So school was cancelled all over Japan though there are a few cities that have decided to return to regular school hours... It is an interesting problem and I can see both sides.
The Japanese Prime Minister strongly requested that all elementary, middle and high schools comply with the closing of schools for the month of March and that took effect two days later giving everybody very little time to prepare. Friday the decision was made, Monday there was no more school. Parents scrambled to figure out child care and some children were sent to grandparents and some had grandparents suddenly moving into the home. I have one acquaintance who "watches" her grandchild by Facetime meaning that the 3rd grader stays in his house alone in another prefecture and the iPad is set up so that grandma can see that he is okay, make suggestions that he eat lunch, chat a bit and try to direct him away from the endless computer games he plays.
As a strange twist, there is also something called Gakudou in Japan which is an AFTER SCHOOL program so that children don't have to go home to an empty house after school. The Gakudou provides snacks, there are licensed staff that will supervise games and suggest using the time for doing homework and the children will stay until their parents pick them up around 6:00. I think 75% of the children in the local elementary school go to Gakudou at the end of the day and as the two small one room buildings are on the school grounds, Gakudou is only a few steps away from the larger school.
This has worked out well for AFTER SCHOOL CARE but now Gakudou are being asked to keep children all day while the parents are working as THERE IS NO SCHOOL! Um.... I thought the closing of the schools was to keep children from coming into contact with other children who could be contagious and to protect the school as a whole from Corona Virus. If the majority of those children are being rounded up and cared for in SMALLER rooms in GREATER numbers, then why weren't classes just continued as normal?!
Another inconsistency is that preschool classes are carrying on as normal and Monday I went to the preschool and saw nary a difference in the attendance nor the activities. BUT, the preschool principal asked if the next time I came I could spend a hour with the elementary school students who will be coming to a spare preschool room as a temporary Gakudou... The children who have graduated from this preschool and now have no school to go to are being brought back for the preschool to care for them while parents go to work!
At the very least, it would have been nice if the teachers had had time to prepare a "quarantine policy" curriculum for their students. Put reading goals and a reward system on the list. Gather children for a hike outdoors if the schools classrooms are considered dangerous. Have kids "report" in using FaceTime or text or whatever to get a "mission" for the day. I don't know... All this free time seems to me that it could have been put to better use but now everyone stays indoors and plays computer games all day long.
I'm ranting... And this only about education!
Tetsu and I have stocked up on canned fish and rice. It isn't possible to buy masks or hand sanitizer anymore but we have a good stock of soap. Yes, toilet paper is disappearing from the store shelves... and tissue but I think we'll be okay on that front.
No hand sanitizer or masks here either. Went to get hand sanitizer today because i have a common cold but no luck.
ReplyDeleteWhat a scramble - I feel so bad for the kids and families - and some of this makes no sense at all!
ReplyDeleteGoodness Tanya, you would think the governing bodies over schools would have had a contingency plan in place for emergencies? I agree about watered down curriculums, it is par for the course in most public schools here in the states. I live in NC, we currently have only one *known* active case of Covid19 and not much has changed in our daily lives *yet*. New cases are showing up by the minute in the US, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it is widespread. My husband wants to start an emergency stockpile of items now, just in case. We both have health issues and we'd have to stay put for extended periods if things get worse here. Common sense and caution is the best defense for most anything of this nature. Hugs from NC, KittyAnn
ReplyDeleteI am in Washington state and we are also trying to strike a balance. I agree with your thoughts about the importance of school and working to be safe but also some normalcy for children and families. These are very strange times.
ReplyDeleteSo hard for working Mums and Dads, and this is when the older generation comes out in all its glory. I haven't tried to buy a mask yet, we have stopped going to a cafe for coffee, no flying, no cinema, NO shopping mall, and if I absolutely have to have some Batik, will try and do it by phone, photo, or web site. Keep calm they all say, we are, but are still very concerned.
ReplyDeleteYou make some excellent points here! My understanding was that children are getting the virus but have very mild cases. It is mostly those over 65 or those with immunity issues that are getting the worse cases. SO - one wonders about sending the grandchildren to their grandparents!! I am intrigued by your description of grandparents watching the children on Facetime!! Seems OK if nothing happens but...? There is a synagogue near our area that has shut down services after people were sickened following a bar mitzvah and also the private schools they went to.
