A wise reader, who is anonymous, posted this comment a few days ago. I thought it was wise because we hear so many Disrupters cheering about “the end of schooling as we know it” when the reality is that most parents and students can’t wait for real school to start again. You don’t hear those same voices saying that no one will ever work in an office again; no one will every go to a concert or a play; no one will ever go to a physical store. They clearly have an agenda, and their predictions are their wishes, but they fly in the face of reality. Life goes on. It is never the same after an earth-shattering event such as a pandemic. But many things will not change. Who knows? Schools may even change for the better as parents show their gratitude to teachers and their public schools, and as the backlash against distance learning grows stronger, based on experience.
He or she wrote:
No one is calling for the end of grocery stores for Instacart, restaurants for takeout, church buildings for live streaming, physical stores for their online versions, theatre/sports/concerts for streaming, conventions for talking heads on video, clubs for solo dance parties on Zoom, renting office space for work at home, theme parks for Virtual Reality machines, etc. in the advent of COVID-19. But, so many think that this is a “great opportunity” to shift students away from school buildings.
“But education is broken.” Talk to people in any other industry, and they’ll tell you about the broken parts of those too. But they aren’t using COVID as a means to COMPLETELY change it. Yes, there will be a permanent uptick in grocery delivery, online shopping, a day or two a week to work from home, and videoconferencing as some people fall in love with the platforms and get used to them. There may even be a parent in a two-parent household where one was laid off, and they figured out that they could live on one income by getting rid of one of their car payments and so they decide to do virtual school.
BUT, society will be itching to get back into going to concerts, stores, conventions, theme parks, airplanes, sitting inside of restaurants, church, to the office, and SCHOOL!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I see too many of these “X will never be the same again” headlines. We have a serious situation but people (including media) need to ratchet down the panic.
Exactly my feeling. Some things will change, some won’t.
Hucksters are using the crisis to fuel fear and profit.
Unfortunately, it’s not the end of crisis leeches as we know them.
Some things will never change.
The Crisis Leech
The crisis leech
Has this to teach:
With shark in reach
You clear the beach
And in terms of real data and science, there is no measure that shutting down schools was or is more important for stopping a conduit than shutting down public transportation.
What is the efficacy of the measures? That is an important question which needs an answer, not a guess, as life moves forward.
The disease is highly contagious. It spreads through human contact. That’s why the medical experts recommend social distancing to reduce the spread of the disease.
“What is the efficacy of the measures?”
First of all the question to ask is “What are the measures?” and then “Are they valid?”
But the vultures are out there. In Ohio the Buckeye Institute is using the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to set up education savings accounts. The pitch can be seen here. https://files.constantcontact.com/26d1b400301/0e2f20d7-431f-40db-9146-8897236318ec.pdf
Amen, Anonymous!
The analogies in this post are spot on. On-line instruction is social isolation. In this country social isolation like solitary confinement is a punishment for a crime. Why would be do this to our young people? People are social beings that crave social activity. That why self-isolation is so difficult for extroverts. Young people not only have to learn academics, they need to develop social and emotional coping skills. The only way to learn how to function in a society or any group is to engage. They learn how to cope with the world at large by observing and interacting. No on-line course can fill that void.
Thank you for that wise observation.
The onliney is that online learning is going to create more social misfits like the people who push online learning (Gates, Zuckerberg, et Al, who spent their youth interacting with computers and never learned how to interact with people.)
Very onlinic.
I think the reader is correct, but there will be modifications in how we experience the hoped-for restoration of normalcy.
For what schools may look like as they reopen, see this post from Larry Cuban. The photos are from early-to-open schools in Europe. The six-foot degrees of separation rule is evident. Until that is lifted, the “degrees of separation” rule will certainly influence feasible class sizes. https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/when-schools-re-open/#comment-73849
Another example. I shop at Krogers, a large grocery chain. The management has really taken steps to modify the traffic patterns in the store, notifications of requirement for masks, hours reserved for elders, marked paths to follow within the store–left-side, right-side for each aisle, stations to occupy in the checkout line, transparent protection and gloves for cashiers and baggers, also a $2,00 salary raise for all workers–and these are all unionized. There is also online ordering for parking lot pickups.
