Larry Cuban reposted an article about the reopening of schools in the Netherlands. The article, by educator Linda van Druijten, shows how to prepare for reopening and to implement scientific advice. Schools reopened on May 11.
We can learn how to reopen schools by paying attention to the guidance of medical experts and by watching other nations and seeing what works best.
She begins:
On the first day, we had bubbles. Delicate, transparent bubbles floating across the playground.
Before we had opened, our 432 primary school pupils, our 152 pupils with special educational needs, our parents and all our staff had fears. But we spoke openly about these fears. We spoke as a community about how we would tackle these fears. And as a staff, we came up with creative ideas. Like bubbles.
School would be a very different place when the children returned – for a start, all pupils had to be dropped at the school gate. So, on day one, we brought out a bubble machine. Rather than being upset, or concentrating on the unusual nature of the school, the children looked up, were captivated, and wandered into school without an issue.
If I have one tip from the opening of Dutch schools for my English colleagues, it is: get yourself a bubble machine!
Class sizes had to be cut in half. The youngest children were unable to practice social distancing, and the teachers realized that it was impossible to keep the youngest children from interacting.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am assuming the Dutch national government is helping with financial support for smaller classes. We do not have that sort of leadership from ours.
No masks? Not enforcing social distancing? Already relaxing their routines? Apparently the Dutch want teachers to die!
Or, else, they simply realize that education and socialization are just too important to children to keep locking them up away from each other in the name of “safety”.
Good for the Dutch!
So, what’s the acceptable number of dead teachers and students and parents and administrators and staff in your estimation, Dienne?
When we are able to test EVERYONE frequently, do contact tracing, and isolate, then it will be safe to reopen schools. This is entirely doable. Anything else is madness, I think. But then I have this odd notion that whether people die avoidably as a result of our decisions matters.
What, exactly, is wrong with what I am proposing?
Yes, I was just thinking that maybe that’s the real question we have to answer. How many students, teachers and staff in a school are we willing to have get sick and/or die and infect others? I don’t know.
Actually if we reopen schools, we have to still answer this question. How many students and staff would have to get sick/die or test positive to close the school again? Would we close the school again under ANY conditions?
If a case is identified in a school, it would be necessary to close the school and wait for 14 days. It would be wise at the beginning of this quarantine period to test everyone. Then, those who do not test positive could return. Does that make sense?
South Korea has closed some schools after students or staff tested positive.
Ok, thank you. So, you’re saying that just one person in a school should be enough to close the school again for at least 14 days. I imagine we would have at least 1 positive case in all schools at some point which would then close the school. Would this be more disruptive to student learning rather than having them stay at home for a while longer to give time for more treatments or a possible vaccine? Perhaps younger students could get together in small groups of friends who live in their area to socialize if they weren’t in school?
If we are testing everyone regularly, then we can open schools safely, with people who have tested virus free in the building and only those people. But the testing would have to be fairly frequent. This can be done.
Bob,
One might also ask what is the acceptable number of dead physicians, nurses, agricultural workers, bus drivers, grocery store check out clerks, custodians, and all the other essential workers. Is it higher than the acceptable number of dead teachers?
I am not following you, TE. There’s no trade-off there.
TE, we can avoid unnecessary exposure of school personnel. And, again, what I am arguing is that we need to develop the ability to test everyone frequently at reasonable cost. If our nonleader were doing his job, we would be well on the way to being able to do that right now. But he is blinded by ideology, even if it is ideology that he only dimly perceives in his teenie brain.
Will there be a test for children that doesn’t involve sticking a very long Qtip up their nose?
In some countries, the test for children is a temperature check before entering school.
Given the number of asymptomatic carriers, a temperature check is only slightly better then no check at all. Teachers and student will still run a risk of infection.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2020/04/08/pricing-and-profiteering-from-covid-19-tests/#12cd48991ccb
The cost of testing EVERYONE regularly (not just temperature checks) does not have to be prohibitively high.
Peter, there are several tests that don’t involve sticking a device up into your sinuses. I already linked to an article discussing those.
The Dutch find simple solutions to every day problems. When it was found that the elderly were depressed and lonely, and young people could not afford housing, the Dutch built a mixed community where the young must spend time with the old in order to stay in the building. If birds are on the airport runways. sheep dogs will clear them so planes can safely land. If you forget an item on a plane, a keen nose beagle will deliver it to you before you leave the airport. It is all Dutch ingenuity at work.
I’m thinking that perhaps something that is hindering us in this situation is that we want to do things the same old way in conditions that have totally changed. This goes for personal lives as well as school. For example, one suggestion I’ve heard is that if we have to do online teaching in the fall, students and teachers would have the exact schedule that they would have in school only doing it on the computer. Ok, so think about that. Students and teachers would be sitting at the computer for hours on end staring at screens. It would not be healthy. If we had to continue with teaching online, could there be a healthier way of doing this? Yes, but we would have to think about what health means. I’m thinking there is great opportunity for change here in a good way if we can overcome our attachment to trying to do things in a comfortable way. Let’s say that elementary school students could not go back to in person school in the fall. Could there be other ways for them to socialize? Could we finally see that play is important for children? Could they learn new things in new ways. Maybe there would be more experimental learning somehow. I think it was Bob that mentioned mentoring by teachers. I like that idea. That’s just an example. You know, it may be that we will move to more people working from home. Perhaps that would be a good thing in many ways. There could be less environmental pollution for example. Families could be together more. Maybe we will decide to work less. I guess what I’m saying is perhaps we need to let go of some of the old ways and embrace a new way of thinking and a new way of being creative with what we have. I know that in my personal life now, things I thought were so important are really not that important anymore. I can live without it and it’s ok. Something new always takes it’s place if we can be open. I guess the only way this can really happen is if we use this time to slow down a bit and do some reflection. It may be hard but it can lead to a whole new life. Different but maybe just as or more rewarding. Just thoughts.
I did a lay service at my church today with that theme. It was called Pulling the Plug on the Protestant Work Ethic.
This article and others about the Dutch school reopening make it clear that there is a lot more going on than bubbles or not forcing kids to wear masks. The entire school environment was transformed with small groups of students who interact only with one another and sometimes alternating days. etc.
I suspect that the wealthiest private schools in the US will also reopen with similar transformations.
So, this is an easy solution — we can likely all agree that public schools receive whatever funding is necessary to make their reopened schools look exactly like the private schools that teach the children of the .001%.
Unfortunately, what some people seem to be advocating is that public schools in America only have the choice to open without the funding to transform them into what those private schools look like, or remain closed. That’s a false choice that the Dutch have soundly rejected.
Now, that’s the power of the INDIVIDUAL to make change in society. It starts with the “me” not the “we.”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/us/flint-michigan-protest-police-trnd/index.html
He threw off his ego identity of cop and and acted just as an individual trying to do good. Makes me cry.
Vietnam acted early and aggressively in January soon after hearing about what was happening in Wuhan. That paid off big time. Vietnam opened its schools recently and not one Vietnamese has died of the virus yet. A few hundred were infected but not one had died.
“Coronavirus: How ‘overreaction’ made Vietnam a virus success”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52628283
While Vietnam was doing everything right, Trump was doing everything wrong.
Early action saves lives. We started far too late with no plan, and the feds feuding with the states. Shameful!
Most of the blame for the incompetent inaction belongs to Donald Trump, Moscow Mitch, and the Republican Party. Only a few GOP governors defied Trump and tried to do something to save lives, and Trump attacked all of them while Trump was trying incite a rebellion in one state with a Democratic woman governor.
I just learned that Finland only counts deaths that occur inside hospitals in its official covid death count. Nursing home deaths not included. So that’s a massive thing to consider the next time we’re comparing Finland to Swedem (or even the US).
Not sure how the Dutch count their deaths.
https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/17567-finland-s-coronavirus-deaths-rise-closer-to-100-actual-number-could-be-much-higher.html
Well, if the Netherlands and Finland are unacceptable to you, look at Vietnam.
And before you dismiss Vietnam because it is, well, Vietnam, read this piece from the BBC to know what that country did to beat the virus. Vietnam’s businesses and schools are open again. Discover how Vietnam did it?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52628283