EDITORIAL: School daze COVID-style
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When it comes to opening schools, governments are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
If they don’t, critics ask why bars can open and not schools.
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If they do, they’re slammed for putting children at risk.
It’s not either/or. Comparing bars to opening schools is an apples to oranges exercise. We have to, eventually, find a way to open both bars and schools responsibly and safely.
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An adult can make his or her own decision on whether to go to a bar.
Returning children safely to the classroom requires the adults in the room to find sensible ways to keep them healthy.
In a country as vast and diverse as ours, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Cities have been hardest hit by COVID-19, while in rural areas, social distancing is a fact of life.
In B.C., students returned to classrooms in June on a voluntary basis. About a third returned – and there were no virus cases associated with the exercise. Quebec is planning a full return to classrooms for all grades in September. Ontario is still pondering its plan.
The goal for all provinces should be to have all students back in the classroom as quickly as possible – with social distancing and other public health measures.
Online learning doesn’t work well for elementary school children, nor is it suitable for every high school student. Some kids will never return to full-time education if we don’t figure out a way to get them back to school now. The virus has taken enough casualties. We can’t add vast numbers of dropouts to that toll.
Toronto’s respected Hospital for Sick Children released a report earlier this month urging educators, public health officials and politicians to consider the mental and physical harm of not returning children to the classroom.
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“It is critical that we balance the risks of COVID-19 in children, which appear to be minimal, with the harms of school closure which is impacting their physical and mental health,” said the report.
Ultimately, parents will decide what’s best for their children. It will take courage to return.
Yes, the virus is dangerous. But so is having vulnerable children fall through the cracks and losing their will to learn.
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