While I can understand Caroline Hood's frustrations surrounding remote learning ("Remote learning? We're done with it," Opinion Exchange, Jan. 13), I have to believe that she and others who won't support this effort fail to appreciate the challenge facing schools today — and what it means to be a parent. I'd like to offer three quick points:
- Schools are grappling with a severe staff shortage. Teachers are phoning in ill, and substitutes are in short supply. How are schools supposed to protect those students who show up with staffing levels so low? Who will guide the students to safety in the event of a natural disaster or even a shooter on site? Skeletal staffs make it tough, if not impossible, to protect students on a daily basis.
- Schools and restaurants aren't comparable. You may stay at a restaurant or bar for 60 to 90 minutes, but students are at school, exposed to literally hundreds of other kids, for six hours or more. That raises the risk for infection significantly.
- Parents are parents, not martyrs. If Hood thinks she is forced to pivot and handle issues at all hours now, just wait until her children get older, when those needs become much more complicated. Parenting involves sacrifice. It's what we signed up for when we brought those bundles home from the hospital. Our children depend on us to care for them, 24 hours a day. That doesn't make us martyrs; it makes us parents.
Mark Lindley, St. Paul
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In response to Hood's opinion on remote learning, I ask, what alternative would she offer? What would she do when a teacher was ill and there were no subs available? What would she do if there were not enough drivers to bus the children to school? Unless one has a viable alternative, one should not criticize those who are doing their best in a horrific situation.
Sally Thomas, Edina
The writer is a retired school principal.
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I agree with Hood completely. Every single one of her bullet points is right on. I have three grandkids in Minneapolis schools and preschool. We are all sick of this. So are their parents!