
Massachusetts calls for classrooms with no more than 10 students this fall - ilamont
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/06/08/massachusetts-schools-fall-reopening-guidance-safety-masks-class-size/
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Dork1234
Most elementary students in the state are in classes with 21-22 students. The
average class size is 20 in MA, but that number is lowered by smaller classes
for special education and small school districts. How are they going to split
up 22 students into groups of 10? Brookline just laid off a lot of teachers,
and many other school districts are facing budget short falls making the
problems worst. This is a mess.

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bradly
Without recess, library, lunch the day can be much shorter. There is a good
chance that there could be two different 3 hour in-class sessions a day.

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ghaff
An abbreviated school day would at least help deal with non-participation in
remote learning. Although schools would presumably try to deal with the
reduced classroom hours with more homework of various kinds.

Furthermore, it basically means that for young children there needs to be an
at home adult most of the day even though children go into school for a few
hours.

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ryanlol
> it basically means that for young children there needs to be an at home
> adult most of the day even though children go into school for a few hours

Do kids in Massachusetts go to school at a younger age than in the rest of the
world?

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jpollock
Many states have laws saying at what age a child can be left home alone.
Massachusetts doesn't have a specific legislated age, but they will charge you
with neglect if you get it wrong.

[https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-
ch...](https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-child-abuse-
and-neglect)

~~~
Dork1234
School Bus Companies in MA will not drop off a kid till 11-12 age range unless
there is an older child or adult there to pick them up. Generally in the US
kids are left alone for short periods of time starting at age of 8, and
gradually increase the time. Leaving 5-10 year old at home all day is not
realistic.

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whb07
I love how this issue has become political and non scientific! First it was
“listen to the science”, now it’s something else?

Aren’t the major donors to certain political groups the teachers union? A much
smarter person perhaps could tell me what these incentives might reveal...

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keenmaster
A greater supply of teachers would push down salaries, particularly after the
pandemic is over. I'm not sure that the unions would advocate for small class
sizes unless they're really worried that teachers might be fired or
furloughed. That being said, I would rather just have the kids learn online
for, hopefully, 5-6 more months.

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bigyikes
How would this increase the supply of teachers? Wouldn’t it do the opposite:
increase demand?

I’ve never taken an economics course so this is my naive assumption.

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esyir
You're sort of right, but not quite.

It would increase demand in the short term, but this reduced class size is a
response to disease. When the human malware situation ends, class sizes might
go back up, and the increased supply from aforementioned increased demand
might suppress wages.

This of course assumes that this event lasts long enough for the number of
teachers to scale to meet this.

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mc32
The big issue here is: young children aren’t affected statistically in
significant numbers... So they’re minimizing the effects on a pop that’s
largely “less affected”.

On the other hand parents are very likely to get it from their kids if the
kids do get infected.

Anyway, how do they expect kids to practice good sanitation when attentive
adults can fail (sure kids have less to worry about and can be very focused
—if trained properly at home and school).

I think a measure like this is more symbolic than effective... but hey...

How will kids beginning school even learn how to develop normal kid
interaction and friendships ?

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nradov
The evidence indicates that parents are unlikely to be infected by young
children.

[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2766114)

~~~
m463
> If parents must work and grandparents must become the primary caretakers of
> children, the risk significantly increases that these persons, who are per
> se at the greatest risk of serious illness, may become infected, and this is
> what happened in Italy in the first 2 weeks when school closure was decided
> but other work activities were not stopped.

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tinyhouse
Do they really expect kids to keep 6 feet from each other? Even adults stop
giving a shit once cases go down.

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egypturnash
So are they gonna give all the schools more money to hire all the additional
teachers they're gonna need for this?

~~~
ceejayoz
It's highly unlikely they're going to double the number of classes. (If
nothing else, you'd have to build a bunch of new school buildings in the next
2-3 months to do that.)

They'll likely stagger the classes, so kids have 2-3 days of classroom
instruction each week, and 2-3 days distance learning.

~~~
mc32
Wait... that means a parent or guardian at home (up to certain grade
levels)....

How many people have that option?

WFH is not going to last that long for many people. States are beginning to
phase out some restrictions allowing some people to return to “non essential
work”.

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ghaff
A fair number of people are still going to be WFH (or unemployed) come fall.
But, that said, teaching/dealing with kids doing only somewhat effectual
remote learning will continue to be a challenge. And, of course, the people
who are least able to afford it will be least in a position to handle another
semester of even part-time school-from-home.

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gremlinsinc
Might be a good time to experiment w/ upending the system. In some nations
kids only go to school 4-5 hours per day, if we did that we could have am/pm
classes.

Like Minneapolis disbanding the police, drastic times call for drastic
measures, and nobody knows what might happen, I think we're all experimenting
w/ new things and that's not bad, it could be really good if we can find ways
to get better performance for certain aspects of our society.

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jedieaston
How? Are they going to do two classes per teacher (so each class gets 3 hrs
with the teacher), or get more teachers? Or will most schools just run online
only?

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ceejayoz
10 kids participating online, 10 kids physically in class. Switch daily.

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uptown
And how does every-other day childcare work for the at-home kids? Mom or Dad
just stay home from work every other day? The alternative is paid daycare,
where you’ve just recreated the problem outside of school, at a tremendous
expense.

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ceejayoz
Not a new problem: a lot of those parents are already in that situation now.
People seem to be working it out.

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liquidise
Those parents are all likely on company-wide wfh orders right now, making at
home care easier. I suspect that will change for many before school starts,
making this a very real problem for parents.

~~~
ceejayoz
The unemployment rate is nowhere near 100%. There are a _lot_ of workers
already having to make this function, five days a week, right now.

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karatestomp
The solutions are spending lots of money or sending your kids to relatives
during the day—often older ones, who are precisely the ones we don’t want
around kids who’ve been out and about.

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Simulacra
I think this might be really good. Less children should hopefully translate to
less bullying in the classroom. When there’s 30 kids, it’s easy to get away
with harassment and bullying. In a smaller class, I think the kids will get to
know each other better.

