As coronavirus cases continue to climb in the U.S., the question of whether or not schools should open in the fall presents an "absolute disaster of epic proportions with no good answers, no clear sides, and no room for either/or thinking," says Shayla R. Griffin, Ph.D., MSW, author of Those Kids, Our Schools & Race Dialogues. In a Medium post, Griffin says that instead of either/or thinking, we should try a both/and solution: Some schools should open. Some students should go.
More specifically, schools should open full-time only for the students most at the margins, "who are at greatest risk if school buildings remain closed, who cannot meet their basic needs without them." This includes children who need school in order to eat, or are too young to be at home alone while parents go back to work, or who have disabilities "that cannot be supported outside of a school building."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
5 educational cartoons about the Harvard pushbackCartoons Artists take on academic freedom, institutional resistance, and more
-
One-pan black chickpeas with baharat and orange recipeThe Week Recommends This one-pan dish offers bold flavours, low effort and minimum clean up
-
Merz's coalition deal: a 'betrayal' of Germany?Talking Point With liberalism, freedom and democracy under threat globally, it's a time for 'giants' – but this is a 'coalition of the timid'
-
China accuses NSA of Winter Games cyberattacksspeed read China alleges that the U.S. National Security Agency launched cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February
-
Russian strike kills dozens in UkraineSpeed Read The Sumy ballistic missile strike was Russia's deadliest attack on civilians this year
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across SyriaTHE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
South Korea court removes impeached presidentSpeed Read The Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol after his declaration of martial law in December
-
Myanmar quake deaths rise as survivor search intensifiesspeed read The magnitude-7.7 earthquake in central Myanmar has killed a documented 2,000 people so far, and left scores more trapped beneath rubble
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weaponsThe Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
-
Israel detains director after West Bank settler clashspeed read The director of Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land' was arrested and beaten
-
Turkey arrests Istanbul mayor, a top Erdogan rivalSpeed Read Protests erupted in Turkey after authorities detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu
