| > 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... |