, your workload has actually increased in an online environment, and your job has become more difficult. But we are already hearing the rumblings that if schools are closed, teachers shouldn’t be getting paid.

How long are bus drivers, school aides, clerks, and administrative assistants are going to be employed if they are not going to work?

Given that the coronavirus has decimated state and local budgets throughout the country, at what point will the schools begin to lay off these workers? Your job is at great risk right now.

This is a threat of epic proportions, and all teachers, administrators and school support staff need to pushback. For those of you with tenure, don’t think that your jobs are safe. They are not. Your tenure does not come into play if governments start laying off employees. While those without tenure may be the first to go, tenure does not provide immunity from being laid off.

Teachers Unions

And as far as the Unions go, they are making the situation worse. Unions exist to fight for their members. To fight for wages and benefits. To fight for a safe working environment. However, the unions that are already saying that faculty will not go back are doing a huge disservice to their members because they don’t realize the threat the profession is under.

Instead of bitching and complaining, unions should be part of the solution and give their input on what it will take to have faculty members return to the classroom and at the same time ensure that a safe environment exists. I have no problem with unions pushing for safety measures, but instead, unions have taken advantage.

For example, a teachers’ union in North Carolina is demanding benefits for illegal immigrants, calling for universal healthcare, as well as guaranteed universal income. What the hell does this have to do with coronavirus? And the union states that “We must fight together, collectively, for changes that will permit our communities to thrive during this pandemic and beyond.”

The Los Angeles teacher’s union has said that public schools should remain closed and districts should not reopen until all charter schools are closed, the local police are defunded, and a Medicare-for-all system is in place. (The Daily Wire) A union’s job is to fight for its members. That’s its sole purpose and this is the disservice I’m talking about.

By clouding the coronavirus issue with social issues that have nothing to do with getting back in the classroom, it will just further the calls as to why schools have become nothing more than liberal indoctrination centers. And the calls to do away with unions will grow louder. For all the unions out there, shut your damn mouths because all you are doing is hurting your members. You want to talk about school safety in the age of coronavirus, fine. But stop with all the other BS. You will be the reason that teachers will get laid off.

Closing

I am constantly hearing the words ‘We Can’t’. We can’t open schools. We can’t reopen the economy. When did we become a nation of We can’t?

We are Americans and this is the United States. We are a nation that can do anything if we actually use our brains. Imagine if we said we can’t defeat the British in the American Revolution. We can’t fight the Civil War and put an end to slavery. We can’t defeat Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. We can’t put a man on the moon or pass civil rights. Where would we be?

We have accomplished a great deal in our short history, mainly by taking a can-do creative approach.

Obviously, safety is an issue and one that has to be taken seriously. Obviously, we need to take precautions.

And the reality is we can reopen schools and create a safe environment. In addition to teaching, I have a background in Emergency Management as well. All my training and experience has allowed me to understand that risk can never be eliminated, but it can be mitigated with effective strategies. All my experience tells me that we can be creative to mitigate risk.

Desks can be socially distanced. Masks should not be required of the children in K-5, but if an area is experiencing a high number of cases, perhaps the schools can require cloth masks for those in grades 6-12. Teachers should not be required to wear a mask if standing at the front of the classroom giving a lecture. However, teachers should have a mask ready to go when they are closely interacting with a student(s).

As long as weather permits, why don’t schools take their classes and teach outside as long as the school is in a safe environment?

All students can be required to have sanitizer and desk cleaning supplies. Why don’t we teach children how to clean their own stuff? I think parents would love it if students are taught how to clean their own things.

And schools can also undergo a thorough cleaning every few days. If hotspots emerge, schools can take further safety measures.

We also need to develop alternatives for students, parents, faculty members, and administrators that are high-risk. If a parent is uncomfortable sending their child to school, they should have the ability to opt-in for the distance education environment because alternatives can be developed for them as well, and I can guarantee that some parents out there will still not send their children to school, even if schools are opened which would automatically decrease the in-person student population and allow for greater social distancing.

As far as faculty members and administrators, they are in the same classroom for the majority of the day, and while they may interact with other teachers during breaks and lunch, we can limit these interactions even further. As the science shows, your chances of getting the coronavirus are greater with prolonged exposure. Since those 10-years old or younger are unlikely to spread coronavirus, if we limit adult interactions, we are reducing the risk.

Our education system was suffering long before COVID-19, and reforms were already necessary given the results of student performance. We need to reform education as a whole, but that is a different topic for a different day.

What we need to recognize now is that the longer the schools remain closed, the more likely the education system will never recover.

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