Adventures in Headline Writing: 70% of AISD families said they’d send children physically back to school

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
08/07/2020 at 13:30 • Filed to: English shouldn't be this hard

Survey: 70% of AISD families said they’d send children physically back to school

( AISD = Austin Independent School District)

Does that mean the parents are going to pick them up and carry them? Kick them down the road?

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Our district, Round Rock, immediately north of Austin, will be doing the first three weeks virtually and then open the schools for in-person school. However, the in-person kids will be kept in the same classroom all day and will be doing the same work on laptops that the at-home kids are doing. Not much point in that, unless you really need to send your kids in, and I know a lot of working families do. It looks like we will be able to send our kids to after-school band rehearsals after the initial three weeks pass. Football practice has already begun, I believe.

DISCUSSION (38)

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 13:38

Well I see that they're prioritizing correctly - footbaw is an essential activity.

For Sweden > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 13:39

On all levels except physical, the kids are back in school.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 13:45

You forgot to give them extra credit for really fuktup placement of an adverb...

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW
08/07/2020 at 13:46

It is Texas after all.

shop-teacher > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 13:47

I have a week left before I report to in person training, before in person school starts. In the very definition of irony, our administrators had their retreat this week ... Virtually.

ttyymmnn > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
08/07/2020 at 13:47

I’m sure that writing headlines is difficult, but this local news site is rife with grammatical errors. I’m wondering if journalism majors are required to take English any more. Say what you will about the NYT, their writers are solid and their style book is tops.

fintail > WilliamsSW
08/07/2020 at 13:48

Found the next hot spot.

ttyymmnn > shop-teacher
08/07/2020 at 13:49

Just like the Republicans canceling their convention because of COVID, but still forcing kids to go back to school. Because there is no proof of kids passing on the virus to older people. Right.

“I’ll take pseudoscience for $1,000, Alex.”

shop-teacher > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 13:51

Exactly. Infection rates among the young are going up here. No surprise, as every playground is full of kids. Not a one of which is wearing a mask.

ttyymmnn > shop-teacher
08/07/2020 at 13:53

Rates are climbing here in Austin as well. Not sure why. We had been doing much better lately. Sigh.

Sovande > shop-teacher
08/07/2020 at 13:56

What’s good for the goose....

I would not let them live that shit down. If they are holding virtual meetings it means they perceive a risk. That risk applies to you too.

Sorry they haven’t come to their senses. My sister is a teacher is learning about how she is going to teach by watch ing live broadcasts of the school board in her district. It’s pathetic.

fintail > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 13:58

I am sure when we finally recover from this shitshow, some parents will literally be throwing their kids out of the car towards the school.

shop-teacher > Sovande
08/07/2020 at 14:08

The union is putting them on blast for that.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 14:14

Yeah, but I will counter and say “my proof of the End Times upon u s” is the sheer number of usage errors I’ll see in Times articles and (heaven forbid!) even New Yorker online articles.

The tight margins in the news business is forcing cutbacks (at least that’s my assumption) and those editors who don’t create content- (and clicks) but merely curate it? Lots of pressure everywhere.

wafflesnfalafel > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 14:18

interesting - that sounds more like a compromise solution for folks where both/only parents work and so can’t leave the kids to “school from home”. But that still doesn’t really have any plan for when a bunch of kids get infected. Just re-close everything every time that happens?

Sovande > shop-teacher
08/07/2020 at 14:24

Good. My sister was telling me she has to be at the school two days a week. Why? She doesn't know. Then she spoke with a teacher friend who had been informed that she would have to be at school four days a week to teach ESL. I just don't get it.

ttyymmnn > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
08/07/2020 at 14:29

I’m sure it’s also driven in large part by the pressure to get things out quickly to feed the 24-hour news beast. In the past, you had time to write an article and your only deadline was press time. Now you’ve got to crank out content as fast as you can.

DipodomysDeserti > shop-teacher
08/07/2020 at 14:31

So what’s the plan? Wait for a vaccine and force every kid to get it before schools open back up?

Scientifically, that’s the only method that would work to keep infection rates down. That’s also a route that isn’t being taken with really any other aspect of society.

ttyymmnn > wafflesnfalafel
08/07/2020 at 14:32

Yup. Our district is allowing you to go in after three weeks, or stay virtual. With both in-person and at-home kids getting the same content, they can pull the plug on in-person at any time and go back to 100% virtual. They’re also allowing you to change your mind. We declared virtual for the first grading period, but we can switch to in-person for the net grading period if conditions allow it. You can go from in-person to virtual at any time.

Sovande > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 14:41

What makes me fucking crazy is that school districts are basically okay with potentially killing kids. I’d rather have an alive kid who doesn’t know his times tables than a dead kid. Or dead grandparents. Or teachers. Or me.

