America's Lost Year of Education: A Warning!

[Shermann]

I worry about the impact a lost year of education would have on today's students.

Without Social Studies, how will students be able to study the national emergencies and wars of the past? How will they be drilled with the lesson that even small sacrifices by each and every American can amount to a tremendous force for good which can pull us through major calamities?

Without Science, how can students learn the true nature of anthropogenic climate change, pandemics, the big bang, evolution, and other subjects which cannot easily be assessed in daily life? Any vacuum left by a lack of fundamentals and healthy skepticism will be quickly filled by the fog of supernatural beliefs and prepackaged misconceptions.

Without Mathematics, how will students acquire the engineering skills necessary to design tomorrow's nuclear plants, fusion plants, solar cells, and batteries in order to phase out fossil fuels? Without these skills, we can expect a diminished role on the world stage as other countries rise to the occasion.

The workforce and electorate of today have mostly enjoyed the fruits of a robust education system featuring in-person classroom training. If we take that away, we...uh...run the risk of...uh...

Oh fuck it.

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Good Ending!

Rec'd.

[Shermann]

11. Thanks! There is a paradox here which can twist the conservative mind into a pretzel.

Those who clamor for the schools to open during a pandemic have the burden of proof. The students' education must be demonstrated to be so valuable as to be worth the dire risk.

However, to have that very education yourself is to realize that it cannot possibly be worth that price.

[albacore]

2. Lemme help you with that ending....

"We Fucked"

Ever watch the video "Idiocracy"?

[Shermann]

12. I have not. Should I? nt

[albacore]

13. Check out the introduction....the first 4 minutes or so...

The rest elaborates on the theme.

Gross and over-the-top. As befits Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead)

[Squinch]

3. First, it isn't lost. The kids will continue to receive schooling. Second, it's a year.

The kids will not be without math and social studies and science. They will learn it at home. Some will not learn as much for this one year. Some will learn more than they ordinarily would have. But none of them will "lose a year."

It's a damn year.

And what would be the effect on the kids if they went to school and brought home a disease that killed their father and their grandmother? Gave their brother a heart condition for the rest of his life that made him die young? Gave them neurological problems that never went away?

Two scenarios: "losing a year of school" or being responsible for death and lifelong illness in your family.
One of these two scenarios is not hyperbolized drama.

[msongs]

4. when I think back on all the crap I learned hi school...P. Simon/Kodachrome

[brush]

5. They can catch up, just as any student who takes a year off...

before. And these students will all be behind a year so they're not that much of a disadvantage. Now if it has to go into two years, then that's a problem.

[MichMan]

6. Will everyone be held back a year ?

How can students responsibly be moved up to the next grade..
...if they haven't received all the instruction for the current grade?

STEM curriculum is essential in today's world. How can a student take Algebra II or Advanced Chemistry in the next grade, if they only learned 60% of Algebra I or Introduction to Chemistry?

[roamer65]

9. That's exactly what should happen.

Schools should not consider going back into session until August 2021.

Let them repeat the grade they were in as of March 2020.

[lindysalsagal]

7. I'd like to be as optimistic about this. But I'm not for young learners

7th grade and up who were doing well already will be OK. Younger kids are a different story. Their developmental progress has been haunted. And some will never get back on track, or they'll have many more struggles due to this setback.

[lapucelle]

10. Instruction is and has been taking place.

It's just being delivered differently.

[albacore]

14. I'm concerned about the kids' physical condition, too.

According to my friends with kids and grandkids, screen time is a constant battle.
It's smart to limit kids' contact with other kids, but playtime is learning and socialization time, too.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that

during WWII a lot of kids in Great Britain, France, Germany, heck all of Europe missed a lot more than one year of school during that time. And I'm going to a bit further out on that limb and guess that almost all of those kids eventually made up the lost schooling.

It won't be a tragedy if the current generation of school kids takes an extra year or two or even three to finish their educations.

Maybe one good thing that will come from this is that people will FINALLY understand that college for all is not a realistic or sensible goal. Perhaps there will be a robust return to the much maligned vocational education that is so desperately needed. I understand that there has been a growing shortage or things like truck drivers and auto mechanics. Probably a lot of other well-paid blue collar jobs. We need to understand those are necessary and important jobs, and not everyone needs to be a lawyer or MBA of some kind. Yes, those are worthwhile jobs, but there are a lot of other jobs out there that need to be done.