Also, there are plenty of vultures out there. Our watch dog in Ohio, William Phillis, sent out this alert: “The Buckeye Institute–is out with a recommendation to the US Department of Education to establish education savings accounts worth $500 for each student in America. They estimate a total cost of $28 billion. This proposal would essentially be the beginning of a universal voucher program nationwide.”
The $500 savings account is also a low ball figure for such a program, especially with not much possibility of the $500 savings account accruing interest or otherwise increasing a who lot in value with tanking markets for investors. This is, however, a camels’ nose under the tent option that politicians on both sides might love. It would be a symbolic gesture toward helping “all of our American families and students.”
Hello. I am the person that wrote the comments referenced in this post. You are correct that there will be modifications, but we will still be able to patronize those business like we did in December 2019. It won’t be curbside/delivery for everything forever. Yet they don’t give schools that same consideration. I put some examples, but the post was getting too long.
I was just listening to a personal development podcast where the host said something to the tune of…
“Education is changing forever. The best teachers won’t be confined to a classroom of 25 kids or a professor a lecture hall of 100. They will have 1,000 students. Students [talking about college mostly] will realize they don’t have to sit in a classroom to get an education.”
I love this guy’s work immensely, but the people in that industry who take jabs at education disprove themselves by their very own business models. There is a pyramid of services that they offer going from cheapest to most expensive. Their blog/podcast/YouTube is free. The next step is a book. The next is an online course with a low/mid/high price offer for different experiences. Next are keynotes. Next is a live event (think hotel ballroom) with a low/mid/high offer. Next is a paid mastermind group lead by the person. And the most expensive thing they offer? One-on-one consultation.
So the most valuable items in their business are mastermind groups (them leading a group of people who want to improve in their area of expertise) and one-on-one consulting. So basically, the equivalent of the math teacher teaching a class of 20 and the math or music teacher giving private lessons.
But with it comes to K-20+ education, stick ’em in front of a computer. Of course, the rich kids will be getting more of the mastermind or consultation equivalent experience.
Brilliantly, beautifully, perfectly observed, Commentator. Oh, the irony!
Yes. This is all about creating “good enough” education for the children of the Proles. The children of the oligarchs will get real teachers and small classes.
Laura, the article in the Cuban post is interesting [Denmark opening schools w/social distancing]. Worth watching scientifically re: potential for viral re-spread. But with so little practical application here. Denmark has 1.8% our population… Less than 3/4 the pop of NYC on 55 times as much land. Tho we have plenty of regions w/ much lower pop density than theirs, those lack, proportionally, the resources of denser areas to try this. Because, decentralized schsys & inequitable funding. Our govt might want to think about sponsoring this re-opening model in such areas
No!
In Los Angeles, the former investment banker turned superintendent, Austin Beutner, was given emergency powers to spend without consulting with the board. So far, he’s thrown $200 million at online products and feeding people including adults (not the school district’s jurisdiction), violating state budgetary laws and putting the district in a financial hole. He even used construction bond money to pay for laptops, just like the Broadie before him, John Deasy.
Beutner spent $35 million on training teachers to bring education online, including a 30-hour series of classes called, “Future Ready Certification” (as if online school is the future after physical distancing. So when we return to class, having school nurses, counselors, librarians, and reduced class size will be difficult to fund. No amount of public pressure will change that. He is using his emergency powers to force school online into the future beyond coronavirusWe are going broke to pay for this nonsense, but then, bankrupting the school district was Eli Broad’s plan all along.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-20/lausd-faced-with-200-million-in-underfunded-expenses-due-to-coronavirus-outbreak
Opportunists will try to take advantage of the situation. Peter Greene has a good post today about making changes in education. He says to avoid those that are pushing certain vendors. Change should come from research, piloting and peer based review. Forget the marketeers. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2020/04/were-about-to-hear-many-suggestions.html
My mom, a HUGE patron of the arts, but a poor retiree, is concerned, legitimately, that many arts and culture venues and activities won’t survive this loss of revenue and may never return.
Our society will be poorer for it, but no one is talking about saving arts and culture, just business. Our worship of the almighty dollar is “more important” than saving what keeps us living.