As many, many parents face the dilemma as to whether to send their children back to school in the face of this pandemic, our family does also. My daughter's two boys are the children of consideration and as a very close grandma we all are facing this impossible choice. As always, I deal with this in poetry form.
SCHOOL vs
VIRTUAL
What do we
do, I’m asking you, with school this coming fall?
This virus
has us so perplexed, we just can’t think at all.
We thought
our isolation would give a fighting chance
But
Washington was late to act and all they did was dance.
So we
looked to the scientists, to follow their direction
But
Covid’s not been seen before, they guessed, then gave correction.
We thought
that through the paths they took there’d come some understanding,
But all
we’ve learned was they don’t know and this fight’s never-ending!
But faced
with an economy that couldn’t get much worse
We hoped
to open up again to fill the nation’s purse.
Then
businesses that suffered could slowly start anew
But anxiousness,
too much too soon, revealed the Covid truth.
And that is,
Covid’s virulent, affecting young and old
With numbers
and statistics that prove it’s not controlled.
That’s bad
enough but some don’t even practice common sense
Resuming
life without a thought, at everyone’s expense.
Not only
that they thumb their nose and do it all with fervor,
They care
not that they're spreading this and flaunt their choice as clever.
My worry
has profoundly grown for schools, likewise our nation.
The state
of things, it breaks my heart, I can’t sit back with patience…
As if someday
this all will change and we’ll live as we did.
The world
we knew is gone for good, that life we’ll never live.
How can we
send our children back, resume the schools again?
The
danger’s real and yet they need activities and friends.
The
sixth-month isolation has left them all depressed.
How can
they do assignments and study then for tests?
They yearn
for what they had before, returning to their school
But aren’t
we really throwing them into a virus pool?
How can we
trust the school to do the disinfecting tasks,
Remind
them all to wash their hands & always to wear masks?
And will
the virtual option here provide a teacher who
Will talk
to them, and every day, sometimes to parents too?
How will
it look inside the school with six-feet ‘tween them all?
Will they
be watched, reminded too, as they walk down the hall?
And has
this really been thought out with real consideration?
I’m not
convinced that this is wise, all I feel is frustration.
