So, we're now into September. Since moving to BC, I've always reckoned on Labour Day marking the end of summer. Yes, we may still get warm spells for a few weeks yet, but as soon as the sun disappears it feels autumnal. Darker mornings and evenings, cooler air.
In the last week, Ali and I took another trip up-Island. We enjoyed our week in a cabin back in July, and decided to do it again to round off the summer. It was just the two of us this time (plus dogs) which made a nice change. The week started off a bit crappy, with a two-hour hold-up on the highway due to a serious accident earlier on in the day, followed by a day of rain, but things improved throughout the week. Overall, we had a good time doing nothing much in particular.
Now it's a long weekend before we all get back to the grindstone.
There is a lot of confusion and anxiety about the upcoming school year.
At Ali's school there is supposed to be distancing and other health measures in place, including some remote learning. But from the information available, it looks like all students will be on site for a large chunk of the time which seems to make a mockery of the need for remote learning. If on-site is good enough for half the day, why not the whole day? And the class sizes are too large to allow effective separation.
Matthew will resume college studies, and it looks like most of the learning will be remote other than essential lab work. Again, questions of practicality rear their heads if an on-campus block is followed by remote work where the students are supposed to be off site.
Maybe things will become clear in the coming week, or maybe it will be a gong show. Who knows?
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Hi Ian - glad you had a good 'last break' up-Island and we're able to enjoy it just the two of you + the dogs. Good luck with the next few weeks ... I'm glad i'm not in that position - life for students and teachers sounds muddled - I just sincerely hope it all gets worked out. All the best - Hilary
Glad most of your getaway was good.
I agree - if they can go for part of the time, why not all of the time?
Hilary, at least we've had one question answered about Matthew's schedule. The block we were concerned about is remote after all, no need to travel to the campus.
Alex, we'll just have to see what the coming week brings. Maybe it will all make sense, but I'm not holding my breath :)
Where I live (in Europe), people know schools are a hotbed of disease transmission. There's no doing social isolation with small kids. Even so, many parents wanted school to start again. People are getting tired of the virus.
Which doesn't make the virus go away, unfortunately. At least, one would hope our ability to deal with it has improved over the summer. We'll have to see I guess.
Cheers.
Bland, ask any parent or teacher and schools have always been a hotbed of transmission! Trouble is, this is one nasty disease we can't afford to have spread as widely as it will if it gets a chance :(
"Little Petri dishes," someone once called schoolchildren. Unkind, but there's truth to that . . .
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