psuhoffman

There have been other periods in our history like this. We just fooled ourselves into thinking we were past all that.

Maybe we should consider creating a position in our society where someone with authority could provide steady guidance and leadership. Any suggestions what we could call such a position? If you watched fox or read a right wing blog for 5 minutes you wouldn’t ask that question. Of course in fairness conservatives could say the same thing about cnn/msnbc/NYT. People are getting two vastly different narratives right now.

Amateurs.... Upstairs for convenience basement fridge basement bar top shelf rail And the answers include 107 teenagers, a 5 and 2 year old, Phin, Mersky, Vice intelligence hiatus, mdecoy, rva, and that kid in Delaware who should still do his Fing homework and no I don’t want to drive there and fight you!

Why do people buy margarita mix? It’s just tequila, Cointreau or triple sec, and lime juice.

There was a May snowstorm that affected the higher elevations in VA and NC when I was a kid. Would have been around then. But I remember some higher totals very high up, places above 4000 feet in SW VA and NC. I also thought it was later in May, almost Memorial Day but my memory might be off it was a loooong time ago and where I was in NJ it was just a miserable weekend with temps around 50 with rain.

It only occasionally makes sense, occasionally

If you look at the long term curve it’s easy to figure out where we really are ignoring the predictable weekly fluctuations due to reporting procedures.

Most of the planning I’m aware of is for summer school and fall. Annoyingly some of the suggestions aren’t realistic. Lots of details need to be worked out. Directives with no way to realistically implement them isn’t helpful. That’s like a high stakes game of “not my problem, I told them what to do and they didn’t do it”.

Yes and there are other studies that contradict. When we have contradictory evidence what that means is “we don’t know yet and we need to further examine it” not go with the study that fits what I want to be true.

@mappy Ugh sorry posted a reply before I read the rest of the thread. If you want to remove it I understand...but I do think maybe it’s worth leaving a factual retort to what was left implied by that post.

@wxtrix poverty and crime are correlated at a statistically significant level. However there are multiple other factors so it’s not 1:1. There can be some poor areas that do better and some wealthy that do worse. And predominantly white regions with high povert have the same correlation so bringing race into this was unwarranted.

There are lots of things you could advocate for to help small businesses other than simply open up. Again you paint everything into a binary choice. You even go out of your way to avoid middle ground measures. See above I could give you a suggestion where you should go! Why you getting all emotional???

I said about 50 pages ago that this whole argument is kinda moot and semantics because the “opening” wasn’t going to radically different from what we have now due to a combo of lax regulations, non compliance, and an opening that still is likely to include some social distancing measures. But you probably didn’t notice because you were busy typing your next post trying to get everyone else to live in constant fear of the government like you.

Oh the point your making hadn’t been lost on me. I’ve taken note of the people who were vehemently on the side of law enforcement and “respect authority” when there were altercations between police and POC but who are carrying on like a 4 year old throwing a tantrum now that authority is infringing on their liberty a little bit!

Are the professors all under 20? Will the students only come in contact with other young people? Or do you not understand how transmission of communicable disease works?

Another overtly political post with absolutely no substantive content. And I don’t expect much change in numbers. Right now, in many places, people aren’t really acting like it’s a lockdown already. I have my doubts that a critical mass of the population isn’t already behaving in a way that neutralizes or at least muted the effectiveness of the current policies. Imo we have already seen the impact of that with the flattening but very slow decline or in some places even a continued slow increase. If we went back to completely open with no altered behaviors at all we probably would see a sudden spike. But if the “opening” happening looks not that substantialy different from what was actually happening the last 1-2 weeks why would the numbers change? The virus doesn’t care what we call the policy. The ground truth isn’t actually changing much.

Did you consult the CFS on that?

There is a HUGE range between total eradication and treat it like the flu...which basically means virtually no mitigation measures. You continue to try to force a false binary choice of extreme policy positions. I reject that narrative. And with that I’m out for today. Maybe I’ll engage more tomorrow but your advocacy today was pretty lame and I’m bored with it. Maybe tomorrow you will bring your A game.

Where do you live again? If you know...

And there is the “this is just like the flu” argument again.

We can’t strike. It’s illegal in Maryland. We would face severe retaliatory measures and our union would lose certification. The most we can do is threaten to “work to contract” which is some pressure since the district relies on many of us doing things above and beyond our actual required duties to function. But it’s far less power than you think we have. Parent advocacy is by far the leading pressure and influence on policy in MD. I don’t fault you for not knowing the intricacies of MD educational collective bargaining procedures. I don’t know squat about labor policies in many other fields. But you shouldn’t just assume and spread a narrative without that knowledge.

Except those recommendations were all made by MSDE at the state level without any input or pressure from us. We are collaborating with our local district in how to meet those standsrds building to building but you give us way too much power in this equation.

You’ve made this type of comment a few times and you’re either just trying to antagonize because you know there are several educators here or you’re misinformed. I was my building rep for 2 years and a union chapter committee chair for 3. And yes during that time I came across people trying to abuse the system to their personal advantage. One person even pressured me to file a grievance because an admin wrote him an email that supposedly made him wag his finger at the screen and caused an injury in his hand and he wanted compensation. Yea that was ridiculous. But that kind of crap was and still is the minority. But because the union has to file every complain (even though the crazy ones almost always get denied) it doesn’t stop the bad publicity from the minority of lazy or “persecution complex” paranoid loonies from making us all look bad. What I spend most of my efforts on were trying to lobby for ways to make our pensions and benefits system more solvent and increasing teachers time in the classroom and on actual teaching vs the numerous tasks being increasingly delegated to teachers as budget cuts cost auxiliary positions in special ed, social services, guidance, and attendance monitoring. Right now the MAJORITY of teachers commenting and comments from the union are supportive of opening as soon as safely possible. But there are some legitimate concerns wrt specific issues that need to be resolved. The initial guidance document I’ve seen from MSDE regarding plans for a possible fall opening says desks must be 6 feet apart. At my school class sizes are typically 30-40 but most classrooms can only hold about 15 desks with that spacing. So that does need to be resolved somehow. Shifts are an option. But then how do you staff both shifts? Another issue currently under consideration is how to monitor student health and what precautions to protect vulnerable students and teachers. Unfortunately because some patents don’t have a viable option of what to do with their children on short notice many students come to school in bad health under normal situations. If that happens with covid they would place the several students and teachers in the building that have serious health conditions at risk. And I know this won’t agree with your ideology, and you are totally entitled to your views on this, but the education system typically views each individual life (regardless of medical condition or age) as valuable, precious, and worth taking into consideration wrt policy decisions. So are teachers trying to prevent schools from opening, NO. Is there a very reasonable and responsible discussion ongoing about how to open in a way that protects every child and adult in the buildings as much as possible...yes.