This is idiocy. What good are schools if they can't even teach kids not to look directly at the sun? This is telling the kids they are incompetent and shouldn't be trusted.
My kid's school is not running from the eclipse but celebrating it. The science teachers have scheduled an assembly where they will explain eclipses, teach the kids how to use the eclipse glasses they're providing to all the kids (you can go grab free ones at some stores, like Warby Parker), and then they will take the kids out to the field to watch the eclipse.
I still remember the pinholes from 1979. Maybe I'll do that while my kid is at school with her glasses.
Do schools think that students will be more safe at home, supervised by parents not up to speed on eclipse dangers or home alone because parents have to work?
The schools are likely cancelling class to avoid legal liability.
Times certainly have changed since I was a school kid. For show and tell in first grade I once brought in a Bayonet that my dad brought back from WWII. None of the teachers raised an eyebrow. If someone tried that today they’d be arrested and/or sent to a shrink for counseling. Of course, if they actually threatened someone with it, they’d likely be back in class the next day.
I would love to read a piece about this - we call it society’s shift to safetyism but how much of it is litigation driven? And then morphed into what it is now.
I think safetyism began with fear of litigation then Covid turned risk-aversion into an American value . Remember how people replaced, "goodbye" with, "stay safe?" Masks and vaccines were all about keeping your neighbors, "safe." Staying home was "safe." "Mis/dis/malinformation and uncensored speech are not "safe." Somewhere there's a wizard behind a curtain making these decisions for all of us.
The schools here are closed Monday. Their rationale is that the buses will be in standstill because of traffic leaving the eclipse area. I think they're right about that part.
The question is whether this can be a learning experience - structure the day around the eclipse, teach a little about safety (permission slips that include an acknowledgement that filter-glasses will be provided, but permanent damage can result if they're removed and the school is not liable) and about the science. That could be a real positive. And schools often have great viewing areas.
So I disagree with their decision. They've had years to prepare for this. They could have started a unit in science classes a month ago, really build this up. Give the kids tickets so their parents could join in. Isn't this what learning is all about?
Nellie notes in TGIF that Seattle's schools will no longer teach algebra. Which is just an introduction to the path many sciences require. So Seattle's kids will not be able to go to college and become engineers and many other career paths unless their parents have the money and wherewithal to provide alternative education. The gap grows ever larger and the public schools seem to be the bad guys, not the good guys here.
Not to worry, Seattle kids will still get to go to college and become crappy engineers. This attitude will permeate society outside of the education. In a couple generations anyone with math or engineering skills will be viewed as magicians or maybe witches! It will be great!
My school district did try to invite parents to school to view it, but they didn’t get the info out about it until late last week, and most people here already have plans (to pull kids out of school and watch it with family) or can’t get out of work with that late notice.)
I live in the Pacific Northwest surrounded by beautiful hiking trails, natural parks, lakes, ocean walks, etc. My family prioritizes getting outside into these places almost daily because we recognize how blessed we are to be here and also how much happier we all are when we’ve had some time outside.
My husband and I often notice that we are almost always the only people with children on these trails and in these parks. Lots of dogs being walked, but no children other than ours to be seen. This region has nearly 500,000 people living in it.
We don’t understand this at all, except maybe it can be explained by safety-ism? Widespread anxiety and depression? Addiction to screens? Parents who let their children decide what they’re going to do with their time?
I don’t get it. Go outside with your kids. Teach them to have love and respect for nature.
Good for you!! When my son was too young to hike he rode in a backpack or bike carrier. When old enough he got hiking boots. We live in the Great Plains where outdoor "enjoyment" means wild weather extremes, perpetual wind, bugs, little variation of terrain, and a few scrawny trees providing the only scenery. We made the best of it and also travelled when we could to enjoy other more iconic outdoor destinations. He is now 32 and, although he lives in DC, he spends every available bit of free time hiking, 4-season backpacking, climbing, biking, skiing, snowshoeing, and sailing. He has been Nature's ambassador for many of his urban millennial friends who have never had outdoor experiences, introducing many to their first experience sleeping on the ground in a tent they carried on their back into the Monongahela Forest in WV with no cell service. He knows hundreds of little things about the wilderness like what causes a snow knee in a conifer trunk, how to tell pines from firs by rolling their needles between finger and thumb, the differences between shale, sandstone, granite and limestone and how that matters when you consider scaling them. He knows how to orienteer with and without compass, read a contour map, find Orion or Polaris in the night sky.
I hope you reap as much joy from incorporating the natural world into your children's lives as I have.
My father was an amateur geologist (no formal training). He taught his two daughters to read using books about dinosaurs and taught us to walk in the woods so we wouldn't disturb anything. To this day people tell me I walk too softly to be heard coming :)
I have always taken my kids hiking with us. We live in the mountains and so there is no shortage of great places to go. Once we got the newfoundlands, they came also for the less demanding hikes. I never was able to teach any of them to be quiet on the trails. I tried and tried, but then gave up and stuck to the popular, well traveled trails with them to avoid disturbing the more serious nature lovers. You could have heard us coming from miles away and we saw very little wildlife. Instead, I taught them to look for and try to identify mushrooms and fungus. There is so much to see on the floor of a forest when you stop to look. Happy memories :)
Opposite here in New Hampshire/Vermont.........lots of kids on the trails. The HS my son went to had a major hike for each grade, with increasing length/difficulty. Science classes that went outside are normal. Management of a small tract of land for the state too!
Things weren’t always like this where I live. When I was in 5th grade (10 years old), our class went on an overnight ocean kayaking trip. We kayaked for an entire day till we arrived at a tiny island, slept under the stars, cooked our own food, then reversed course the next day. Still one of my greatest childhood memories. But you know that was the early 90s and we had an older teacher who would have started his career in the 70s, so this was all completely achievable to him. And this was a public school!
We felt pretty lucky too! It makes a big difference when you have a teacher who is passionate about his vocation. Seems like all the great teachers have left the public system.
My son, a 2020 high school graduate had many many school based outings. Small private school in Florida for K to 3. Public schools in New Hampshire/Vermont after that. Overnight trips. Winter carnivals. Skiing (every Thursday from January to April from 11am until the mountain closed), camping trips, swimming trips, beach trips, hiking trips, ecology management, Washington DC, etc.
Kids can study gender, trans ideology, gay sex, drag queens, and the superiority of Palestine in school but a solar eclipse is a bridge too far? How twisted to force the kids to attend online school to prevent them from seeing it. Get those "eclipse" glasses for every kid in school and go outside. We've seen schools pay half a million dollars for Non Racist Kindergarten Training so I'm sure someone could rustle up a bunch of donated glasses. Also, can someone let the teachers know that the same eclipsed sun is hanging over the kids' houses?
Something occurred to me as I was watching a wildly diverse crowd of students and faculty at my university who gathered in every open area on campus to watch the eclipse.
Here we were, all of us, with all our various backgrounds and situations, all our different ideas and political stances, all the very many ways we differ from one another . . . and we were all watching something happening above us, beyond us, something bigger and older and slower than us, something that mattered enough for us to stand around on a big lawn or in a rooftop garden for an hour or so, gazing upward.
Orbital mechanics are not social constructs. The eclipse was not a liberal conspiracy. It just . . . was.
Maybe that's why progressive teachers were afraid for their students: they might look up at the eclipse and get some perspective, and might even decide they want to actually learn stuff.
The "bipartisan," unifying nature of this event hit me as well. Stadiums full of people all cheering for the sun is the happiest I've seen our nation in years.
"But after the elementary teachers’ union criticized the decision [not to close early], with its president arguing “it’s naive to assume students won’t look directly at the sun,” the school board announced it would cancel class after all."
Public school teacher's unions motto: Screw the kids, never miss an opportunity to get out of work by standing on "virtue."
As a rabid opponent of the public school system, I'll just file this quote away as reason no. 4,962 that the entire system should be razed to the ground and the earth salted under it's ruins.
Consider that one reason the union might have pushed for school closures is so that the teachers could work the tourist venues. That happens frequently where I live. They close the schools because of an event expected to pull a crowd. The teachers get the day off and then choose to work the event. Or, they close the schools for learning then open them so the kids have a place to go during the day. Then they pay the teachers extra to be in the school watching the kids, but forbid them from actually teaching the kids.
People know a little of what goes on, but I don't think they know the full details. This is a small district with only about 50-70 kids in each grade depending on the year. The current school board includes one member who is married to the principal of the middle school. About two years ago, they decided to eliminate the position of high school principal and appoint the middle school principal to that role. So, there is a serious conflict of interest.
The scheme with the school closures when major tourist events come to town is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the worst abuses (of many) involves superintendent days. I used to think they were days for the teachers and staff to do continuing education or to do administration/curriculum type things. How naive I was. They use these days as paid vacation days which they term "wellness" days. The kids don't have school and the teachers are told to pick something they want to do and the school will pay for it. Like completely pay for it! Examples of things paid for include ski lift tickets, massages, and zip line tickets. So, while parents have to take a day off of work or find daycare for their kids, teachers are getting tax payer funded massages.
There are many examples of these abuses in the district. I don't think it is isolated to our corrupt little district either. When I worked in Buffalo, I couldn't believe some of the abuses there. My favorite of those was the cosmetic surgery rider on public school teacher insurance policies. At the time, there was no limitation. Teachers could literally get surgical procedures done for only cosmetic reasons (not talking about medical reasons like post mastectomy implants which should be covered, in my opinion).
At any rate, teachers and the public districts keep these abuses well hidden. Unless one knows a teacher or has some other insider knowledge they would have little idea about what goes on. While you would be livid if this was your district (as I am!), don't be too surprised if this kind of stuff goes on where you live, too.
I have little doubts about some of those kind of things and I definitely am on lots of things to collect data and point out stuff. Sometimes they are just not thinking how messages would be felt like others. We had school during a day of ice and snow and no delay or call off but apparently the heat in one of the buildings was not completely working. I was not impressed about not truthfully telling information pertinent to a parent making a decision about their child and school. Luckily I have had rapid responses and corrections if necessary. I have told a friend no one will save or protect your children but you.
Certainly no one cares as much about your own kids as you do. My kids will be fine because we will make them fine. I worry about the kids whose parents don’t have the capacity to do that for their own kids. The whole idea behind public education is supposed to be that it provides for all children regardless of their backgrounds. We are failing the children by putting the needs of the adults ahead of them. And that is a crying shame.
All teachers should be required to read "Bad Therapy" by Abigail Shrier, and there will be a test!
I expect most readers here are familiar with Jonathan Haidt's After Babel substack, detailing the damage done to kids by smart phones and social media. Shrier makes a good case that phones are only part of the problem: safetyism at school and in the home, along with clueless parents have created an inward-looking generation of kids who have never been allowed to grow up, obsessed with their mental health and afraid to try anything for fear of failure.
Remember when fireworks used to have the instruction "Light the blue touch paper and retire to a safe distance"? Well I've just passed the book on to my wife to read, and she is a child psychiatrist. Actually it only says what she's been saying for years, so I don't expect an explosion!
Schools using Abigail Shrier writing to teach? Please, next you will be saying something crazy like they should have J.K. Rowling books in the library. Both are targets of the woke. Remember this is the kind of school systems in, say Chicago, where of 53 schools not one student can read or do math at grade level.
I've cancelled my afternoon (university) class on Monday for the opposite reason: the classroom to which we've been assigned has no windows!
We'll only have about 80% of totality at our location, but I didn't want my students to miss out altogether. I've told them where I'll be on campus, Monday afternoon, and that I would have some extra viewing glasses with me.
First of all, what does that say about our schools other than the kids are in charge not the teachers. If they can't follow simple instructions what are they learning. As they stated above, it's learning time for pin holes etc. And these are suppose to be our leaders of tomorrow.
I’m sorry I have to respectfully disagree as the mother of a significantly autistic teenager. They may glance at it like they normally could anytime at the sun. Also there are no reports of large scale eye injuries in previous eclipses. Being sent home early from school will be more damaging.
Seconded! My daughter was five in 2017 and severely autistic. We went to the path of totality, and it was fine. Looking at the sun directly hurts, so she doesn’t do it. Neurotypical toddler son, same deal.
That said, perpetual thanks are always due to special ed staff.
I just cannot reconcile an "abundance of caution" with regards to a solar eclipse with the haphazard eagerness to put kids on stimulant medications, SSRIs, antipsychotics, and/or hormone blockers.
American education hasn’t been about children for many years now, and certainly not about individual growth and development into better, happier, more successful adults since at least the bipartisan “No Child Left Behind.”
Drug them up, dumb them down, disempower them from the inside out, then pass them on to fulfill their roles in our new society.
The craziest part about this is we just had an eclipse in 2017. Where I live was through the path of totality and we had many people traveling to our city to observe it. Even just 7 years ago, so much has changed. This was built in as a teacher workday so public schools are not in session (interestingly, one of my children who is in private school is still having classes—they have activities planned for the entire building, K-12, to go outside to watch). In 2017, school was held, it was treated as an amazing learning opportunity and a big celebration of a once in a lifetime event.
“Abundance of caution” is one of those phrases that makes me want to pull my hair out.
I, along with the rest of my elementary school, used a pinhole viewer made out of a shoebox for the 1979 eclipse. We also had a jungle gym and a two story firepole on our playground. By today's standards our school would probably be shut down for child endangerment. I'm so happy that i grew up when i did.
I’m sorry that we have so poorly educated our population that they fear this event. People, the totality of a solar eclipse is not only the only time it’s safe to watch the Sun directly, you SHOULD watch it directly, WITHOUT glasses. It is beautiful and magnificent and safe. True, the window of safety is only minutes long, but can we please not be hysterical idiots?
The main point is to maintain us (starting when we're children) in a constant state of fear, cowering under the warm, safe embrace of our government. It's this among so many other similar things. The world is scary and dangerous, but we'll keep you safe.
When changing the schedule for when parents can expect their child to be in school, yes, it is a consideration the school has to make. Parents need time to arrange to have some type of supervision of their child or is leaving them home alone, at any age, a good idea. It's the school's causing the problem. They have an obligation to help provide the answers to their stupid decisions.
Every year the tv gnus runs articles on using sunscreen or bundling up in the winter. While it’s mindless filler, I believe they really think people are too stupid to figure this stuff out for themselves.
This is idiocy. What good are schools if they can't even teach kids not to look directly at the sun? This is telling the kids they are incompetent and shouldn't be trusted.
My kid's school is not running from the eclipse but celebrating it. The science teachers have scheduled an assembly where they will explain eclipses, teach the kids how to use the eclipse glasses they're providing to all the kids (you can go grab free ones at some stores, like Warby Parker), and then they will take the kids out to the field to watch the eclipse.
I still remember the pinholes from 1979. Maybe I'll do that while my kid is at school with her glasses.
Do schools think that students will be more safe at home, supervised by parents not up to speed on eclipse dangers or home alone because parents have to work?
The schools are likely cancelling class to avoid legal liability.
Exactly, Michael. It's not to protect the children, it's to protect the school.
Students will not be safer but the schools will be. Now there will be zero risk of them incurring any liability. 😃
Times certainly have changed since I was a school kid. For show and tell in first grade I once brought in a Bayonet that my dad brought back from WWII. None of the teachers raised an eyebrow. If someone tried that today they’d be arrested and/or sent to a shrink for counseling. Of course, if they actually threatened someone with it, they’d likely be back in class the next day.
Or learning anything.
I have to disagree. they learn 2 things. America is BAD and they are WONDERFUL
I would love to read a piece about this - we call it society’s shift to safetyism but how much of it is litigation driven? And then morphed into what it is now.
I think safetyism began with fear of litigation then Covid turned risk-aversion into an American value . Remember how people replaced, "goodbye" with, "stay safe?" Masks and vaccines were all about keeping your neighbors, "safe." Staying home was "safe." "Mis/dis/malinformation and uncensored speech are not "safe." Somewhere there's a wizard behind a curtain making these decisions for all of us.
Ding, ding, ding! Correct!
These same schools should be held liable for indoctrinating students on gender issues.
Free day off (with pay) for school staff.
I never tried that, I figured it would never work....anyway, we had so much cloud cover all that happened was my area got a little darker.
The schools here are closed Monday. Their rationale is that the buses will be in standstill because of traffic leaving the eclipse area. I think they're right about that part.
The question is whether this can be a learning experience - structure the day around the eclipse, teach a little about safety (permission slips that include an acknowledgement that filter-glasses will be provided, but permanent damage can result if they're removed and the school is not liable) and about the science. That could be a real positive. And schools often have great viewing areas.
So I disagree with their decision. They've had years to prepare for this. They could have started a unit in science classes a month ago, really build this up. Give the kids tickets so their parents could join in. Isn't this what learning is all about?
Nellie notes in TGIF that Seattle's schools will no longer teach algebra. Which is just an introduction to the path many sciences require. So Seattle's kids will not be able to go to college and become engineers and many other career paths unless their parents have the money and wherewithal to provide alternative education. The gap grows ever larger and the public schools seem to be the bad guys, not the good guys here.
kids stuck on a bus. OH NO MR BILL
Not to worry, Seattle kids will still get to go to college and become crappy engineers. This attitude will permeate society outside of the education. In a couple generations anyone with math or engineering skills will be viewed as magicians or maybe witches! It will be great!
My school district did try to invite parents to school to view it, but they didn’t get the info out about it until late last week, and most people here already have plans (to pull kids out of school and watch it with family) or can’t get out of work with that late notice.)
Nah, there's always DEI...
What's worse is that the smartest of those lost potential scientists will become . . . lawyers! 😱
I live in the Pacific Northwest surrounded by beautiful hiking trails, natural parks, lakes, ocean walks, etc. My family prioritizes getting outside into these places almost daily because we recognize how blessed we are to be here and also how much happier we all are when we’ve had some time outside.
My husband and I often notice that we are almost always the only people with children on these trails and in these parks. Lots of dogs being walked, but no children other than ours to be seen. This region has nearly 500,000 people living in it.
We don’t understand this at all, except maybe it can be explained by safety-ism? Widespread anxiety and depression? Addiction to screens? Parents who let their children decide what they’re going to do with their time?
I don’t get it. Go outside with your kids. Teach them to have love and respect for nature.
Good for you!! When my son was too young to hike he rode in a backpack or bike carrier. When old enough he got hiking boots. We live in the Great Plains where outdoor "enjoyment" means wild weather extremes, perpetual wind, bugs, little variation of terrain, and a few scrawny trees providing the only scenery. We made the best of it and also travelled when we could to enjoy other more iconic outdoor destinations. He is now 32 and, although he lives in DC, he spends every available bit of free time hiking, 4-season backpacking, climbing, biking, skiing, snowshoeing, and sailing. He has been Nature's ambassador for many of his urban millennial friends who have never had outdoor experiences, introducing many to their first experience sleeping on the ground in a tent they carried on their back into the Monongahela Forest in WV with no cell service. He knows hundreds of little things about the wilderness like what causes a snow knee in a conifer trunk, how to tell pines from firs by rolling their needles between finger and thumb, the differences between shale, sandstone, granite and limestone and how that matters when you consider scaling them. He knows how to orienteer with and without compass, read a contour map, find Orion or Polaris in the night sky.
