Also, I have a number of students who do not have home situations that are conducive to their educational development. These are not bad homes (although there might be some of those), but ones that might be crowded, filled with distractions, or just not ideal for concentration. Unfortunately, many of these students are the same ones who wait until the last possible moment to save their grade, and our semester ends in just two days.
I am furious with the anti-mask crowd, particularly those who have not followed mitigation strategies and downplayed this virus. Whether they "believe" in the virus or not is irrelevant. Schools are being shut down or remaining shut down because a virus which could be mitigated and contained is continuing to spread due to ignorance and self-centered obsession.
We could be running our lives at near normal if we did not have these science-deniers continuing to spread their misinformation and the epidemic. I feel like we're back in 1848 and people are insisting on drinking from the well with cholera because doing anything else is too much of an inconvenience. We have citizens reenacting the life of Typhoid Mary, refusing to believe that their actions are directly linked to the suffering of others. Ironically, they are often the ones complaining the most about life not being "normal."
I know that I shouldn't write my posts while angry, and I've already had to delete a paragraph with not-family-appropriate language. However, I want our students back in school as soon as possible. I want our community to be safe. To do this, we have to work together. We can beat this thing if we do.