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Original poster

It's best for children to be in school

485 replies

Billie18 · 30/11/2020 18:11

I'm shocked that the consensus here appears to be that schools should close. I believe that it's best for children to be in school. Also that they should not be forced to wear masks or perform any social distancing as this is a damaging for their mental and social development. A thread for parents and teachers who share this view and have concerns about the threat of school closures and forced isolation of children who are not ill.

OP posts:
echt · 30/11/2020 20:08

But when thread after thread after thread is started about how dangerous schools are, how they are causing cases to increase, how no school in the U.K. is open as normal anyway, then come on, that is wanting them to close

No it isn't. It has not happened here on MN.

noblegiraffe · 30/11/2020 20:09

But when thread after thread after thread is started about how dangerous schools are, how they are causing cases to increase, how no school in the U.K. is open as normal anyway, then come on, that is wanting them to close.

You mean my threads and they are generally about how to make schools safer in order to keep them open, also about how the government is covering up what is going on.

If you read about how dangerous schools are and think that means they should close, then that’s your conclusion, not mine. Despite you repeatedly trying to put it on me.

WhyNotMe40 · 30/11/2020 20:09

"Well no. Not outright. But when thread after thread after thread is started about how dangerous schools are, how they are causing cases to increase, how no school in the U.K. is open as normal anyway, then come on, that is wanting them to close. It’s just that saying that outright is unpopular."

That's faulty reasoning, sorry.
Saying that the conditions in school makes school unsafe, and then saying what you would like to improve H&S in schools, is NOT asking for school s to close. It's asking to make them safer.
I'm not so worried about dying of Covid. I'm very worried about long Covid, and also worried about taking it to my terminally ill FIL and disabled mother with COPD. Both of which live alone and rely on us.

echt · 30/11/2020 20:11

Yet some of the teachers here are happy to post link after link and also post links to petitions calling for schools to be closed

I watch these threads pretty closely, though noble's last one filled up too quickly for me to comment. Never seen this.

Welcometonowhere · 30/11/2020 20:12

You are determined to make this personal, giraffe

It isn’t I think at this stage the threads are ill-advised but you obviously enjoy them, so that’s all OK.

In general I think some are vocally for closing schools and some are not. Most of us are somewhere in the middle.

Welcometonowhere · 30/11/2020 20:12

Well we largely see what we want to see, I find.

TaxTheRatFarms · 30/11/2020 20:13

I thought the 1 (singular) thread I saw with a link to a petition was from a parent?* Maybe we’ve seen different threads.

*By Mumsnet logic does this mean all parents want schools closed? Wink

echt · 30/11/2020 20:13

If you read about how dangerous schools are and think that means they should close, then that’s your conclusion, not mine. Despite you repeatedly trying to put it on me

I can never quite decide whether such posters really do have such poor reading skills or are being disingenuous.

OverTheRainbowLiesOz · 30/11/2020 20:14

Teachers are managing to teach just fine in masks. Where they are allowed.

Nicknacky · 30/11/2020 20:15

@echt To be fair, I usually open them, see who the OP is and then close it again as I can predict how it will go. The same people shouting down anyone that dares to disagree. It’s a waste of time.

TheSunIsStillShining · 30/11/2020 20:16

@StarryFire

Masks are an impediment to education and communication. They should absolutely not be worn in classrooms.

Perhaps on communal areas and corridors that may be an option in very high prevalence areas.

Again: Please provide detailed description of how they are causing an impediment! What are the specific areas that it has an effect on? Did you ever read up/think about these negative effects and how they can be potentially mitigated or counter acted?
jakeyboy1 · 30/11/2020 20:17

I agree with you OP. Unless of course the government could provide adequate at home online teaching - which of course it can't.

However don't go down the Us for Them route, they started well but they're all barking.

Aragog · 30/11/2020 20:17

Masks are an impediment to education and communication. They should absolutely not be worn in classrooms.