I hope you reap as much joy from incorporating the natural world into your children's lives as I have.
My father was an amateur geologist (no formal training). He taught his two daughters to read using books about dinosaurs and taught us to walk in the woods so we wouldn't disturb anything. To this day people tell me I walk too softly to be heard coming :)
I have always taken my kids hiking with us. We live in the mountains and so there is no shortage of great places to go. Once we got the newfoundlands, they came also for the less demanding hikes. I never was able to teach any of them to be quiet on the trails. I tried and tried, but then gave up and stuck to the popular, well traveled trails with them to avoid disturbing the more serious nature lovers. You could have heard us coming from miles away and we saw very little wildlife. Instead, I taught them to look for and try to identify mushrooms and fungus. There is so much to see on the floor of a forest when you stop to look. Happy memories :)
Opposite here in New Hampshire/Vermont.........lots of kids on the trails. The HS my son went to had a major hike for each grade, with increasing length/difficulty. Science classes that went outside are normal. Management of a small tract of land for the state too!
Things weren’t always like this where I live. When I was in 5th grade (10 years old), our class went on an overnight ocean kayaking trip. We kayaked for an entire day till we arrived at a tiny island, slept under the stars, cooked our own food, then reversed course the next day. Still one of my greatest childhood memories. But you know that was the early 90s and we had an older teacher who would have started his career in the 70s, so this was all completely achievable to him. And this was a public school!
Andrea, you lucky duck. I am so-o-o jealous. : )
We felt pretty lucky too! It makes a big difference when you have a teacher who is passionate about his vocation. Seems like all the great teachers have left the public system.
My son, a 2020 high school graduate had many many school based outings. Small private school in Florida for K to 3. Public schools in New Hampshire/Vermont after that. Overnight trips. Winter carnivals. Skiing (every Thursday from January to April from 11am until the mountain closed), camping trips, swimming trips, beach trips, hiking trips, ecology management, Washington DC, etc.
Kids can study gender, trans ideology, gay sex, drag queens, and the superiority of Palestine in school but a solar eclipse is a bridge too far? How twisted to force the kids to attend online school to prevent them from seeing it. Get those "eclipse" glasses for every kid in school and go outside. We've seen schools pay half a million dollars for Non Racist Kindergarten Training so I'm sure someone could rustle up a bunch of donated glasses. Also, can someone let the teachers know that the same eclipsed sun is hanging over the kids' houses?
Something occurred to me as I was watching a wildly diverse crowd of students and faculty at my university who gathered in every open area on campus to watch the eclipse.
Here we were, all of us, with all our various backgrounds and situations, all our different ideas and political stances, all the very many ways we differ from one another . . . and we were all watching something happening above us, beyond us, something bigger and older and slower than us, something that mattered enough for us to stand around on a big lawn or in a rooftop garden for an hour or so, gazing upward.
Orbital mechanics are not social constructs. The eclipse was not a liberal conspiracy. It just . . . was.
Maybe that's why progressive teachers were afraid for their students: they might look up at the eclipse and get some perspective, and might even decide they want to actually learn stuff.
The "bipartisan," unifying nature of this event hit me as well. Stadiums full of people all cheering for the sun is the happiest I've seen our nation in years.
"But after the elementary teachers’ union criticized the decision [not to close early], with its president arguing “it’s naive to assume students won’t look directly at the sun,” the school board announced it would cancel class after all."
Public school teacher's unions motto: Screw the kids, never miss an opportunity to get out of work by standing on "virtue."
