Reopen the Schools? You Have to Be Kidding. Denial Won't Work.

Time grinds us all into the same shape eventually. And it's getting to be time for school once again. We have a problem, of course. There is no real solution except the one nobody's willing to do.

45 and his willing shrew, Betsy DeVos, insist that schools reopen as if nothing has happened, as if the virus won't matter. They've been throwing around threats of the withholding of federal funding if districts don't do as they say.

Oh, that'll work. Typical Republican ploy: Do it, or no bucks. Look what it did with No Child Left Behind. Uh-uh. Didn't work. Either.

Reopening the schools would be a disaster. First, there is no plan. Of course, they're going to leave it up to individual districts to solve their own problems.

Second, the Center for Disease Control has distributed guidelines for school re-opening and won't back away from 45's suggestion that they be re-examined. That means that the situation is serious enough, and reality has, finally, reached someone within the administration. Science is science. The virus still rules.

Third, re-opening means extra money for extra resources. The only entity that can come up with the money is the federal government. Threats to withhold funding work against that. It's time to replenish businesses that have had to shut down, anyhow, and Republicans typically are having a tough time facing that with their ridiculous notion that people will stop working if you help them too much.

The New York Times insists that schools reopen, too. But they, too, stretch credulity. They recommend that schools look into having classes in tents and other outdoor facilities. Where, on the football field? Oh, that'll provide plenty of challenges. Unless, of course, the season is cancelled. I can think of several states in which that won't be possible--already stupid with what they would call 'tradition'.

The Times acknowledges that weather might be an issue. Oh, yeah? Can we envision, for a moment, January tent-school in northern Wisconsin, not to mention Minnesota or North Dakota? Shall the students take notes with mittens on? Is this a sufficient challenge for their toughness?

I quote Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future: This is nuts. The rural schools, in particular, lack resources to begin with. And they're going to do this happy dance and provide makeshift classrooms for what, six or eight or ten kids at a time?

Yes, we, and the kids, are losing time. Yes, keeping them home hinders the overall economy because either parents will have to stay home or child care, always short on supply, will have to be provided. But the cause of all this is, conveniently, being ignored: US. 

Millions of people, in all age groups, here have ignored common sense guidelines: Wash your hands. Wear masks outside all the time. Stay six feet away from each other all the time. Here, in Milwaukee, I have seen the latter two violated again and again from my perch on my porch above the sidewalk.

What do I do, yell at them as they walk past? Become the ogre of the neighborhood, the mockery of dozens? "Hey, you should see this guy on his porch--he actually told me to wear a mask. What an idiot! He must be bored."

Not bored, scared. Scared for you and scared about you. Milwaukee is about to introduce a requirement that people wear masks outside--citywide, with fines awarded for violations. I agree. The virus is back and raging. Wisconsin's rates, once manageable, have doubled in the past month. It's the only way to get a new handle on this.

And we're going to start school in this situation? There is no worse time to do it than now. Maybe the rate will be lowered by the time late August comes around. But time's a-wasting. It waits for no one.

If this is true in Milwaukee, it must be true in Miami. And Houston. And Phoenix. To name just three where the virus has roared through and is causing a near-panic.

Anyone who ignores this puts kids, and teachers, at severe risk. Many will get sick. Some will DIE. As valuable as education is--and 30 years in the classroom have only underlined this--this isn't worth it.

The underlying problem must be fixed, first. Once that's done, plenty of good things can happen. Kids adjust. They can catch up fast. They'll get the situation. They know, too, that they're losing time.

But not if they also know they can get sick and can't stop it. YOU consider a history lecture under those circumstances; YOU think about paying attention. That will hinder their learning. The point of opening school will be lost.

If I were a kid with any sense of awareness--it's acquired plenty early, if you remember--I'd be plenty ticked off by now. After all, the adults, the people I'm supposed to look up to--especially 45 and his main helper, who are both clueless clods--have failed me. They've put me in an impossible situation. There's no way to know if I'm going to get sick, or if I do, how sick I'll get. That's ridiculous. It doesn't even take a teenager to figure that out.

And what of the principals and superintendents, who are supposed to soldier along unaffected? They know what's going to happen. They know. And they can't stop it. They'll be going to an execution they have to witness, where nobody's guilty of doing anything wrong.

The hospitals, now filling up, will be overloaded. So will the courts, which will have too many cases of parents suing the districts for making their kids attend, especially if they are forced to go to the hospital--or die.

It's not like a normal school year, when the flu season descends. Kids can always get flu shots. But there is no shot for this, there is no cure. There is only prevention, and it looks like nobody's school district is all that interested in that. They are, of course, but it will take courage to say no. It will take courage, now, to tell everyone the obvious thing, which is to stay home until the adults get their heads on straight and calm this thing down again.

Let me repeat: This will be a disaster. Cooler heads must prevail. Nothing less than a national shutdown is necessary to avoid the tragedy of a virus overrunning the country. If we can't imagine doing it for ourselves for some ungodly reason, we must do it for the kids. Denial won't work.

Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark