Friday, April 17th, 2020
Finally, some good news on the Virus front. Reports coming out of Germany today are very encouraging. It looks like infection rates are down to 0.7 and they will allow small businesses to reopen as of Monday and have presented a roadmap for opening schools (mid-May is the plan assuming numbers continue to decline). Mum is ecstatic, which of course has me worried. For my liking she has been taking too many risks, venturing to do some errand pretty much every day. Likewise, Italy and Spain are seeing significant decreases in newly reported infections and are very very slowly easing restrictions.
In other countries close to my heart are more of a mixed bag. In Turkey, my last home before here, numbers are rising even more rapidly (32%) than the UK (21%), while my adopted home, South Africa, seems to see a flattening of the curve. Nationwide infections are at 2.500 cases, which is amazingly little and due to very early lockdown combined with aggressive testing. While lockdown has been extended, it is to allow for time to prepare field hospitals and the deployment of community health workers who can conduct widespread testing to enable isolation and contact tracking. I am very impressed with the government’s actions, I must say. It does help that South Africa has a reasonably good infrastructure in place for HIV testing, which cannot be said for my current country of residence, where numbers are steadily increasing.
Unsurprisingly rural areas in the USA are now seeing a steep increase in infections, some as high as 205% (South Dakota). Strangely, there is a correlation between increasing numbers and social distancing measures; who would have thought. Total numbers worldwide today at ~2.2 million cases. In some States the curves are flattening, this phenomenon seems to be correlated to testing (or rather the lack thereof).
While the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue continues to advocate for restarting all economic activities, the reality suggests that this is rather unlikely. Montgomery County Public Schools, for instance, have just announced that schools will continue to remain closed until at least May 15th. And while I really would like to have my life before #stayhome back, I am grateful that this State has a more measured and insightful governor than the nation has as a leader.
I also note that there are many people who are just good, like this health worker who asked to be given for tablets for her birthday to donate to the ICU so patients in isolation who do not own smartphones or tablets are able to stay connected to their families.
Even with the May 15th deadline potentially giving students four weeks of school before the year is out. There is a big chance school will not resume this year. Virginia has for instance already announced schools will not reopen until after the summer break. I feel for the students. All the seniors scheduled to finish school this year are not only struggling with grades and getting their next steps in life organized. They will be missing all of the nice traditions of high school send-offs like the prom, which is sad.
For many of the class of 2020 students may be a gap year is something to look at. This may also provide sufficient breathing space to get college applications organized.
For a country where tertiary education is a big business, this may have implications for the universities, but I feel less for them as I tend to believe access to education should be a fundamental right and not a function of assets. Just maybe these events may lead to a rethinking of how university education is organized and funded.
Also, I am less concerned with current college students as there is always the opportunity to extend by a semester to complete degrees. Plus, many have successfully shifted to online learning, which is more than can be said for our high schools.
Even for 11th graders, the current situation is less than ideal, especially those in two-year programs like EM. The IB is designed with all higher-level subjects, half of the course, to be taught over a two year period. I have no idea how all that is not being taught now will be caught up. Will they adjust tests in May 2021 to account for this? Likewise, what will happen to courses which were to be completed this school year? The French oral exam was conducted remotely (after twenty-minutes of IT struggle), but what happens to the written part? There has been no guidance from the IB board other than they may possibly happen in November, by which time there will not have been French classes for eight months. Who, I ask you, will remember any of the content learned? If really this comes to pass, I assume I will engage a French tutor to help with preparation on weekends. Luckily EM’s grade 8 teacher has retired and is willing to tutor her.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would hear teenagers complaining about the lack of structured classes. EM stresses about missing content, less so for maths and physics, but for World History and her other higher-level IB classes. She is using the time to work on her extended essay and her community project though. But like many other students, she finds it hard to self motivate. The fact that different teachers use different forms of communication also is less than helpful. As a result, questions go unanswered for weeks. For example, the students have carefully planned out their art projects for the entire year. Next up would be a sculpture on interactions. Is it permissible to use photography on social distancing? If only there were an answer, maybe that project could be completed when everything else is shelved.
EM’s CAS project is exciting though. She and her friends have a plan to tour European universities over the summer. There is a chance that this may not be happening. However, EM’s CAS project is to create a website with information on options to study outside of the US for her school community. I think that is pretty cool and hopefully a great resource for BCC students coming after her. And of course, I had nothing to do with this idea 😊 Fortunately today has seen some progress on that front as a mentor has been assign to her for her project. Now she just needs to motivate her friends to work with her on this, which should make for a great lesson in leadership.
18.04.2020 01:35
Mark Hughes
I heard about Germany today and, of course, it is all about testing, which we have done so poorly here. Thanks, Donald. By the way, it's 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, not 1616.