Day 0
Friday the 13th of March was the girls' last full day of school before the schools closed.
The school where I work (a small, private elementary school) and the school where my husband Jeremy works (a large public university) had been gearing up for a potential school closure for the last few weeks. We had been meeting to discuss what online learning might look like for young students. Jeremy had been directed to start moving all of his courses to online platforms.
On Thursday night, we sat the girls down and told them we were concerned about them going to school on Friday and considering keeping them home.
Both of them were extremely upset by this news.
They had many reasons why they should be allowed to go. We had many reasons to think they should stay home. Chief among our concerns was a recent update we'd received from their school principal, laying out the case for the school district staying open. It appeared that the school district was mainly thinking about how a school closures would impact the economy of our city, rather than the health of the students and the community at large.
In the end, we allowed them to go to school on Friday but we told them to bring anything home that they'd need to work from home, because we likely would not allow them to return on Monday. Jeremy reached out to the principal to let her know that we planned to keep the girls home, and she offered to provide a work contract for them to complete school assignments from home.
Their school day started as usual, but around mid-morning the news broke that the district has decided to close as of Monday.
This came as a huge relief to all of us. The girls had been afraid that if school continued without them, they'd fall behind. However, with the school closure, everyone would be in the same boat. Jeremy and I were relieved that this took the burden of making this decision (to keep the girls home) off of our shoulders. It also was what we thought was the best course of action for slowing the spread of the virus in our community.
On Friday, Jeremy was able to pick the girls up from school, so that they would not have to ride the city bus (which is their usual way of getting home).
It was the last (mostly) normal day that we expected to have for quite a while.
The school where I work (a small, private elementary school) and the school where my husband Jeremy works (a large public university) had been gearing up for a potential school closure for the last few weeks. We had been meeting to discuss what online learning might look like for young students. Jeremy had been directed to start moving all of his courses to online platforms.
On Thursday night, we sat the girls down and told them we were concerned about them going to school on Friday and considering keeping them home.
Both of them were extremely upset by this news.
They had many reasons why they should be allowed to go. We had many reasons to think they should stay home. Chief among our concerns was a recent update we'd received from their school principal, laying out the case for the school district staying open. It appeared that the school district was mainly thinking about how a school closures would impact the economy of our city, rather than the health of the students and the community at large.
In the end, we allowed them to go to school on Friday but we told them to bring anything home that they'd need to work from home, because we likely would not allow them to return on Monday. Jeremy reached out to the principal to let her know that we planned to keep the girls home, and she offered to provide a work contract for them to complete school assignments from home.
Their school day started as usual, but around mid-morning the news broke that the district has decided to close as of Monday.
This came as a huge relief to all of us. The girls had been afraid that if school continued without them, they'd fall behind. However, with the school closure, everyone would be in the same boat. Jeremy and I were relieved that this took the burden of making this decision (to keep the girls home) off of our shoulders. It also was what we thought was the best course of action for slowing the spread of the virus in our community.
On Friday, Jeremy was able to pick the girls up from school, so that they would not have to ride the city bus (which is their usual way of getting home).
It was the last (mostly) normal day that we expected to have for quite a while.
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