Dead_Weight (DW) wrote:

The chief medical officer and other health units along with Childrens mental health are the ones calling for the kids to go back to school.  We are in a children's mental health crisis (e.g. CHEO here in Ottawa said they are up well over 200% increase over last year for mental health services) and its for that reason that they want them back in class ... agreed that the month of June usually carries the least amount of work but the benefit of having kids together again is huge .. even for a few weeks.   

 
It’s a very difficult balance, mental health vs increased covid. My kids are handling things very well but I know of other families that are not. Most teachers have a first shot now and covid is shown not to hit most kids with heavy symptoms. Grade 9 and up are not even in school full time anyway and K-8 are limited to their own class and very limited in the amount of close contact they can get but I understand how just presence at school could be a boon to younger minds. If I had vote, keep them closed until September. We’re on the verge of a very real reopening by end of June if we stay the course and there would be so many more benefits to that opposed to a few days of distanced classroom time that could push that reopening further into the future.

My wife works in our school district.  What they did here was a hybrid program for kids grade 4 through 12.  The kids were broken into an A group and a B group,  A went to school M/W/F one week, and T/TH the next week.  Group B did the opposite.  That gave them in-school learning, but kept the population at school at half the student body on any given day, which permitted the distancing required, etc.  It wasn't ideal, but it worked out.

Grades K-3 went full time all year.  The elementary schools made incredible adjustments to allow it, including buses, etc.  Teachers changed rooms instead of students, and class sizes were quite small.  It was difficult for sure, but it worked out.

I felt our district did an excellent job under the circumstances.  It helped with the kids' learning and socializing in spite of such a difficult period for the kids.  In all, around 240 at the schools got COVID out of a student body of around 3,600 by my count, but those really did not come from the school - those were spring break, Christmas break, etc., related for the most part.

Side note - people sued one of the local school districts to get full time in-school, and ONE GUY signed on to the suit for our district, so the kids were forced to go full time for the last 5 weeks of the year.  School still has to abide by CDC guidelines for distancing, etc., so this guy really caused a lot of unnecessary chaos for five weeks of school - the buses, the classrooms, the lunches, the schools had to set up party tents outside to accomodate classes in 45-50 degree weather - because one guys' opinion spoke for a population of 30,000.

Sorry I know that isn't relevant, but I thought I added on to BB"s comments.  

Back to your regularly scheduled Algonquin discussions - and by the way, I'm so happy for you guys getting to return to the park.  I haven't any idea when that border will open, but for now, I'm just really happy you can go back to enjoying Algonquin, and I hope you all have terrific trips with great weather and kind insects.

At the mention of schools going back and whether it was worth it, I had typed a big long reply but then figured "Nah, I won't derail the thread" and canned it. I come back a few hours later and many have since chimed in.

I'll give my brief take. High school teacher teaching math and computer programming. I have never had students performing so poorly and being as apathetic as they are now. They do not have the mental development to understand the long-term consequences of them "Peacing out" during this virtual learning period. If anything, my offer of personal supports are greater than ever because there is lots of opportunity to collaborate in the online platforms I use. My bottom line take is that kids do not do well with a virtual learning environment. There's something about ambient noise, distractions in the classroom, and maybe even just the smells in the room that keep them more awake than they are today.

Whether or not you have kids, please take this into consideration when our idiot politicians talk about enforcing mandatory or even "opt-out" online classes. Strong students will typically do well in any challenging circumstances, but even average-to-above average kids are falling off the radar here, folks.

Clueless campers trashing campsites isn't a new phenomenon, and the easily reached backcountry lakes have always borne the brunt of that. Certainly it will be even worse with increased camping pressure, but it's something we've all seen and dealt with. 

I avoid camping on easy access lakes whenever possible. It's not just about the general state of the campsites, but that's one of the reasons. My first and last days of a trip are typically on the longer side as a result, as I'm heading to or from a lake a long distance from wherever my car is parked. It's worth it. 

Oh and I guess I should talk about back to school since that's the actual topic of this thread ;). I have a daughter in SK French Immersion, and as best I can tell she's been doing very well with home learning. But she has good teachers who have set up a good program, and give the kids lots of time to just talk to each other. Is she learning much? No, not really. But she doesn't seem to be suffering. 

My wife, on the other hand, who is bearing the brunt of this (I'm working, she's not currently), desperately wants our daughter to go back to school. I've seen my wife's mental health decline steadily as she, in her words, "never gets a break". 

I work from home now and love it .. but we are seeing that it doesn't work that way for kids ... I've lost count of the number of parents who have told me their straight A student is struggling this year.  

But yes back to the post topic .. we are almost there ... and we will get in some decent camping this year for sure.  For those that don't normally do fall trips try one ... you might not be able to swim but no flies balances that out ...  how many sleeps til it opens ?

       just so you know that peterborough has had two people that received their first  vaccine shot die of covid related issues,,, both people died in the same week!!   no indiction what the other health issues were present before these individuals received the vaccine shot ,,
       

MartinG wrote:

Jdbonney wrote:

The government data shows they passed this magical 60% number on Tuesday. Vaccination levels have been exceeded. Case counts are dropping quicker than expected. These number are what Doug Ford Pinto Bean hinges his muddled reopening plan on. While other provinces have released restart plan that outpace Ontario's we hear crickets from Queen's Park. Is he at the cottage? Did he have a stroke? What is the incapable moron at Queen's Park waiting for???

 
Chief doc for the province says we need to have sustained new cases between 5-600 per day. We’re still over 1000. Although the talk is about vaccinations it’s a combination of vaccinations, daily case counts, hospitalizations, positivity factor. They are pushing the vaccine numbers as it is the key to the other numbers, but they aren’t ignoring the other factors.

Lol

Well Douggie extended the camping ban until at least the 16th of June. That’s one way to implement his own opening plan…