No common sense in e-learning dictates

Returning our children to school in person is one of the most important decisions school board officials, D211 and D54 administration will face in their careers. It would seem that the best trajectory to take this would be to form a task force, made up of clinicians, health experts and medical professionals, which would advise school personal on how to do this. Instead, we are sitting on ridiculous and unattainable IDPH guidelines for schools to follow. Misinterpretation and misconstrued data and stats are being used. Our children are political pawns.

There is a lack of common sense by all of our decision-makers. This all culminates in the damage we are doing to our children, which is exceedingly worse than the disease itself - poor education, lack of and poor socialization, isolation, depression, anxiety and fear.

We "flattened the curve" and "decreased hospitalizations," our children missed out on more than I can write here; but in all that, we gave them hope they would be back to doing what they should be doing as youths. Never did I think I would need to fight for my children's right to have an in-person education. Remote learning is a horrible attempt at education.

Our children are guinea pigs for a horrible socialization experiment - the true damage will not rear its ugly head for a while, but we already see short-term effects.

The two biggest take-aways for our kids are: we are a country who acts based on fear and we have taught them that teachers and their education are non-essential. A marijuana dispensary is more essential than school. A poor education model via remote learning, lack of socialization and fear-based decision making is all they see. All of this, is far greater than COVID ever is or was for our youth.

Kristen Steel

Hoffman Estates