Valerie Strauss wrote a delightful article about parents who have a new-found respect for teacher’s, now that the pandemic has forced them to become home teachers.
They have discovered that teaching is not easy. They have realized how hard it is teach two or three children and are amazed that teachers can handle classes of 24 or more at the same time.
Plenty of parents around the country — and, presumably, around the world — are finding new appreciation for their children’s teachers as they sit at home with their kids during the coronavirus pandemic and take over the role of educator. Some 1.5 billion students around the world have been affected by school closures during the crisis, and parents whose jobs are not deemed “essential” to keep the country functioning are at home taking over as impromptu teachers. It’s a lot harder than many of them realized, as you can see from the following tweets.
One parent, Shonda Rhimes, tweeted:
“Been homeschooling a 6-year-old and 8-year-old for one hour and 11 minutes. Teachers deserve to make a billion dollars a year. Or a week.”
16 March 2020.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Love this parent’s tweet:
“SAY… Let’s pay them babysitter rate for EACH child.. let’s see… $12 an hour for 25 children times 7:30 to 2:30.. seven hours…. 20 school days a month..$42,000 a month …9 months…. $378,000 a year. Sounds about right.”
When did they start paying babysitters per child?
I babysat in high school and got a measly $2 an hour no matter how many babybrats I had to put up with.
But maybe babysitters now have a union?
When you get up to thirty kids to “babysit,” a multiplier does go into effect. Babysitters have gotten so expensive that I don’t think my grandchildren have ever stayed with anyone other than a relative or friend.
Ofc, there are almost no unions left in the United States of Oligopoly and Kleptocracy.
🙂
Our Legislators Are Clueless Idiots and April Fools: Too Little, Too Late
So here we are. Congress is sending people $1,200-dollar checks. Here in Tampa, that won’t even cover rent on most one bedroom apartments, much less utilities and food. I suspect that in other places, like San Fransciso, it’s even worse. And then what about next month? It’s just about April 1, and rent is due then, but these checks won’t arrive for 3-6 WEEKS.
If these people had a clue, they would issue a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, nationwide, NOW. A lot of folks are going to be in serious trouble very, very soon.
That’s when what we euphemistically refer to as “social unrest” starts, BTW. The gun stores in Flor-uh-duh are sold out.
So here we are. You will remember the recent study that said that 60 percent of Americans don’t have the resources to cover an unexpected $400 expense.
I now see multiple fb posts about many people being in serious trouble “shocking” or “surprising” the legislators in Wash DC — this horrendous crisis is at least forcing more political recognition that the entire nation has been getting by on an economic foundation made of sand
Always been per child in my experience, SomeDAM. Did you entertain your charges by writing in cuneiform on clay tablets?
You might not want your building owners to default on their mortgages either.
As I said, a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures.
Sorry, I assumed you were speaking about renters and homeowners, and building owners probably should not all be treated the same way. Someone with a two-flat or a small apartment building is or may be different than a high rise complex. The subtleties of this stuff is going to end up as fodder for politicians blaming each other for doing or not doing something that may or may not have been foreseen at the time. We see a lot of that kind of criticism of politicians for actions they took in the past. Depending on one’s viewpoint, one is more or less likely to give the politician a pass. In these days of hyper-partisanship, how an action is going to be judged by adherents of one party or the other is often a forgone conclusion to the point where a false narrative is consciously built around partisan claims. I am not criticizing you, Bob, just meandering through an amorphous cloud of thoughts that float around in my mind.
So, I’m curious as to what the readers of this blog think about the following issue: Several weeks ago, the CDC issued a guideline saying that wearing a mask would not prevent people without the disease from contracting it and a recommendation for nonsymptomatic people not to do so. They did this, of course, because there was a severe shortage of masks, and they wanted to save the ones available for use by medical personnel. But was it right for the CDC to lie to people about this? Obviously, a regular mask does not absolutely protect against a virus that is a nano-particle. But does it offer some protection? Of course it does, and this is why everyone in Asia who has access to one is wearing it whenever he or she is outside.
I notice that our news media are starting to be honest about this now that more masks are available and people have started making homemade ones.
Did that announcement out of the CDC come from the mouth of a loyalist Trump appointee that has or has not been confirmed by Moscow Mitch’s Senate?
I did see or hear a report suggesting that wearing a mask would still offer some protection to others from asymptomatic carriers. If we all wear them as they become more available, then we may prevent transmitting the virus when we have a mild case that has gone unrecognized. I am still hearing reports of under protected first responders, though, so the mask supply may not justify general use yet. When I start seeing stacks in the pharmacies and hardware stores, I will believe that everyone can be wearing them. Until then, we have to prioritize. How close are we to that scenario?
I have no notion. I was discussing this issue with my 80-year-old Mom a couple weeks ago, who was still going out to the grocery. I wanted her to wear a mask when doing this. She said the government was advising not to, and at the time, it was. But they were also saying that people with symptoms should be wearing them. This made no sense given that asymptomatic carriers were everywhere. I think that generally it’s a better policy to tell the people the truth, not some lie that is considered expedient.
Hospital bill for uninsured coronavirus patient in Flor-uh-duh: $35,000.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average cost, nationwide, for coronavirus treatment for someone with employer insurance will be 9K to 20K.
There is no provision in the new stimulus bill for payment for treatment.