Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

I get a balanced news feed each morning that offers me stories from the entire political spectrum… and this story by Matt Walsh from the libertarian website Reason offers a counterbalance to the argument I’ve advanced against the parent pods as they are emerging. In a nutshell, Mr. Walsh’s argument is that given that many states and regions have bent the curve and given that “Study after study has shown that kids 10 and under rarely contract, get sick from, or transmit COVID-19″ , politicians should stop wringing their hands of racial and economic inequities and OPEN UP THE DAMN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS ALREADY!

In most cases I would be suspicious of the motives of writers from libertarian magazines advocating for the opening of public schools, but this sentence gives me the sense that Mr. Walsh is motivated by the frustration that only a work-at-home parent feels:

Parents are podding up not because they want to separate their children from people who don’t look like them, but because the damn schools aren’t open, and they would rather eat razor blades than experience another season like this spring.

I know that my daughters in Brooklyn and North Jersey feel this pain… and while I don’t believe either are participating in “pods” they might seriously consider doing something like a pod model if the opportunity presented itself… particularly if the focus of the pods was child care in the case of my daughter with a rising 3rd grade and socialization in the case of my daughter with a rising 10th grader. I fear that school leaders have so much on their plates right now that dealing with higher level issues like equity are the farthest thing from they minds… but it might be possible for schools to “broker” pods through the use of platform cooperatives. I am hoping that someone reading this has the technological savvy to know how to pull this off and the willingness to offer their experience voluntarily to schools to make it happen. Such a service would be far more helpful than offering money for Chromeooks…