my son's favorite word, and a modest proposal for Aspen school district

 my 17 year old son's favorite word is...............

LATER

yup that pretty much sums up life with a 17 year old boy:

walk dogs?      later

do dishes!!      later

do your laundry!!!!  later

college prep            much later

find a partner for sailing        later, maybe, I don't know, I don't want to look needy

and yet it mostly gets done.  not on my time frame.  not how I like.   But he is getting As, speaking at the school board meeting, keeping his room clean and sending emails to college coaches.  Is it getting done how I want, when I want?  No, but it is getting done.

Speaking of the Aspen School District.

A modest proposal to school during a pandemic:

 

ASD’s goal should be to provide the best education possible while ensuring the safety of our community.  To that end I would suggest k-7 go full time in person unless community spread becomes so great as to move the district to full online.  

 

8-12 would go full online with the online delivery platform that was designed over the summer, implemented at the start of the school year, and was working well for many students.  K-7 would then be able to use the additional space vacated by 8-12 to provide appropriate social distancing.

 

For the exceptions, the students in the 8-12 group who aren’t successful with online school without adult oversight could go to school, where they will be in the gyms with a proctor overseeing them as they work online.  This model has already proven successful with the special education kids.

 

ASD full in person schooling can resume once the population is vaccinated and/or COVID rates have dropped to New Zealand levels.

 

Why?  Teaching students online and remote at the same time is a much worse educational delivery mechanism than full remote.  Asking students to do four 85-minute class periods online, with 30 minutes for lunch is mind numbing. Try it. Believing that kids in masks sitting six feet apart from each other is going to solve the social emotional situation is wishful thinking. Thinking that AHS students aren’t already out and about with each other is ludicrous. And acting as if there will be no damage if we send @1,000 people to campus when Covid is on the rise is delusional. 

 

We all want the best safe education for our community possible.  ASD developed a strong online teaching platform over the summer, let’s leverage it.