Franklin Schargel’s Blog

                                Young People are Spreading the Virus

While children are less susceptible to catching the Covid-19 virus. An Axious.com study estimates that school reopenings increased total infections by about 26% as of October, and deaths by about 6% “” because children and teenagers spread the virus to adults, who are “more transmission efficient.”

The coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. has been chiefly driven by young and middle-aged people, while killing mostly older people, Axios Vitals author Caitlin Owens writes.

Why it matters:   The notion that non-vulnerable people can go about their normal lives, while vulnerable people self-isolate, has not borne out in the U.S.

 

 

 

 

“There is no indication that teachers are dying at a higher rate than other professionals, and no evidence that the coronavirus is spreading faster in schools than in communities at large, especially in districts where health precautions are strictly followed.” NY Times,  (1/27/2012)

Although there is no definite account of how many of the nation’s 3.5 million teachers have contracted or died during the pandemic, the American Federation of Teachers said it was aware of 530 school employees lost to Covid-19 last years. The lack of contract tracing makes it nearly impossible to know where most of those teachers gotten the virus.

Although three educators died in Powder Springs, GA, two board members and the superintendent declined to wear masks during a moment of silence at a memorial service.  While some states have prioritized educators for vaccinations, not all have done so.

President Biden wants schools to open for in-person learning. Parents, children, businesspeople and educators want schools to open as well. I want schools to open as well, however, it should be done I want to do that SAFELY. What does “safely”’ mean?

• Everyone working with children in schools needs to be vaccinated.
• Children are tested regularly to insure that they are not bringing the virus into school from home.
• Schools need to mandate that EVERYONE wears a mask and enforce that policy.
• Daily temperature checks are taken at school entrances.
• Social distancing is practiced in the school (in classrooms, lunchroom, study hall, gyms)
• Plexiglass dividers are in classrooms.

Unlike other businesses, classroom educators come into contact with large numbers of people (35-185 or more in high schools) for long periods of time (45 minutes ““ 6 hours) every day.

 

 One of my friends told me about a powerful lesson in her daughter’s high school class this winter. They’re learning about the Salem Witch Trials, and their teacher told them they were going to play a game. “I’m going to come around and whisper to each of you whether you’re a witch or a normal person. Your goal is to build the largest group possible that does NOT have a witch in it. At the end, any group found to include a witch gets a failing grade.” The teens dove into grilling each other. One fairly large group formed, but most of the students broke into small, exclusive groups, turning away anyone they thought gave off even a hint of guilt. “Okay,” the teacher said. “You’ve got your groups. Time to find out which ones fail. All witches, please raise your hands.” No one raised a hand. The kids were confused and told him he’d messed up the game. “Did I? Was anyone in Salem an actual witch? Or did everyone just believe what they’d been told?” And that is how you teach kids how easy it is to divide a community. Keep being welcoming, beautiful people. Shunning, scapegoating and dividing destroy far more than they protect. We’re all in this together.

I am reposting Who Packed Your Parachute? in honor of our heroes  on Memorial Day. A number of you have not seen it. If you see a soldier in uniform this weekend. Thank them for their service. They are sacrificing so much so that we can remain free.

I am indebted to Marvin Goldstein for forwarding this to me.

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience!

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, ‘ You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!   ‘How in the world did you know that?’ asked Plumb. ‘I packed your parachute,’ the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.

The man pumped his hand and said, ‘I guess it worked!’  Plumb assured him, ‘It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.’

Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, ‘I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said ‘Good morning, how are you?’ or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.’ Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, ‘Who’s packing your parachute?’ Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory – he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.  As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes.

I am sending you this as my way of thanking you for your part in packing my parachute. And I hope you will send it on to those who have helped pack yours! Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word. Maybe this could explain it! When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do – you forward jokes. And to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for and guess what you get? A forwarded joke.

So, next time when you get a joke, don’t think that you’ve been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you’ve been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile, just helping you pack your parachute.

With hope in my heart and gratitude and love to all of you as well for packing my parachute.   I am lucky to have people to send my jokes to.  Thanks for raising me up!

 

 

Schools Running Out of Educators and It Will Get Worse!

