To feel in despair for the kids

[JudesBiggestFan]

My son was one of 400 children sent home from two bubbles in his high school today to isolate for 14 days. He's in Year 7 and it was his fourth day in his new school.
He'd been catching the bus, made a new friend, had settled in so much better than I hoped after the past few chaotic disrupted months. And now he's home again.
Not only that, he is now going to miss his cricket presentation and first two football matches of the season, not be able to see friends and family, all for the pleasure of three days of schooling.
And I can see this happening over and over and over again. Luckily childcare isnt an issue as I work from home, but I'm just so sad for kids missing out. Six months off and it seems we're back where we started with no end in sight

The school disruptions are inevitable unless either Covid is eradicated or everyone takes all globally accepted and expected Covid risk mitigation measures seriously including PPE and SD. Hopefully just a perpetual cycle of disruptions and no obituaries. There will be no medical cure. Options are either go for a hardline disciplined but uncomfortable eradication approach optimising all Covid risk management tools (as common globally) or just continue with UK entitled exceptionalism style soft indifference high risk approach and see what happens.

If course it won't be similar to March again. We've just had 6 months of social distancing. We haven't remotely resumed the level of social contact we were having in February.

An interesting take on the situation

Or will that be more extreme far right conspiracy theorist nonsense as well? And yes, I know it's the Telegraph.

We haven't remotely resumed the level of social contact we were having in February.

Well that's true for me too, but that's not what I'm seeing elsewhere - people chatting at drop off right next to each other, pushing past others on the pavement, no attempt to wait or distance. Fb posts about parties with selfies (no SD or masks), people going away for a weekend with one set of friends one week, another the next. Kids doing multiple out of school activities (including aerobic and singing - no masks) as well as school.

And it doesn't matter how much SD we've done in the past, as far as the virus is concerned it only matters what we're doing right now.

It's just such a terrible shame we didn't have the sense or foresight to do what New Zealand and Australia did. Being an island like them, we too could've been living a mostly normal life by now - including undisrupted schooling. We could still have that before Christmas but I doubt we'll choose to do it.

If the governments of the last ten years hadn't let the pandemic planning lapse, hadn't diverted crisis planning resources to Brexit mitigation, hadn't ignored the 2016 pandemic planning report, had taken action in December and January to prepare instead of it being October in two weeks and we STILl don't have an adequate test trace and isolate system...

We had all that advance notice, the advantage of being an island, the 6th richest country in the world, we had best pandemic plan in the world, a national health service infrastructure ready and waiting, some of the best scientists, oodles of testing space in universities...

And we squandered, ignored, wasted, abandoned, or refused to use it.

@ChavvySexPond

If the governments of the last ten years hadn't let the pandemic planning lapse, hadn't diverted crisis planning resources to Brexit mitigation, hadn't ignored the 2016 pandemic planning report, had taken action in December and January to prepare instead of it being October in two weeks and we STILl don't have an adequate test trace and isolate system...

We had all that advance notice, the advantage of being an island, the 6th richest country in the world, we had best pandemic plan in the world, a national health service infrastructure ready and waiting, some of the best scientists, oodles of testing space in universities...

And we squandered, ignored, wasted, abandoned, or refused to use it.

Yep. We could have started with an advantage, but the Tories squandered it.

Poor boy. This is not sustainable. All kids should be at school regardless.

Regardless

Regardless of what?

Honestly the pp was talking about a generation that fought two world wars for years at a time, kids who got moved to the middle of fucking nowhere.

Most kids here had had the longest holidays they will ever have,. Most have had lower anxiety and got the best grades ever despite probably having to do the least work compared to other cohorts. Yet people will then moan about how they are "suffering" and mental health. Almost none have been stuck on ventilators and unable to breathe and died alone unable to see their family

Lots of kids are stuck in abusive homes etc and for them I feel genuinely sorry but how many people advocated for them when social services were being cut to the bone or worry about them every school holiday? Marcus rashford.

Yes!

What I’ve found most disturbing about this pandemic is the number of sociopaths amongst us who demand their normal at the expense of others lives. I now understand how the atrocities of history started.

Quite, @Oaktree55

I posted something similar on another thread to the effect that the preponderance of posters on that thread appeared to be bordering on eugenicists in their casual disregard for the elderly (well they’ve lived their lives) or those with ore/existing medical conditions (they stay indoors, lives of little value) so long as the ‘healthy’ can go about their daily business.

