Recent editorials from Tennessee newspapers:
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Sept. 4
The Kingsport Times News on virtual and traditional learning:
“Virtual will never be as good as face-to-face,” Kingsport Superintendent of Schools Jeff Moorhouse told the Kingsport Board of Education in announcing that in-person learning is returning to city schools.
For the majority of America’s schools, that’s an understatement. As the Wall Street Journal wrote in early June, “This spring, America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning. With the school year now winding down, the grade from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was a failure.”
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on education issues rooted in local communities. It also sees limited success in remote learning. “More than a dozen national surveys of teachers, parents, students, and school administrators conducted over the past few months offer the clearest initial tally of successes and failures … the reality of remote instruction was somewhat more complicated than outright failure.
“Teachers in two separate surveys estimated that only about 60 percent of their students were regularly participating or engaging in distance learning. Two-thirds to three-quarters of teachers said their students were less engaged during remote instruction than before the pandemic, and that engagement declined even further over the course of the semester.
“The surveys offer more evidence that educators were right to worry that remote learning would exacerbate inequities. Over and over, Black and Hispanic students and students from low-income families faced more roadblocks to learning, driven in part by gaps in access to technology and the internet. And engagement with schoolwork was relatively low across the board, reflecting the challenges of keeping students engaged in a chaotic time and of teaching from a distance,” Chalkbeat reported.
Writes a home-school mother in The Atlantic magazine, “One-size-fits-all education barely works in a classroom, but it is completely unmanageable with kids spread out across their various households working independently.”
This information reflects outcomes overall and not necessarily the experience of parents who focus on guiding their children through virtual learning. Of about 7,700 students, about 23% - more than 1,700 - are enrolled in Kingsport’s Virtual Academy. It may be more if the coronavirus takes down teaching staff in coming weeks and months.
Students in grades pre-K to 5 returned full-time Aug. 31, while those in grades 6-12 returned on a hybrid schedule. Students in group A - whose last names begin with letters A-J - will go in-person Monday and Tuesday and be virtual Wednesday through Friday.
Those in group B - whose last names begin with letters K-Z - will go virtual Monday through Wednesday and in-person Thursday and Friday. Accommodations will be made for students in the same household with different last names.
Let’s hope this approach survives the virus. Bristol and Sullivan County are already operating on in-person and hybrid plans that put most county students back in the classroom where, as a captive audience, they have the best opportunity to learn.
Online: https://www.timesnews.net/
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Sept. 2
The Johnson City Press on the pandemic:
When things are going well, people have a tendency to lapse into complacency.
If you lose weight, you’ll often put it right back on because you’re not as diligent about good eating habits and exercise. If an infection seemingly clears up, you may not complete your full round of antibiotics thinking you no longer need them, only to find yourself back at square one.
But just because you haven’t had a burglary in a while doesn’t mean you stop locking your door.
We need to treat the novel coronavirus the same way.
Both nationally and regionally, there are encouraging trends about the positive effects of face coverings in curbing the spread of COVID-19. Although Northeast Tennessee has the occasional daily spike in positive test rates, overall new cases have been declining. After a peak of 143.7 average cases per day the week of July 27-Aug. 2, the average steadily declined through August. Last week’s average was 74.3 cases per day - half of what it was a month ago.
Reason for celebration? Not just yet.
If the numbers cause people to relax and become less adherent to recommended mask usage, those numbers are likely to trend back up.
Instead, we should react just the opposite way. As Stan Hickson, president of Ballad Health’s Southwest Market, told the Press in a gathering with health system officials on Monday, the downward trend should tell area residents to “double down” on precautions, not let up.
When something is working, why change course?
We were pleased to see near total adherence to mask requirements at Tipton Stadium at Science Hill High School’s home football opener Friday night. That’s how it should be in every public setting, especially now that masks appear to have a clear impact.
Friday night’s event was more than just a football game. It was a glimpse - but just a glimpse - at the idea of normalcy. If we want to continue having such events and avoiding further restrictions on our way of life, we should follow that model in everything we do. If we want to eventually lose the masks, we must endure this minor inconvenience until there is an effective vaccine and treatments that prevent hospitalizations and deaths. True normalcy won’t arrive unless we make it so.
Speaking of deaths, the pandemic has brought out the callous nature in some people from day one. They have keyed on the age and health factors that often correlate with fatalities. Recent national data regarding morbidity factors have reinforced the nonsensical belief that the virus is not the crisis health professionals would have us believe. “It won’t kill me,” some think, “so I don’t have to give up my freedom.”
That’s a dangerous attitude. For one, otherwise healthy people are still potentially susceptible to COVID-19’s devastation to the body, including lasting health implications and even death.
Secondly, those morbidity factors are exactly why everyone must adhere to the precautions. Our nation and this region in particular are filled with vulnerable citizens who deserve our best effort to prevent infection.
Anecdotally, there’s evidence that people here are getting the message. We see lots of masks in grocery stores, retail hubs and other indoor public spaces. Unfortunately, we also see those who just don’t care enough about their own health or that of those around them. Thankfully, it appears to be a small minority.
Our plea is for the public to increase adherence and for businesses and institutions to get even more aggressive about masks within their walls. No one should be allowed to enter any public place without a mask. If you’re among those whose health truly prevents you from wearing a mask, you’re better off staying home for your own protection, anyway.
Hickson is right. This is not the time to let our guards down. It’s time to capitalize on what we know.
Online: https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/
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