My reading clinic remains closed until it is safe for children to attend, but I’m happy to work with and help any student on-line. “A 10-year-old Anne Arundel County elementary school student died from complications of COVID-19…. [he was] a loving fourth-grade student who loved to play the viola and was part of Hilltop Elementary School’s Strings and Chorus group.”
“Over the past month, COVID-19 cases in children 0 to 9 increased by 40% with 17,379 cases in that period, and cases of children 10 to 19 increased by 38% with 25,102 cases in that period.”
So, whoever told you that COVID was not as serious for children—lied.
COVID is very dangerous for children.
No, you cannot claim that Omicron is milder, either. Omicron has shown itself to be dreadful for children. Children are not placed in the hospital unless they are very, very sick. And, yet:
“Children are also being hospitalized at record-high rates. During the week of Dec. 22 to Dec. 28, an average of 378 children age 17 and under were admitted per day to hospitals with the coronavirus, a 66% increase from the week before….
The problem is not just in one or two states. Omicron has spread all across the nation. Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston said they have a “four-fold increase in child hospitalizations.” Dr. Jim Versalovic, pathologist-in-chief at Texas Children's, says that "More than 700 children were in the hospital with Covid-19 during one 24-hour period last week….” Similarly, Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a primary care pediatrician from Columbia University in New York said, "We would be foolish to keep minimizing Covid-19 in children at this point in the pandemic....upper airway conditions can be more dangerous for children than adults."
So yes, the facts do show that COVID is a terrible problem for children, and it’s a nationwide problem. Children all across the United States are getting sick, some seriously, and some even dying. So, why are we sending children back to school in the middle of the omicron surge?
This raises the question: If Omicron is that serious for children, wouldn’t it be better to teach online until the omicron surge calms down?
We are sending children back to school even though they are being hit harder than almost any other age group right now. No one wants the schools to close, but we need to be reasonable. We need to take children’s health and safety into consideration.
Why are schools not offering online education throughout January or until omicron relaxes its attack on children? I’m not talking about returning to online education for the rest of the year—just till omicron settles down.
Are students really going to learn that much in 3 or 4 weeks? No.
Schools are just a breeding group for omicron, and the authorities say that cloth masks are less effective against omicron. Furthermore, many republican governors, republican judges, and republican state legislators have forbidden schools to require masks in the classroom. I’m sorry, but that is like saying, yes, we want our children to get sick from omicron.
Forget all of this excessive emphasis about adults' freedom and adults' personal rights. Children also have rights, including a right to be safe. We have a responsibility as adults and as a society to protect children. Are we doing it? NO.
------------
Read: How Dangerous Is Misinformation?
------------
Yes, my own research has shown that we can bring failing students up 4 grade levels in reading in one year, but to do so we must change how we teach students to read. So yes, we can overcome all of the failure created last year and this year by the coronavirus pandemic. If we change the methods that we use to teach students to read in the classroom, we can teach students to read.
------------
For more on how to teach children to read, see: Vowel Clustering Works Better than Phonics with At-Risk Students
------------
We need to keep our children safe. Get vaccinated. Get your booster, and please, do not forget to wear a mask. Not just any mask, they are now telling us to step up to a N49 mask. Make sure that your child is wearing a N95 mask everywhere they go.
---------------
Misinformation Kills: Has Your Child Been Vaccinated? Or, Are You Waiting?
---------------
“Over the past month, COVID-19 cases in children 0 to 9 increased by 40% with 17,379 cases in that period, and cases of children 10 to 19 increased by 38% with 25,102 cases in that period.”
So, whoever told you that COVID was not as serious for children—lied.
COVID is very dangerous for children.
No, you cannot claim that Omicron is milder, either. Omicron has shown itself to be dreadful for children. Children are not placed in the hospital unless they are very, very sick. And, yet:
“Children are also being hospitalized at record-high rates. During the week of Dec. 22 to Dec. 28, an average of 378 children age 17 and under were admitted per day to hospitals with the coronavirus, a 66% increase from the week before….
The problem is not just in one or two states. Omicron has spread all across the nation. Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston said they have a “four-fold increase in child hospitalizations.” Dr. Jim Versalovic, pathologist-in-chief at Texas Children's, says that "More than 700 children were in the hospital with Covid-19 during one 24-hour period last week….” Similarly, Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a primary care pediatrician from Columbia University in New York said, "We would be foolish to keep minimizing Covid-19 in children at this point in the pandemic....upper airway conditions can be more dangerous for children than adults."
So yes, the facts do show that COVID is a terrible problem for children, and it’s a nationwide problem. Children all across the United States are getting sick, some seriously, and some even dying. So, why are we sending children back to school in the middle of the omicron surge?
This raises the question: If Omicron is that serious for children, wouldn’t it be better to teach online until the omicron surge calms down?
We are sending children back to school even though they are being hit harder than almost any other age group right now. No one wants the schools to close, but we need to be reasonable. We need to take children’s health and safety into consideration.
Why are schools not offering online education throughout January or until omicron relaxes its attack on children? I’m not talking about returning to online education for the rest of the year—just till omicron settles down.
Are students really going to learn that much in 3 or 4 weeks? No.
Schools are just a breeding group for omicron, and the authorities say that cloth masks are less effective against omicron. Furthermore, many republican governors, republican judges, and republican state legislators have forbidden schools to require masks in the classroom. I’m sorry, but that is like saying, yes, we want our children to get sick from omicron.
Forget all of this excessive emphasis about adults' freedom and adults' personal rights. Children also have rights, including a right to be safe. We have a responsibility as adults and as a society to protect children. Are we doing it? NO.
------------
Read: How Dangerous Is Misinformation?
------------
Yes, my own research has shown that we can bring failing students up 4 grade levels in reading in one year, but to do so we must change how we teach students to read. So yes, we can overcome all of the failure created last year and this year by the coronavirus pandemic. If we change the methods that we use to teach students to read in the classroom, we can teach students to read.
------------
For more on how to teach children to read, see: Vowel Clustering Works Better than Phonics with At-Risk Students
------------
We need to keep our children safe. Get vaccinated. Get your booster, and please, do not forget to wear a mask. Not just any mask, they are now telling us to step up to a N49 mask. Make sure that your child is wearing a N95 mask everywhere they go.
---------------
Misinformation Kills: Has Your Child Been Vaccinated? Or, Are You Waiting?
---------------
Reading failure becomes a lifelong problem. It never goes away. According to the National Center for Adult Literacy, 85% of adolescents seen by the courts are classified as “functionally illiterate” and 70% of prison inmates cannot read above the 4th grade level. See Chapter 1 of my book After-School Programming and Intrinsic Motivation for a complete description of the long-term effects of reading failure.
For more information about reading education, see my next blog post. Stay tuned!
For more information about reading education, see my next blog post. Stay tuned!
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