Our state university system has made a big fanfare about how campuses are re-opening. Yes, we're moving students into dorms in the fall. Yes, some classes will be held face to face. How many? I don't have a hard figure yet, but I would be surprised of the hundreds of classes offered by my department if more than one or two are face to face. It has to be this way. We don't have enough room to make socially distanced classes across the board. We will have a very hard time monitoring student behavior. But we've got to keep the machine running. Everyone I know has been sharpening their skills to teach online--classes, seminars, practicums. I seem to be both relieved and disappointed at the same time. This will be the first fall in over 20 years without me saying "Welcome to English..." in front of a classroom. But there's work to do, and we'll do the best we can.
In other news, I cashed $10 out of Mypoints which went into the UK house fund. I picked up the first CSA delivery which was heavenly. We now have wonderful greens, maple syrup, green onions, and the first darn kohlrabi of the season. No spending for days here.
Enjoy another lovely--though plenty hot--June day.
Non-News News?
June 19th, 2020 at 05:21 pm
June 19th, 2020 at 07:34 pm 1592595267
I really have no idea how normal schooling is going to resume in a couple of months. You can't socially distance in a classroom. There isn't enough space. You can't have half the kids in person and half at home because managing that would be a nightmare. And some classes simply need to be in person, like science labs and other practical hands on types of things. I'm very glad our child is done with her schooling. I wish all of the teachers the best as fall approaches.
June 19th, 2020 at 08:22 pm 1592598140
June 20th, 2020 at 02:55 am 1592621714
https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/achieving-herd-immunity-with-covid19.html
June 20th, 2020 at 01:29 pm 1592659746
It's easy to say that we should just isolate the high risk folks and let everyone else get back to normal, but that's not so easy. How do you isolate the elderly woman who lives with her kids and grandkids? How do you isolate the school teacher who is undergoing chemotherapy for her breast cancer? How do you isolate the shop keeper who had a kidney transplant a few years ago? How do you isolate the guy with COPD who works at the DMV office?
Everyone needs to wear a mask everywhere. That's really the bottom line. Unfortunately, politics has been inserted into that discussion so a lot of people now consider it a badge of honor to not wear one.
June 20th, 2020 at 02:28 pm 1592663339
June 20th, 2020 at 06:31 pm 1592677912
June 20th, 2020 at 07:01 pm 1592679682
June 20th, 2020 at 07:34 pm 1592681666
I see no reason why the schools should be responsible for the cost of masks. Families should have to provide them. By the time school is back in session, everyone should have been wearing them for several months so they should all have them already.
The whole thing is going to be quite a mess no matter what.