We are losing a generation of kids and have not long to fix it.

The "Long Winter" of lockdowns and Pandemic deaths has been followed by the worst Cold Spell since the 1980s - at least here in Missouri. This is exposing a horrible mistake. Once the infrastructure for "Online School" was in place educators now have a new option ready for days of inclement weather or whatever. My district calls these "A.M.I." days, Alternative Means of Instruction. 

 Whatever this means in theory, in practice it is this: 1) At 5:44 a.m. Parents get an email that their child will not be in school. Parents are also supposed to not just ensure their child is clothed/fed/sheltered but will need to take on the full time task of aiding their student with assignments and policing their student to get their assignments done. 2) Instead of instruction, the teacher will send a link to a video or a text to read and perhaps a quiz that the student is supposed to self-instruct themselves on. This is, of course, not adequate for instruction and this is the very reason why teachers and schools exist. 3) The teachers will then grade/judge the untaught/unsupported student's work as a failure and perhaps report the parent to some kind of secret police list or whatever happens when your child fails. 

 This allows the school to not take a "Snow Day" and not add a day to the school year in the Summer and all it costs is the loss of a day of the child's developmental success and the mental health of the working parents. Snow days were fine - they were better - we need to return to this as soon as possible. An email saying "Read this chapter" is not the same thing as an hour in class. It is not a substitute or even an acceptable facsimile. This is my new crusade and I am reaching out to my school district ASAP. An entire Generation of children are being failed by the horrible idea that interacting with a glowing rectangle can be a full substitute for the entire community of people that make a child's education. We made this policy, we can unmake it. We need to.