Is school closure a class issue

[TheresMoreofUs]

I’m thinking about my kids. State secondary, both of my kids travel by train to school in a busy city. Lots of possibility of transmission of infection, going to shops at lunch time etc. Does Boris maybe live in a bubble where he imagines kids are walking/cycling to school, not interacting with other members of the community or is he thinking of his own experience of kids who are in boarding schools? I mean I can imagine the disruption if your child’s school closes and you actually don’t normally even see your child in the week or for months. Or you’re in/on a different country/continent - how disruptive must that be if you have to drop everything if the school closes. But I think my child NOT going to school would have a real impact on reducing or controlling transmission. This idea that the kids would just hang out at parks instead - No! They’d be kept indoors - not ideal but if it’s what it takes. And the idea that if they do it now, we’d all get twitchy after two weeks and start disobeying the social distancing rules? No - we’d have to stick at them. This is an absolutely unique experience and we need to do uncomfortable, unpleasant things to try and fight it. Sorry, I’m just trying to make sense of this approach.

Do you not think it possible that population modelling could be more reliable than panic?

It makes sense if you think that they want the kids to get it.

I just don’t know where this government’s priorities lie. And Boris looks a bit peaky himself. But maybe that’s the stress and the fact that even he can’t inject a buffoonish humorous spin to this matter.

Has common sense left the building?

Thing is these things always expose the class issues. There are a lot of assumptions about self isolation too. I don't think the likes of Boris have any idea at all what life's like for the working classes or middle classes, let alone the food bank users and homeless. But it's alright, we are all collateral damage. All the front line workers, everybody in overcrowded conditions, anyone who's sick or disabled or old. All us bus wankers. Collateral bloody damage

It is most definitely a class issue. DH is Head in a secondary school in a very deprived area. If they close, his students will, on the whole, be left to their own devices. Parents will not supervise them and make sure they complete school work- they rarely complete homework and most parents don't care. Many will spend their time doing things they shouldn't that are not good for them.
The school has a high number of very vulnerable children - who live in difficult circumstances where there is domestic violence, addiction, mental health issues, parent in prison, family illness, they are a child carer . School is their stability, safe place and where they have a trusted adult. They will lose that.
70+% of children at the school receive free school meals. For some of those families that is a significant amount of money to find to feed one, two, three or four children an additional meal every day. For some of those children, their parents will not be bothered about making sure they have anything decent to eat at lunchtime.
The GCSE and A level students will struggle with motivation, skills, and confidence and many will not persevere with schoolwork. There will be no one at home who can help them or push them, they have no ICT access. They will do badly in their exams.
There will be other schools in this situation and other schools in leafy areas, where parents are educated, can work from home, know how to support their children with schoolwork, provide ICT facilities, have a warm house, will feed them well and look after them.
So yes, it is a class issue.

Of course it is a class issue! Anything where the more vulnerable are most likely to be affected is a class issue.