{"id":6596,"date":"2020-11-28T13:46:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-28T18:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6596"},"modified":"2020-11-28T13:50:07","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T18:50:07","slug":"fwd-canada-letter-ontario-announces-more-measures-to-keep-schools-open-during-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6596","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: Canada Letter: Ontario announces more measures to keep schools open during lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 178     WHAT IS HAPPENING AT ONTARIO SCHOOLS DURING COVID  19 LOCKDOWN?<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Nov.  28, 2020<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
As a former teacher of  history I have wondered how teaching has adjusted to the pandemic.  For a<\/div>\n
while schools were closed across the province.  It took time to adjust to the new reality.  What is  this<\/div>\n
new reality?   Journalist Catherine Porter has written an  excellent \u2018Canada  Letter\u2019 published in <\/div>\n
the New York Times.  She mentions that Toronto and New York City have approached  the Covid  19<\/div>\n
threat differently.  Toronto keeps  schools open while closing bars and restaurants.  New York closes<\/div>\n
schools  while keeping bars  and restaurants  open.   The argument presented by Toronto is the<\/div>\n
kids are safer in schools than roaming the streets  and playgrounds.  Masked  students  in school<\/div>\n
are less likely to spread the virus.  <\/div>\n

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That seems to make sense to me.<\/div>\n

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What makes me wonder is how teaching can  happen.  Some school boards have students  <\/div>\n
attend three hour classes where the curriculum is compressed  no doubt..   I cannot imagine<\/div>\n
high school students enjoying three hour classes.  Nor can I  imagine teachers enjoying trying<\/div>\n
to prepare three our classes.  At some point the students  will have to read.  That might work.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
A  lot of  parents, 33% or more, have opted for at home teaching.  That is even harder<\/div>\n
for me to understand..   Seems  like boredom will erode any joy in education.  But I  could be<\/div>\n
wrong.  Just a  gut reaction.  When I taught history I tried to make my 40 or 80 minute<\/div>\n
lessons interesting\u2026sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes irrelevant, sometimes<\/div>\n
current.  I cannot imagine doing this for three hours.   Years ago I also did short five to ten<\/div>\n
minute radio stories  on CBC.  After my third  or fourth story, my producer called  me aside <\/div>\n
and said  \u201cAlan, those stories are great\u2026.\u201d  When someone prefaces a remark by flattery<\/div>\n
what do you think the next word would be?   Right the next word is always  \u2018BUT\u2019 . I remember<\/div>\n
his comment so well.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan, those stories  are great BUT remember the radio audience attention span<\/div>\n
is one minute.  If you don\u2019t get them in  the first minute, then they are gone.\u201d<\/div>\n
That comment by  Doug Koupar years  ago  changed my whole approach to teaching.<\/div>\n
I began to cut the lead  in guff and tried to find the urgent question\u2026the reason for the lesson.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Personally, I cannot imagine doing that in a three hour lesson.<\/div>\n
If  adult attention span is one minute\u2026then how can we expect the poor kids<\/div>\n
to have an 180 minute  or three hour attention span?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Covid 19 has not made schooling better.  Or,  if I might use a baseball comment\u2026\u201dthere is no joy in mudville\u201d classoomsl.<\/div>\n
No doubt I will be  criticized by some educators.  Creative teachers will find  a way.  Of that I have no <\/div>\n
doubt.  Maybe I should try to prepare a three hour lesson for a class of  15 students.  Talk is  cheap.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
Begin forwarded message:<\/div>\n


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From: <\/b><\/span>The New York Times <nytdirect@nytimes.com<\/a><\/a>>
<\/span><\/div>\n
Subject: <\/b><\/span>Canada Letter: Ontario announces more measures to keep schools open during lockdown<\/b>
<\/span><\/div>\n
Date: <\/b><\/span>November 28, 2020 at 6:00:02 AM EST
<\/span><\/div>\n
To: <\/b><\/span>alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>
<\/span><\/div>\n
Reply-To: <\/b><\/span>nytdirect@nytimes.com<\/a><\/a>
<\/span><\/div>\n


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View in browser<\/a>|<\/span>nytimes.com<\/a><\/div>\n

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\"NYTimes.com\/Canada\"<\/a><\/div>\n
November 28, 2020<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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By <\/span>Catherine Porter<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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TORONTO \u2014 On Monday, as I was writing <\/span>a news<\/a> <\/span>article about Canada\u2019s enthusiasm for keeping schools open during the second wave of the coronavirus, an email arrived from my daughter\u2019s high school alerting me that a student had tested positive and a grade-12 class had been asked to self-isolate.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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It was the first time this happened since Toronto public schools finally reopened in mid-September.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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A school in Scarborough, an inner suburb of Toronto, in September. Despite Toronto\u2019s new coronavirus restrictions, classes have remained open.<\/span>Carlos Osorio\/Reuters<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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I had expected such news much earlier. Like many parents, I had feared schools would be petri dishes of the coronavirus. I predicted they would stay open no later than Canadian Thanksgiving and that my two children would be trapped once again at home with me and my husband \u2014 all of us driving one another nuts.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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That, most happily, has not been the case.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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There have been outbreaks in 83 Toronto schools, each with an average of five cases, according to Dr. Vinita Dubey, associate medical officer of health for Toronto. That is out of some 1,200 schools in the city \u2014 so about 7 percent.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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But, unlike New York City, which responded to rising rates of community transmission by shutting down schools while keeping bars and restaurants open, the Ontario government has made the opposite decision: It shut down bars and restaurants in Toronto and two of its sprawling suburbs, but kept schools open.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOntario schools remain safe,\u201d said Stephen Lecce, the education minister for the province, at a news conference on Thursday. \u201cThey remain safe even while we face increasing rates of community-based transmission.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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He vowed to \u201cmake sure we do whatever it takes to keep schools safe and to keep them open, which I think is an overwhelming societal imperative in this province and in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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To that end, he announced more funding for school boards in hot spots and a program of testing asymptomatic students and staff in schools in four of the province\u2019s hardest-hit areas \u2014 something his government first promised in the summer, and critics have been demanding for months.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s great news but we heard the same thing in August,\u201d said Ryan Imgrund, a high school science teacher and biostatistician in Newmarket, just north of Toronto. \u201cI\u2019ll believe it when I see it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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Toronto is the biggest city in Canada and, in fact, its schools have among the strictest coronavirus safety rules in the country. All children are <\/span>required to wear masks in school, including the young ones<\/a> <\/span>\u2014 which is not the case in most Canadian school boards. And class size for high school kids is capped around 15 \u2014 which in the case of my daughter means she takes most of her classes online and is in the physical school only a quarter of the time.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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Preparations for students at a school in Scarborough, part of the Toronto District School Board. Toronto\u2019s schools have among the strictest coronavirus safety rules in the country.<\/span>Pool photo by Nathan Danette<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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Each morning that my daughter and my son, who is in Grade 7, do physically go to school, they complete an <\/span>online Covid-19 screening,<\/a> <\/span>verifying that they don\u2019t have any coronavirus symptoms before arriving. If they do have symptoms, they are expected to stay home and, in most cases, get tested. Whenever a student tests positive, the public health unit swoops into the school to both contain the virus and investigate its spread, through testing and contact tracing, according to Dr. Dubey.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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So far, she said, her office\u2019s data shows that most children are infected at home, not at school.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cSchools are actually still a safer place for children to be,\u201d Dr. Dubey said, noting that the positivity rate among Toronto\u2019s teenagers is 7.5 percent \u2014 higher than the rate seen in schools.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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She added: \u201cIf kids are not in school, they are going to be in the community more \u2014 at play dates, or the like, where Covid spreads. That\u2019s part of the balance. At least in a school setting, they are socializing and getting an education, and it\u2019s \u2018controlled.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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Many parents are not convinced. In Toronto, the percentage of children opting for online learning jumped to 33 percent in late October from 26 percent at the beginning of the school year, according to figures from the Toronto District School Board. In the suburbs of Mississauga and Brampton, the shift was even more pronounced, with nearly half of public elementary school students now attending classes virtually, according to <\/span>the Canadian Press wire service<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMany, many, many families don\u2019t have confidence in the plan put in place by this government,\u201d said Kelly Iggers, a mother and teacher at an elementary school in Toronto who amassed more than 270,000 signatures <\/span>on a petition<\/a>demanding that the government reduce class sizes, which did not happen. \u201cAt this point, only a very small proportion of children are getting tested. We just don\u2019t know how many cases are out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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She added, \u201cThe provincial government is claiming success based on an absence of data.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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Studies<\/a> <\/span>show about 30 percent of children with coronavirus are asymptomatic, said Dr. Dubey. So, the new testing in schools where there are no outbreaks should be revealing. It could confirm what public health officials and politicians have been saying \u2014 that schools are relatively safe, compared with Covid-19 spread in the community. But it could also confirm parents\u2019 fears \u2014 that the virus is circulating more widely in schools than has been reported.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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Staff at the Ministry of Education said that the information from the new testing would be publicly shared.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a promising development, and I am really looking forward to seeing some clearer data to show us what is happening in our schools,\u201d Ms. Iggers said. \u201cBut the success of this measure will really depend on whether it is rolled out effectively, results are shared transparently and the government is willing to implement appropriate actions in response to the findings.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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Meanwhile, I have not heard anything more from my daughter\u2019s school, which I\u2019m assuming is good news. So she left for school again this morning \u2014 which made both of us really happy.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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Trans Canada<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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A moose licking a visitor\u2019s car last month in Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada.<\/span>Elizabeth Wishart<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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