Wheels on the bus go round and round. That is my granddaughter’s favorite song right now I believe. It’s the first thing I thought of when I heard all the Education talk going on today. I’m learning it so I can sing to her. It’s the age of innocence. But some very critical decisions about education in the midst of a pandemic are being made now and there isn’t a good agreement on any of it.
If we had this virus under some control, like most places in the world, returning to school is a no brainer. But it’s not under control here so that makes it a no-win situation. Yes, I agree keeping kids out of school is bad. But how many children’s deaths are acceptable if we don’t keep them home?
Is spreading the pandemic through children to teachers and bus drivers and custodians and then to parents and grandparents worth the experiment? That is the part I have a big problem with. And doing it or not doing it for some political end is disgusting. We should focus on everyone’s safety. It’s our own fault we didn’t stop it in the first months. Are we going to repeat the mistakes of the last few months?
Again it’s being left to states and then smaller local municipalities or counties. Some of them follow the political party line regardless and some might come up with their own options. The variations will be endless. Who will pay for it all? And when it starts to go bad who is responsible for pulling the plug and starting up an alternative and what is that plan.
Bus drivers I see look like most recently retired or nearing retirement age people. So I went to Google and asked the average age of school bus drivers and that answer was 52.3 years old. My guess is they don’t earn a lot of money. And what is the reason they want to risk their lives? And how many more busses are you going to need to keep kids spaced apart? And what do you do when they get sick. Not like we got a lot of standby bus drivers or teachers.
You can see colleges struggling with this decision. And they have it easier than K-12. This needs a lot more discussion than just “we are going to do this.” As a friend of mine always says, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”
Random Thoughts of the Day
- I can smell the weekend.
- Sleep is good in a short burst. So says my back.
- Think about recent decisions politicians have made. Now keep that success/failure in mind when you follow their next one or not.
