[ExI] schools, was: RE: Even India and Haiti do it better

[SR Ballard]

I know this is going to sound draconian and backwards, but ... truancy officer.

SR Ballard

> On May 8, 2020, at 9:47 AM, spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
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> From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> 
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> >…Are there any other ideas?  If economies open up and Covid cases go way up, or if economies don’t open up in spite of the risk, we will need other ideas, lots of them.  Spike
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> Regarding ideas, I am soliciting ideas on other stuff besides economies.  I have a pretty good idea how economies will go after hearing how much trouble the California government is in: they will realize that shutting down an economy for an extended period is ruinous as well as Covid.  The governor (and the other 49 governors) will stand down soon methinks, even knowing it is very risky, for they already know and have seen what happens in the alternative.  They are sailing between Scylla and Charybdis.
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> What isn’t clear is public education.  We are doing remote learning here, and it is working for some, not at all for others.  The schools have been closed for the remainder of the academic year, but the plan is to return in August.  If Covid cases shoot way up (certainly a plausible scenario) we can easily imagine the governor would close the schools but not the businesses (this is my prediction of what will happen.)  The schools can pretend they are still operational, and they are… for some of the students.  Academically the rich get richer, the poor get nothing (because they don’t show up.)
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> If anyone wants to toss out ideas, please do.  I am on an evaluation board offering the district superintendent a parents’-eye-view of remote learning.  The board may not like what I have to say, but I will tell the truth: remote learning works well for some, but the best bet for actual learning is to forget watching their classroom lectures on Zoom and just go to Khan Academy: smarter lecturer, better IT, better everything.
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> What if the caseload in the fall is a lot higher than now and we have enough test kits but we find that doesn’t help much because the virus has already spread before the first symptoms show up?  Or what if it is about the same as now, or only a little lower: they would still need to keep the schools closed, ja?  The shops and businesses will need to stay open for the most part, the ones which haven’t folded by then.  But schools have the option of closing.
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> Ideas? 
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> spike
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