A writer must “know and have an ever-present consciousness that this world is a world of fools and rogues… tormented with envy, consumed with vanity; selfish, false, cruel, cursed with illusions… He should free himself of all doctrines, theories, etiquettes, politics…” —Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?). “The nobility of the writer's occupation lies in resisting oppression, thus in accepting isolation” —Albert Camus (1913-1960). “What are you gonna do” —Bertha Brown (1895-1987).
There are NO sane reasons to open schools. There will never again be a return to the old normal. Since schools have been strangled via underfunding, high stakes testing drove curriculum, teacher pay and rights were minimized, etc. the old normal is no great loss. The new normal has yet to be determined, but wealthy privatizers and politicians bribed into creating euphemisms for vouchers which will be paid to students, parents, school districts, church schools, etc. Of course, the coronavirus is the crisis that will not go to waste. Polticos will determine how many children and the people they come in contact with will sicken with serious long term lung, kidney, heart and brain damage - along with numbers of deaths - in order to close, reopen, close and reopen schools. Politicos will, of course, not send their children and grandchildren into these nests of contagion nor will they do whatever they demand the little people must partake in. The new normal will actually become the new normalized abnormal.
I love Laurie Garrett -- and read her book The Coming Plague, which I highly recommend, many years ago.
ReplyDeleteThere are NO sane reasons to open schools. There will never again be a return to the old normal. Since schools have been strangled via underfunding, high stakes testing drove curriculum, teacher pay and rights were minimized, etc. the old normal is no great loss. The new normal has yet to be determined, but wealthy privatizers and politicians bribed into creating euphemisms for vouchers which will be paid to students, parents, school districts, church schools, etc.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the coronavirus is the crisis that will not go to waste. Polticos will determine how many children and the people they come in contact with will sicken with serious long term lung, kidney, heart and brain damage - along with numbers of deaths - in order to close, reopen, close and reopen schools. Politicos will, of course, not send their children and grandchildren into these nests of contagion nor will they do whatever they demand the little people must partake in.
The new normal will actually become the new normalized abnormal.