An article in the New York Times, (1/19/2021) “Pandemic Teacher Shortages Imperil In-Person Schooling” by Natasha Singer, indicate that the Coronavirus has forced thousands of teachers not to seek reemployment as schools reopen. The article reaffirms the premise of my latest, best-selling book, “Who Will Teach The Children? Recruiting, Retaining and Refreshing Highly Effective Educators”. Teacher shortages have existed for many years, but the virus has exacerbated the problem. In addition, states and local areas have reduced educational funding. One study taken before the pandemic, reported that schools nationwide needed more than 100,000 additional full-time instructors particularly in science, math, foreign language and special education.

• Schools are trying a variety of ways of filling their classrooms with “warm bodies”. Some have exhausted their regular supply of substitute instructors and have used principals, librarians and other staff members to teach classes, monitor lunch, study halls and recess. Using a rotating list of substitutes means that children will have a new teacher in front of them every day.
• Some school districts are advertising on local billboards. The governor of Nevada has issued an emergency  pandemic regulation allowing large school districts to hire those with only a high school diploma to work as substitute teachers.
• In the two weeks before the December holiday break, 6.3 million survey respondents said children in their households have not had any live contact with their teacher in the previous week.
• Compounding the problem, most teachers have not had any or limited training on delivering virtual instruction.
• In Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia, there has been a decrease of more than 1,000 substitutes -a drop of 30 percent. The Gwinnett School Board raised the pay rate by $5 a day. When that failed to recruit enough substitutes, they lowered the requirement from needing 60 college credits to merely having a high school diploma. Substitutes teachers have taken on the duties of a regular teacher but frequently without benefits such as health insurance, paid sick leave or pension.
• K-12 schools cannot count on Schools of Education to produce more teachers because enrollment in Schools of Education is down over 36 percent. The Census Bureau has indicated that the decreased availability of teachers has disproportionately affected low-income, minority students. Lowering the credentialing criteria could diminish instructional quality.

Education provides the backbone of a nation’s economy. It is important to remember that schools create all jobs.  Without a well-educated and well-trained workforce, a nation cannot thrive in the 21^st century.

 

 

 

According to the Boston Globe, (12/12/2020) “nearly one quarter of Boston Public High School students did not log into classes this fall as schools remained closed and course failure rates rose.” Only about 86 percent of students from kindergarten through grade 12 went online each day. More than 4,000 students in the city’s three dozen high schools did not click into classes or receive their assignments.

Among students in grades 6-12, failure rates for the first academic quarter rose to 18 percent in English classes from 12.4 percent the previous year. Increases in failure rates in other subjects were similar. Educational inequality widened as students who learned from home faced challenges from lack or poor parental support and technology challenges Black and Latino students experienced the largest increase. The greatest impact is affecting immigrant students who struggle with language problems as well as unreliable Internet service.

Also affected are physically and mentally challenged students. Young children (kindergarten and first-grade students) find that sitting in front of a computer for the entire day produces anxiety and stress. Students with disabilities, including attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity disorder or severe sensory disorders face the greatest challenges. In Boston, fewer than 200 students with profound disabilities are  receiving in-person instruction.

This is having an impact on colleges as well. Fifty-three percent of high school graduates filed for colleges this fall, down sharply from the previous year.

What is not known whether this is impacting the city’s dropout rates. Another problem is how schools will narrow the gap between students who successfully logged on and those who didn’t.

The Covid Crisis is Compounding the Teacher Shortage in Schools

The Wall Street Journal reported (12/15/2020) that school districts are recruiting parents as substitute teachers. Online class sizes are soaring to 50 students or more. Bus drivers are baby-sitting classes. Some school districts are allowing asymptomatic teachers who were exposed to Covid-19 to continue to teach.

Public-school employment November was down 8.7 percent from February 2020, and is at its lowest level since 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Several states around the country are loosening requirements for teaching credentials and are making it easy to teach in public school classrooms. Minnesota, Arizona, Utah, Kansas and Illinois have all revamped their requirements.  Teachers have quit, taken leaves of absence, or retired early and have been affected by staff layoffs of teacher aides and clerical workers.

My latest best-selling book, Who Will Teach The Children? Recruiting, Retaining & Refreshing Highly Effective Educators” addresses the teacher and administrator shortages and proposes solutions. (available from Amazon)

 

This has been a trying year filled with extraordinary challenges for educators, children and parents. You have met the challenges and continue to do so.

We want to  thank you all for your kind words, and suggestions to make this website better.
We wish you all happy holidays, a belated happy Hannukah, a blessed Kwanza and a very merry Christmas. Wishing you, your family and your loved ones a new year filled with health and happiness.

Stay safe. Stay well.

Franklin