It was illuminating and the first time I had ever understood how hateful ideologies emerhe

What I’ve found most disturbing about this pandemic is the number of sociopaths amongst us who demand their normal at the expense of others lives. I now understand how the atrocities of history started.

Agree 100%, well put.

Ghandi said something along the same lines....
""The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members"

@IloveJKRowling

What I’ve found most disturbing about this pandemic is the number of sociopaths amongst us who demand their normal at the expense of others lives. I now understand how the atrocities of history started.

Agree 100%, well put.

Ghandi said something along the same lines....
""The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members"

I think what I’ve most been surprised by is how willing people are for children and young people to bear the brunt.

"What I’ve found most disturbing about this pandemic is the number of sociopaths amongst us who demand their normal at the expense of others lives. I now understand how the atrocities of history started."*

This.

X100.*

I think what I’ve most been surprised by is how willing people are for children and young people to bear the brunt.

I'm sure I read that anxiety and depression in kids and teenagers went down during lockdown. Also, they are now back to school and have been able to see their friends for quite a while. I'd have thought it was hardest on elderly people tbh.

@lazylinguist

I think what I’ve most been surprised by is how willing people are for children and young people to bear the brunt.

I'm sure I read that anxiety and depression in kids and teenagers went down during lockdown. Also, they are now back to school and have been able to see their friends for quite a while. I'd have thought it was hardest on elderly people tbh.

That study always gets wheeled out.

It was done in May reported in August it’s not any good indication

Some children have been happier, in some cases due to anxiety and also as after all no school and unlimited TV and internet whats onto like. Many have been miserable. In addition Homeschooling is not schooling in any meaningful senses. They need 121 interaction with a teacher not just passively watching a video and children do need an education which vast majority were denied whether "happy" or not. It's like saying endless cakes and sweets makes your kid happier so what's the harm in giving them, and that it doesnt matter they put on a stone because they had nothing else for months. Ok maybe not the best analogy!

Also, teenagers may be happy playing video games for months on end.....they won't be so happy when University is online, they have no job prospects and their parents lose their business. And don't start with "they'll be much more devastated if they lost a great-grandparent", that's just not true is it.

Agree too that jobs (usually mothers) placed as less important. Hardly any job is really compatible with homeschooling. Homeschooling is a full time job. What schools asked us to do was basket weaving in comparison to actual teaching.

It’s a bit like losing leaving /losing your job. It may feel better when you can sleep in the next day and not stress about clients. Which is pretty much when that anxiety study was conducted in terms of timing in May. But long term people decline.

Mine have both been great back at school but some find school stressful I know. If it’s very bad then other option there.

Regarding the reduction in anxiety in children and young people during lockdown. Personal experience is that yes, this happened, simply because the pressure to do well in the exams, do homework went away. But that is not real life and unless the child/young person will continue to spend their life on the sofa watching TV and gaming etc, then the anxiety is simply on hold/paused.
A few days of school is all that was necessary for pre-existing anxiety to return and that is simply because the issue was not solved by lockdown or home learning, but just that the person was exposed to the triggers of the stress. The anxiety from before lockdown and the anxiety re-emerging now needs addressing either way. It is not a reason for justifying children and young people staying at home and learning from home other than in the very short term. Please stop using this excuse to back your other arguments for wanting children and young people to be learning at home.
As I said, extensive personal experience here.

was NOT exposed to the triggers of the stress

It’s a bit like losing leaving /losing your job. It may feel better when you can sleep in the next day and not stress about clients. Which is pretty much when that anxiety study was conducted in terms of timing in May. But long term people decline. Yes, this is a useful way to explain it.

(obviously if the anxiety was not a mental health issue in itself, but due to horrible circumstances, e.g. bullying etc. then that may make not being a school seem a good thing, but the bullies still exist, and maybe a change of school would achieve the same result of decreased anxiety. My point relates to the clinical diagnosis of anxiety).

And I should add that the children/young people with anxiety receiving treatment will have been told to practice dealing with stressful situations with techniques taught, but 6 months at home without facing everyday situations or stressful situations in many cases has meant that the treatment they had received was not being practised or implemented in real life.
So lockdown has effectively put their treatment backwards (without even starting on how CAMHS stopped almost all consultations except in the most severe cases and even took the opportunity to discharge patients they had not seen for many months due to lockdown). Now they are back in real life, the issues are still there and were not solved by lockdown or home learning, and are unlikely to be in most cases (not all, I admit, but those cases always have the option for home ed or changing schools and other options).

As I said upthread, over four thousand primary age children have gone missing from the school system in my region. I very much suspect they are getting the very very shitty end of the stick.