[callinyouin]

These two sentences, I think, best summarize the article's position on the topic:

> Instead of taking the summer to hone arguments against returning to the classroom, administrators and teachers should be thinking about how they can best support children and their families through a turbulent time. Schools are essential to the functioning of our society, and that makes teachers essential workers.

Yes, and many teachers think that the best way to support children and their families is to not put them in a position where they might die. Part of their "essential" function here is in advocating for the safest and most effective learning environment possible. Right now that seems to be attending lessons remotely until it's safe to go back to schools.

That the author thinks it's the duty of teachers to unnecessarily put children in harm's way as if there is no alternative is nothing short of bizarre and I'm disappointed to see it published by the Atlantic.

[thedrbrian]

>put them in a position where they might die?

Children or teachers? In the uk we’ve recorded no deaths for the under 15s from corona and only 339 in the 15 to 44 range. The kids will be fine. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

[GaryNumanVevo]

I would argue that a child with one or more dead parents due to Corona would be harmful

[Theory5]

And who supervises the kids? Drives them to school? Makes their lunches? Teaches them?

[goodcanadian]

Children are really very unlikely to die from Covid-19. This is from the month of April in England and Wales, you can see that death rates are really very low for anyone under 50.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

You can make arguments around the spread of the disease in the larger community, but sending children to school is not really putting their lives at risk.

[callinyouin]

> ...to support children and their families...

What everyone responding to my comment seems to miss is that it's not necessarily about the children themselves dying (make no mistake, many children will die if crammed back into classrooms prematurely), but their parents and other family members who will die as the result of them becoming carriers and bringing the disease home with them.

[johnnyb9]

At what point does it become "safe" enough to open the schools? What about the flu? Auto accidents? Bus accidents? Has this been articulated?

"Children were 0%-0.8% of all COVID-19 deaths, and 20 states reported zero child deaths" https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-cov...

[debacle]

The number of children that are going to die this year as a result of the mental health burdens being placed on them by incredibly willing adults is far greater than the number that will die from all other causes combined.

Kids are having a very hard time right now. Hell, adults are having a very hard time right now. But children have it much worse. Very little socialization, a news media hellbent on negativity, overstressed parents, and more uncertainty about the world than I ever remember (and I remember crying in school on the morning of 9/11).

Schooling is important for the mental health of the most important asset the world has. Doctors have stated emphatically the importance of resuming schooling. At some point the adults need to stand up and be adults so that the children can remain children.

[maxerickson]

How do you look at how things are playing out in pretty much the rest of the world outside of the US and then arrive at this tone?

If adults were standing up and being adults, we wouldn't have 150,000 dead, with 1,000 more dead each day.

[ryathal]

How many deaths would we have if adults were standing up and being adults? Zero is wishful thinking an not being an adult. Avoiding all risk is just as bad as taking all risk, in this case every choice has lives on the line.

[maxerickson]

An actual competent, coordinated federal response starting in January/February and leaders all calling for mask wearing as soon as it became obvious it made some difference and we'd have meany fewer deaths (and probably a more active economy!).

Neither of those things come anywhere close to "avoiding all risk", they are just simple things that were not done, with no good explanation. Wearing a mask in certain public circumstances isn't emasculating or any kind of meaningful impingement on freedom.