In privileged quarters, students of elite colleges are
asking for a “universal pass” on this semester’s courses. These colleges have
returned the favor with Pass/Fail grading. (Anemona Hartocollis, NY Times,
3/28/20). Who are they to speak? Meanwhile, in the K-12 environment, contingency
plans “tore off the bandage”, revealing deep discrepancies in our first-world
society.
Internet access- Many families with broadband internet
access face strict bandwidth limitations, which prevent full utilization of
online meetings and classwork. Many rural households rely on dial-up internet,
running over phone lines placed during the 1930’s Rural Electrification Act.
Technology- Among the working class, cell phones serve as
the family’s primary link to the internet. Household surveys focus on whether
or not a family has a home computer, etc. It does not consider if each member
of the family- adults and school-age children- has a way to work online.
Childcare arrangements- Among working-class and poor families,
we might as well be back to the Upton Sinclair’s Chicago stockyards. Because of
smaller and atomized families in a more mobile America, teachers have found
that older children are taking care of younger siblings. In other cases, small
children follow their mothers to attend chores outside the home. In certain
quarters, teachers and the school system have been equated to child care
providers; Kamala Harris was of this opinion.
Economic strategy for adverse time- This comes up in crisis
management training for EMTs and fire squads: keep track of your receipts so
the governor can hand FEMA the bill. Yet prior to this outbreak, the US had no
clear strategy to handle the personal and small-business economic fallout of
contagion. We are highly leveraged as a society, and run on thin margins as
household budgeters, landlords, and business owners. Our savings rate is much
lower than in Asia. Over the next year, displacement and eviction, as well as
household consolidation into shared quarters, pose a risk of disruption to
student’s learning.
Control of contagious diseases- Special protections for
service workers, such as Plexiglas shields, were introduced too late. Outside
of the medical field, transportation workers, police, and cashiers have been
punished hard by the virus, with many untimely deaths. COVID joins a handful of
other maladies whose patients receive care at government expense. Each of these
diseases has a chapter in American history: Polio, leprosy, kidney failure
(ESRF) and, until 1981, shipboard medicine.
