One Last Analogy: day camp
Jul. 20th, 2020 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutWhen I was wee, if day camp was a thing, I never heard anything about it. I read about sleepaway summer camp in _Just Plain Maggie_ and other books, and I wanted to go so bad! Some time late in elementary school, we actually went as a whole class to some sleepaway thing. I remember making a shelter out in the woods. That was fun. A lot of bugs, tho, and kinda cold and damp because PNW. Summer school was something you could get through the school or maybe the rec center, but it cost money so no go there, either — well, until my sister had to do a makeup class of some sort, and then I said, hey, if she gets to go, then I do too! And I got to do a science summer class and we dropped eggs off the high school stadium roof (mine broke, I am not good at that sort of thing) and did model rockets and it was awesome.
Of course now, summer day camp is a Thing. I figured my kids might never get to do it, but A. does, and T. does sleepaway, so golden! Well, except everything is canceled this year.
But here is the thing. We all just Accept that school is a thing that goes on a break for parts of three months and working parents just have to Figure It Out. We just Accept that work hours and school hours do NOT line up, and we charge parents for xday before or after school or both, and we arrange to have after school activities like karate pick kids up to provide after school care if the family thinks that is better than xday.
WE DO NOT CARP AT PARENTS FOR PUTTING THEIR KIDS IN SUMMER DAY CAMP.
We do not expect that parents will simultaneously supervise their kids AND work at their jobs full time all summer. Duh.
We ALSO do not expect parents who sign up for xday or karate or whatever to figure out how to make this work for people who cannot afford the charge for xday or karate or whatever. We do not go, did you bring enough for everyone at them. We do not say, well, I would quit my job and financially struggle rather than sign my kid up for xday. Oh, wait, yeah, some people do that but we have mostly made them shut it.
And yet, when parents take a look at fall reopening being either 2 days a week max, or 100% remote, and decide to basically put together the moral equivalent of xday or summer day camp or whatever, suddenly it is all, privilege, and I would quit my job and financially struggle rather than hire a tutor, and Betsy DeVos will use this to end public education, and there will not be enough experienced teachers left to do the public schools because the pods will hire them all. (Conveniently, many, many educators have already been laid off and thus are presumably looking for jobs, possibly as pod tutors if the price and conditions can be negotiated in a way satisfactory to all participants. Always a hump to get over.)
OK, so, repeat after me: if it is okay to have private summer day camp and private sleepaway camp in the Before Times, what _precisely_ is different between that and hiring a tutor during the Now Times.
Because it looks exactly the same to me. It looks like schools were kinda slow and resistant to doing what needed to be done (year round school, reconfiguring education completely to reduce transmission risk meaningfully), and people who could solved the problem for their own families to bridge to whenever the school got it all figured out, if ever.
(Also, I am aware that summer camp need-based “scholarships” exist. Presumably, something similar could be set up for podded tutoring.)
Of course now, summer day camp is a Thing. I figured my kids might never get to do it, but A. does, and T. does sleepaway, so golden! Well, except everything is canceled this year.
But here is the thing. We all just Accept that school is a thing that goes on a break for parts of three months and working parents just have to Figure It Out. We just Accept that work hours and school hours do NOT line up, and we charge parents for xday before or after school or both, and we arrange to have after school activities like karate pick kids up to provide after school care if the family thinks that is better than xday.
WE DO NOT CARP AT PARENTS FOR PUTTING THEIR KIDS IN SUMMER DAY CAMP.
We do not expect that parents will simultaneously supervise their kids AND work at their jobs full time all summer. Duh.
We ALSO do not expect parents who sign up for xday or karate or whatever to figure out how to make this work for people who cannot afford the charge for xday or karate or whatever. We do not go, did you bring enough for everyone at them. We do not say, well, I would quit my job and financially struggle rather than sign my kid up for xday. Oh, wait, yeah, some people do that but we have mostly made them shut it.
And yet, when parents take a look at fall reopening being either 2 days a week max, or 100% remote, and decide to basically put together the moral equivalent of xday or summer day camp or whatever, suddenly it is all, privilege, and I would quit my job and financially struggle rather than hire a tutor, and Betsy DeVos will use this to end public education, and there will not be enough experienced teachers left to do the public schools because the pods will hire them all. (Conveniently, many, many educators have already been laid off and thus are presumably looking for jobs, possibly as pod tutors if the price and conditions can be negotiated in a way satisfactory to all participants. Always a hump to get over.)
OK, so, repeat after me: if it is okay to have private summer day camp and private sleepaway camp in the Before Times, what _precisely_ is different between that and hiring a tutor during the Now Times.
Because it looks exactly the same to me. It looks like schools were kinda slow and resistant to doing what needed to be done (year round school, reconfiguring education completely to reduce transmission risk meaningfully), and people who could solved the problem for their own families to bridge to whenever the school got it all figured out, if ever.
(Also, I am aware that summer camp need-based “scholarships” exist. Presumably, something similar could be set up for podded tutoring.)