What the powers that be are saying, and saying clearly, is that they don’t care if people die. It’s fucking gross.

ttyymmnn > Sovande
08/07/2020 at 14:45

And then we’ve got TX Lt. Gov. Patrick saying that old people should sacrifice themselves on the altar of the economy .

wafflesnfalafel > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 14:47

T hat actually seems like a viable plan , offers a solution to parents that work and folks that are still apprehensive (rightfully so) and yet is still flexible enough to deal with when you get hot spots. They need to package that and sell it to districts out here...

BigBlock440 > DipodomysDeserti
08/07/2020 at 14:49

Keep kids in solitary confinement until the entirety of society is sick of it? That way, we’ll get a bunch more awkward , incel types.

Sovande > DipodomysDeserti
08/07/2020 at 14:51

I’m not going to work in an office until a vaccine is available . I don’t need to make money someone else rich at the expense of mine or my loved one’s lives.

ttyymmnn > wafflesnfalafel
08/07/2020 at 14:53

In the online town hall meetings, I lost track of how many times I heard the word “flexible.” Though the messaging has been a bit inconsistent, I give our district high marks for really thinking this through. Once things calm down, the students at the school will be allowed to move between rooms, and fine arts students who opt for virtual will be allowed to come down to the school and take part in those classes only.

Sovande > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 15:00

These are the ghouls in charge. It’s fucked up.

ttyymmnn > Sovande
08/07/2020 at 15:06

My wife works for a Major University in Texas™ and has been WFH since March. I expect she will continue to do so for quite some time. She’s quite productive at home (since we went and retrieved her work computer). I wonder if this pandemic will cause a rethink of just how much brick and mortar space businesses really need. Sometimes it takes a very big hammer to break the mold.

Sovande > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 15:25

I started my new job two months ago and I have been to the actual office twice. Once on day one and once to pick up some supplies. They asked how many days I would be coming in and I told them zero . Turns out before this whole pandemic they leased a new office space which is currently being built out. The HR manager called yesterday to ask if I wanted a standing desk in my new office to which I re sp onded that I didn’t need a desk as I would not be in the office until a vaccine was available. She told me my office has a door so I can be in there with no mask and be safe, etc. I told her all those things applied to my house and that there was no reason for me to be at risk, or potentially put others at risk, when I can do the exact same work from home. I don’t know what the end game will be, but I’m not going to an office ever again. That style of working is over. All I need is a solid internet connection 3 screens and coffee and I can do everything from my living room in my underwear.

ttyymmnn > Sovande
08/07/2020 at 15:29

My family volunteers regularly at the Central Texas Food Bank. Last time we were there, I spent the shift building cardboard boxes and talking to a woman whose husband caught the COVID. He was working alone in his office with the door closed, but there were construction workers elsewhere in the building, and they believe he caught it when the virus traveled through the ducts. So there’s that.

Sovande > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 15:34

And that’s why I’m working from home. Plus it costs money to commute and I am already making less money than I was at my previous job.

HoustonRunner > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 15:54

Curious what school? I went to Deep Wood, Chisholm Trail, and RRHS.

shop-teacher > DipodomysDeserti
08/07/2020 at 16:17

I honestly have no idea. I’m not actually fighting to go remote only, that’s my union. The irony of the administrators meeting remotely on a plan to bring us all together, is pretty thic k though.

I think the district my daughters attend, had a much better hybrid plan than ours. Their AB groups were going to be split by morning and afternoon. Nobody was going to be eating in the building, and kids only had to keep a mask on half a day.

Hybrid will actually work OK for my classes. I’m going to record all my demonstrations and whole class instruction for kids to watch at home, that way when we are in person, 100% of that time can be work time.

DipodomysDeserti > Sovande
08/07/2020 at 17:25

I’d rather get a virus than ever work an office job.

How long will you wait to get inoculated once a vaccine is available (assuming anyone ever comes up with one) ?

ttyymmnn > HoustonRunner
08/07/2020 at 17:51

So close, but yet so far. Wells Branch, Deerpark, McNeil. We live in Wells Branch, not too far from the elementary school.

HoustonRunner > ttyymmnn
08/07/2020 at 18:02

Well, I guess those all existed (barely) when I was there. My grade was the first at McNeil, so I had a few friends that went there when we left middle school for high school.

I don’t get back much, is the area around Deep Wood still nice, or just dated now? I grew up literally across the street, my mom would yell at me out our kitchen window when I was screwing around on the playground.

Back on topic, my kids are all at HISD public schools, and will be virtual for the first 6 weeks. I’m fortunate my wife and I both still have jobs and can work remotely.

ttyymmnn > HoustonRunner
08/07/2020 at 18:06

Deep Wood area is still nice. I drive through there on the way to my kids’ dentist. The school seems a bit run down, like most older elementary schools, but the neighborhood is still solid. RRHS has grown significantly in the 18 years we’ve lived in WB. Their band is still kicking butt.

Sovande > DipodomysDeserti
08/07/2020 at 21:48

Luckily for you the world needs ditch diggers too.

DipodomysDeserti > Sovande
08/08/2020 at 01:57

Even luckier for me is that it still needs teachers, for now.