Tough. Mine is being worn in classrooms and that won't change for a while.

Unfortunately covid was an impediment to my health, whereas masks have not been shown to be an actual real impediment to teaching and learning.

No one can guarantee me that I can't catch covid again. My health is damaged due to covid. I don't want to catch it again and I will do what I can to prevent that. If a mask helps even slightly (and scientific evidence suggests they do help protect the wearer as well as others around them) then I will wear one when I came close to a child.

When teaching phonics, etc I am at the front of the room and do not wear my mask. When giving the key information in my lessons I am at a distance so no mask.

When doing close up work the mask goes on.

As I said - not a single child has been disturbed by this. Not a single one!

I do wonder why some adults seem to think that our British children are somehow more likely to be impaired by the sight of a mask compared to the thousands upon thousands of children seeing them in their schools across the world, not to mention the many who are wearing themselves across several other countries.

Nicknacky · 30/11/2020 20:17

Tax No, it was definitely a teacher, she posted it on quite a few threads usually with the sentence “I will just leave this here.....”

I can’t for the life of me remember who it was and I don’t want to say the wrong name of the poster I think it was.

echt · 30/11/2020 20:18

You are determined to make this personal, giraffe

That's because you are:

I think at this stage the threads are ill-advised but you obviously enjoy them, so that’s all OK

That's personal.

CarrieBlue · 30/11/2020 20:18

@StarryFire

Masks are an impediment to education and communication. They should absolutely not be worn in classrooms.

Perhaps on communal areas and corridors that may be an option in very high prevalence areas.

I wear a mask all day at school. My students are being educated just fine, thanks. We communicate perfectly well too.
Welcometonowhere · 30/11/2020 20:18

It’s harder teaching in a mask, tbh. I don’t mean it shouldn’t happen, but it is more difficult. I do struggle to hear students talking to me and I find my visor muffles what I am saying.

However, that is a reasonable adjustment in a pandemic.

noblegiraffe · 30/11/2020 20:18

Interesting how people complaining about my threads were just prolifically posting on my last one before it hit 1000.

Aragog · 30/11/2020 20:18

Yet some of the teachers here are happy to post link after link and also post links to petitions calling for schools to be closed.

I have never posted, nor clicked on, any petition to close schools. i don't know any teaching/school staff who have.

Welcometonowhere · 30/11/2020 20:19

Once you post a thread, you can’t then decide who is able to post on it.

Nicknacky · 30/11/2020 20:20

Aragog Yet there were posted. Never saying she wanted them closed, of course. Just the link.

echt · 30/11/2020 20:20

Once you post a thread, you can’t then decide who is able to post on it

Misses the point spectacularly. :o

christinarossetti19 · 30/11/2020 20:22

Where are all the petitions demanding that schools be closed?

There seem to be very few posters, if any, who have said that schools should all close forthwith.

In fact, I don't think I've seen that on MN since mid-March.

But if you accept the science that shows that secondary schools are the most infected population in the country, how the lack of routine testing in schools isn't showing asymptomatic cases, that nearly 900,000 school children are currently self-isolating (according to Usforthem website) and there's a plan afoot to permit people to mix across households for five days from less than a week after the end of term it's takes quote a cognitive leap to conclude that there is no case at all for looking at risk assessing the possibility of school closures, it would seem.

TaxTheRatFarms · 30/11/2020 20:22

Help me out here NickNacky as I’m shit at maths,

1 teacher posting a link many times

some of the teachers here are happy to post link after link and also post links to petitions calling for schools to be closed
?

Look, all teachers are going to be different people with different opinions. But we need to be careful not to exaggerate that “all teachers want schools closed” and “all parents just want schools open for childcare” as neither position is actually ever going to be true.

noblegiraffe · 30/11/2020 20:22

@Welcometonowhere

Once you post a thread, you can’t then decide who is able to post on it.
Seeing as you enjoy posting on them so much, complaining that they exist is a bit ungrateful.