ReplyDeleteShelves are emptying here as well. I think it is hard to be informed and still remain calm with the news media constantly emphasizing the worst. Hopefully, spring will come and the warmer weather will kill the virus or boost our immunity!
it's interesting to read how this all going in Japan. It is not as drastic in Australia, but we cant buy toilet paper, tissues and even pasta and rice are getting harder to find.
ReplyDeleteThe school situation is very sad. but I am also concerned about that child who is watched. is your grade 3 about 8 years old?? is that common there?
Since we have had previous scares, H1N1, Ebola, etc., people were supposed to be planning already for an outbreak. It seems like nothing was actually learned from these scares, because basic things like school and work would have been planned. They probably didn't realize that when schools are closed, children have to go somewhere else, as parents still have to work.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought about the education aspect. Many schools had already been winding down the lessons before the Prime Minister's request. Where I teach in Osaka we were to start third term exams the following day, but while the students "lucked out," we teachers have to mark papers neglected while making the abandoned tests and figure out how to mark term grades without those tests. It's a busy time for teachers as we work from home. Usually there are reading lists and drills for the children during school breaks, but we barely have breathing time yet after this first week. We also have to prepare for the new school year from afar. It would be great if enterprising parents or community members would like to help cover for this unexpected challenge, perhaps by suggesting their own ideas for reading without library access, do-it-yourself activities and such. I do agree that cramming the children together in gakudo seems less than ideal. Perhaps parents as well as schools should already have had contingency plans in place.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the US. We have new cases reported every day with more states getting involved. Masks disappeared in mid-January with the first news. Hand sanitizer disappeared last week (thank you Tanya for the heads-up - I bought extra because you mentioned it had already disappeared in Japan!), along with liquid hand soap, Lysol/Clorox wipes, and drug items like Tylenol and zinc lozenges. I tried to stay ahead of the buying wave because I wear masks in the winter due to normal cold and flu risks and some health issues. So my supplies are OK, for now. Not sure when I'll ever find masks again. I wear (wore?) special anti-viral ones, and the company has stopped making them - they were made in China! They told me they "might be working on a new kind" but would not say more.
ReplyDeleteThis week, I only had to track down bleach, which was on my list anyway, and rubbing alcohol (my bottle was set to expire in May). Supplies of those were low, but there. There was no toilet paper on the grocery shelves yesterday! That amazed me - are people planning to stay home for months behind a wall of TP?? No bottled water, too. Can't imagine why, because our water supply is safe. One thing I did notice still on the shelves this week were Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissues. They're coated with zinc and sodium lauryl sulfate ("soap") and can help stop viruses on used tissues. I thought those would have disappeared before now. I'm wondering if they'd make better-than-nothing "emergency" masks. They take 15 minutes of contact to "deactivate" a virus, though (you hope).
I limit my exposure in public in winter anyway, so my lifestyle is not changing much. I've talked my retired husband into going for walks or hikes instead of going to the gym. We already leave groceries and anything else brought into the house in the garage for a day or two before bringing them into the main house, to let viruses (hopefully) die down. If we come out of a store, we Lysol wipe and Purell our hands and anything we've touched in the car. Hopefully warm weather will slow the spread of this new virus, but there's no telling how bad things will get before then. And of course, when it's summer in one part of the world, it's winter in another...
Any "new news" on the Olympics, Tanya? I can't begin to imagine what that could do to the spread, with all the global travel. And I feel very sorry for those people stuck on cruise ships that have not been allowed to dock.
[But no one has ever mentioned EDUCATION in all the talk about SAFETY. ]
ReplyDeleteI think that is because private business and the government have historically sought to remove learning from the home. That is why the cram school industry has bloomed so well here - parental insecurities about education.
Certainly subs and assistant teachers who are being paid by the hour like me are facing challenges. I think I enjoy my english class all the more ... griping in english, maybe. Certainly if the teachers had more time to prepare, they could have made a list of challenges for kids to fulfill. Leia will have her graduation ceremony with no adults in attendance ... including her other grandmother who sewed her a lovely graduation dress.
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