As a rabid opponent of the public school system, I'll just file this quote away as reason no. 4,962 that the entire system should be razed to the ground and the earth salted under it's ruins.
Consider that one reason the union might have pushed for school closures is so that the teachers could work the tourist venues. That happens frequently where I live. They close the schools because of an event expected to pull a crowd. The teachers get the day off and then choose to work the event. Or, they close the schools for learning then open them so the kids have a place to go during the day. Then they pay the teachers extra to be in the school watching the kids, but forbid them from actually teaching the kids.
That is awful! Do people in your area widely know this occurs?! I would be livid if I knew this was going on.
People know a little of what goes on, but I don't think they know the full details. This is a small district with only about 50-70 kids in each grade depending on the year. The current school board includes one member who is married to the principal of the middle school. About two years ago, they decided to eliminate the position of high school principal and appoint the middle school principal to that role. So, there is a serious conflict of interest.
The scheme with the school closures when major tourist events come to town is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the worst abuses (of many) involves superintendent days. I used to think they were days for the teachers and staff to do continuing education or to do administration/curriculum type things. How naive I was. They use these days as paid vacation days which they term "wellness" days. The kids don't have school and the teachers are told to pick something they want to do and the school will pay for it. Like completely pay for it! Examples of things paid for include ski lift tickets, massages, and zip line tickets. So, while parents have to take a day off of work or find daycare for their kids, teachers are getting tax payer funded massages.
There are many examples of these abuses in the district. I don't think it is isolated to our corrupt little district either. When I worked in Buffalo, I couldn't believe some of the abuses there. My favorite of those was the cosmetic surgery rider on public school teacher insurance policies. At the time, there was no limitation. Teachers could literally get surgical procedures done for only cosmetic reasons (not talking about medical reasons like post mastectomy implants which should be covered, in my opinion).
At any rate, teachers and the public districts keep these abuses well hidden. Unless one knows a teacher or has some other insider knowledge they would have little idea about what goes on. While you would be livid if this was your district (as I am!), don't be too surprised if this kind of stuff goes on where you live, too.
I have little doubts about some of those kind of things and I definitely am on lots of things to collect data and point out stuff. Sometimes they are just not thinking how messages would be felt like others. We had school during a day of ice and snow and no delay or call off but apparently the heat in one of the buildings was not completely working. I was not impressed about not truthfully telling information pertinent to a parent making a decision about their child and school. Luckily I have had rapid responses and corrections if necessary. I have told a friend no one will save or protect your children but you.
Certainly no one cares as much about your own kids as you do. My kids will be fine because we will make them fine. I worry about the kids whose parents don’t have the capacity to do that for their own kids. The whole idea behind public education is supposed to be that it provides for all children regardless of their backgrounds. We are failing the children by putting the needs of the adults ahead of them. And that is a crying shame.
All teachers should be required to read "Bad Therapy" by Abigail Shrier, and there will be a test!
I expect most readers here are familiar with Jonathan Haidt's After Babel substack, detailing the damage done to kids by smart phones and social media. Shrier makes a good case that phones are only part of the problem: safetyism at school and in the home, along with clueless parents have created an inward-looking generation of kids who have never been allowed to grow up, obsessed with their mental health and afraid to try anything for fear of failure.
Remember when fireworks used to have the instruction "Light the blue touch paper and retire to a safe distance"? Well I've just passed the book on to my wife to read, and she is a child psychiatrist. Actually it only says what she's been saying for years, so I don't expect an explosion!
Schools using Abigail Shrier writing to teach? Please, next you will be saying something crazy like they should have J.K. Rowling books in the library. Both are targets of the woke. Remember this is the kind of school systems in, say Chicago, where of 53 schools not one student can read or do math at grade level.
I immediately thought of her book! She was also featured recently on Bari's Honestly podcast. Excellent book and excellent interview!
Me too! Awesome book. Abigail Shrier is incredible and gives me hope.
Great book! I just finished reading it.
I've cancelled my afternoon (university) class on Monday for the opposite reason: the classroom to which we've been assigned has no windows!
We'll only have about 80% of totality at our location, but I didn't want my students to miss out altogether. I've told them where I'll be on campus, Monday afternoon, and that I would have some extra viewing glasses with me.
Aren't schools closing to avoid liability. "You didn't keep my kid from looking at the sun. I'm suing."
First of all, what does that say about our schools other than the kids are in charge not the teachers. If they can't follow simple instructions what are they learning. As they stated above, it's learning time for pin holes etc. And these are suppose to be our leaders of tomorrow.
Or, "you didn't allow my kid to experience the eclipse. I'm suing."
Yep. My thoughts exactly.
I’m sorry I have to respectfully disagree as the mother of a significantly autistic teenager. They may glance at it like they normally could anytime at the sun. Also there are no reports of large scale eye injuries in previous eclipses. Being sent home early from school will be more damaging.
Seconded! My daughter was five in 2017 and severely autistic. We went to the path of totality, and it was fine. Looking at the sun directly hurts, so she doesn’t do it. Neurotypical toddler son, same deal.
That said, perpetual thanks are always due to special ed staff.
I just cannot reconcile an "abundance of caution" with regards to a solar eclipse with the haphazard eagerness to put kids on stimulant medications, SSRIs, antipsychotics, and/or hormone blockers.
Actually, it fits right in.
American education hasn’t been about children for many years now, and certainly not about individual growth and development into better, happier, more successful adults since at least the bipartisan “No Child Left Behind.”
Drug them up, dumb them down, disempower them from the inside out, then pass them on to fulfill their roles in our new society.
"An abundance of caution" is code for "don't sue us!"
The craziest part about this is we just had an eclipse in 2017. Where I live was through the path of totality and we had many people traveling to our city to observe it. Even just 7 years ago, so much has changed. This was built in as a teacher workday so public schools are not in session (interestingly, one of my children who is in private school is still having classes—they have activities planned for the entire building, K-12, to go outside to watch). In 2017, school was held, it was treated as an amazing learning opportunity and a big celebration of a once in a lifetime event.
“Abundance of caution” is one of those phrases that makes me want to pull my hair out.
You should want to pull their hair out and stuff it down their throats.
I, along with the rest of my elementary school, used a pinhole viewer made out of a shoebox for the 1979 eclipse. We also had a jungle gym and a two story firepole on our playground. By today's standards our school would probably be shut down for child endangerment. I'm so happy that i grew up when i did.
I’m sorry that we have so poorly educated our population that they fear this event. People, the totality of a solar eclipse is not only the only time it’s safe to watch the Sun directly, you SHOULD watch it directly, WITHOUT glasses. It is beautiful and magnificent and safe. True, the window of safety is only minutes long, but can we please not be hysterical idiots?
The main point is to maintain us (starting when we're children) in a constant state of fear, cowering under the warm, safe embrace of our government. It's this among so many other similar things. The world is scary and dangerous, but we'll keep you safe.
How is being in a classroom less safe for kids than wandering around outside with a day off?
And who will watch them at home as mom and dad can't be there?
Clearly that’s not the schools problem.
When changing the schedule for when parents can expect their child to be in school, yes, it is a consideration the school has to make. Parents need time to arrange to have some type of supervision of their child or is leaving them home alone, at any age, a good idea. It's the school's causing the problem. They have an obligation to help provide the answers to their stupid decisions.
You seem to think government in any form is held accountable.
Government that forces one to be at a certain place at certain times yes.
I'd like to understand exactly how many such eye injuries have been experienced in the past.
Every year the tv gnus runs articles on using sunscreen or bundling up in the winter. While it’s mindless filler, I believe they really think people are too stupid to figure this stuff out for themselves.
In general, there are those who are stupid enough not to figure things out. And then they sue.
They are.