[ModernMech]

> Those who are still concerned are free to quarantine of their own free will, but I do not think it's fair to force the youngest to put their lives on pause because some people are still terrified of this.

This is the whole reason we can't got back to normal tomorrow, even if you could make it so by being "in charge". When I look around at the faculty in my school district, I see a whole lot of comorbidities, and those are just the visible ones. And yes, some of the faculty have died from Covid, one of them was 37, the other 43. How do you get kids in school and protect teachers at the same time.

These teachers already have to deal with the looming threat of school shootings. But now they also have to deal with Covid, and on top of that they went from being called "essential workers" to being called criminals (just look at the comment section in TFA). This is leading to a teacher shortage, where young people no longer want to enter the profession, and older people are retiring. So if you really, truly want to open schools for the sake of children, figure out a way to do so that makes teachers feel safe to teach, or start teaching yourself.

[remarkEon]

>This is the whole reason we can't got back to normal tomorrow

Nah.

If you want to disengage from society based on your personal risk preferences, you should be free to do so. At this point, two years after this started, I should be free to reengage in my normal activities (the gym, catching the game with the guys on the weekend, taking my wife to a show).

>When I look around at the faculty in my school district, I see a whole lot of comorbidities, and those are just the visible ones.

And these policies are going to make those comorbidities worse, not better. Everyone is less healthy today than they were 2 years ago when this started because we're sitting in front of a screen all day. This includes children. Headline from 2034: Obesity and Type 1 diabetes are at an all-time high. Were school lockdowns during the 2020-2024 pandemic the cause?

>This is leading to a teacher shortage

Where? In places that are locked down? These policies are causing that, and it's actually exacerbating education gaps for underrepresented minorities or socioeconomically disadvantaged folks who can't afford a private school that doesn't do this stuff.

>So if you really, truly want to open schools for the sake of children, figure out a way to do so that makes teachers feel safe to teach, or start teaching yourself.

My wife and I will likely be homeschooling, for a number of reasons, but one of them is that we'd like our children to not be held hostage to a cultural moment that wants to turn covid policies into the next 9/11. Permanent societal change for little if any tangible benefit.

[ModernMech]

> If you want to disengage from society based on your personal risk preferences, you should be free to do so. At this point, two years after this started, I should be free to reengage in my normal activities

Yes, 100% agreed.

> Where? In places that are locked down?

Let's take a look at Georgia, for instance. I don't think they instituted particularly heavy lockdowns. Here we have a state where 60 teachers/staff have died in Georgia over a roughly 3 month period [0]. Some notable statistics:

- They had 14 bus drivers who died. I know people like to pretend that Covid is safer than driving, but literally 14 bus drivers have never died over a 3 month period due to traffic accidents. That just does not happen. Anyway, what do you think it takes to replace those 14 bus drivers, and how are students getting to school while the vacancies persist? In the Griffin-Spalding School District, 3 bus drivers died within a week. That's not normal.

- 42 faculty and staff died, the average age of deceased faculty was 46, the average age of staff was 50. That's not normal.

What's the effect of this? This article sums up my thoughts pretty well [1]. Some excerpts:

  [I]n my district there are several schools scrambling to fill vacant teacher positions with qualified teachers

  A big group of baby boomer teachers is retiring, some on time, some early. Fewer people are going into education because it is seen as less of a profession and more of “calling,” with little pay. There is a movement called “The Great Resignation” that is speaking directly to the exploited feeling many teachers have.

The author goes on to list a number of suggestions that she believes would help the situation, but we all know approximately none of those will happen. Hence the teacher exodus. Hence the substitute teacher shortage [2]. Hence the bus driver shortage [3]. Hence school closures [4], which make parents angry. Parents lash out at teachers demanding that schools open, which further just drives teachers to want to quit. Because they're not closed by choice -- they're closed because teachers and staff are dying, quitting, and finding other opportunities, and the sales pitch to fill those vacant roles is really quite terrible.

Anyway, my point is this: no matter how much anyone wants to get back to normal, getting there isn't a matter of someone "in charge" ordering things to just open up. This sounds like an Underpants Gnome strategy:

1. Open schools

2. ...

3. Kids are educated and mentally whole

There's a whole lot of detail missing in step 2 there, and I think people who want things to be fully open and back to normal really need to grapple with the complexity of what step 2 is eliding.

> My wife and I will likely be homeschooling, for a number of reasons

Good on you, I wish you the best of luck!

[0] https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/least-50-georgia-te...

[1] https://www.ajc.com/education/get-schooled-blog/teacher-my-p...

[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/labor-shortage-georgia-schoo...

[3] https://thegeorgiavirtue.com/georgia-news/bus-driver-shortag...

[4] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/entire-south-ga-school-dis...