If you’ve been wondering what it will look like when the kids go back to school, one school in Quebec has released their new guidelines and they’re shocking.
Apparently, schools are going to look a lot like prison camps.
This is another example of how things will not just “go back to normal.” Everything is changing, including life for our children.
Here are the guidelines one school has laid out.
Schools in Quebec, Canada are reopening on May 19th and one school released its guidelines. This list was submitted by a parent to the Facebook page, Kate for Education. The school was not named for the privacy of the parent. (All emphasis is mine.)
Now if you’re saying to yourself, “This is in Canada. There’s no way this nonsense will happen here in America,” I urge you to remember that the lockdown restrictions in Canada are far less stringent than those in the United States. Look around at the ridiculous rules we already have like stores choosing what items are essential for us to buy. Then tell me “It can’t happen here.”
Here are those reopening guidelines.
- To minimize movement, we forecast assigning students to classes nearest the Berlin Street entrance (on all 3 floors if needed only);
- Once assigned to a class, students will spend their entire day (including lunchtime) in their assigned seats;
- Students must expect to be regrouped based on the number of students returning;
- Students must not expect to return to their regular class with their classmates;
- Your child may not be with the same teachers as before as several members of our staff will not be returning to school;
- Teachers not returning to school will continue working and keeping close contact with students remotely from home as recommended by the government;
- Activities completed while in school will not be evaluated or graded;
- No physical materials will be transported back and forth between home & school;
- Students must include a mini garbage and recycling bag with their lunch in order to collect their personal garbage and dispose of it at home;
- All students must bring in their personal, labeled, and filled water bottle as water fountains won’t be available;
- Sharing of ALL items (pencils, pens, sharpeners, wax crayons, rulers, toys) is not permitted;
- When weather permits, recess breaks will be held outdoors and will entail of walking outside safely distanced from one another in a prearranged pattern;
- Gatherings (groups of students together) will not be permitted;
- Limited travel throughout the school by all during the day;
- Bathroom visits will be monitored/escorted so that proper disinfection by our caretakers can follow before another student uses the facilities;
- As per government recommendations, masks and gloves will not be provided;
- Students are certainly welcomed to bring these items from home. They are also invited to carry their own personal disinfecting wipes with them if they wish;
- Lockers will no longer be used. Students will place their spring/summer jackets behind the chair they will be using & their school bags under their assigned desks;
- There will be no cafeteria service or Home & School pizza & frozen yogurt days.
- There will be no physical activity taking place in the gym, no art classes (although art and craft projects can be promoted as home suggestions), no library periods, and no drama classes;
- No fundraisers or after school activities will take place;
- Parent volunteers will not be permitted in school;
- We recommend your child brings a book or two of interest from home to read;
- Students with fever or flu-like symptoms will be returned home.
Lest it sound as though this is a total outlier, here is the guidance from another school – it’s similar but not quite as harsh. And here are documents from the Minister of Education outlining the guidelines to be followed by the schools.
And did you notice there are quite a few inconsistencies? Kids can’t take anything back and forth from school. You know, except for their lunches, their garbage, their water, their PPE, and some books to read. That stuff doesn’t count as gong back and forth and clearly, is germ-free.
This sounds more like a prison for dangerous offenders than a nurturing place for children to learn and grow. And to think, Harvard is worried that homeschool kids are isolated and poorly socialized.
It’s important to note that returning is not mandatory for the rest of this school year. Teachers will still be available for online learning if parents wish to keep their children home.
I simply cannot fathom treating children in this way. If a home school parent had similar rules for their children, Family Services would immediately be at their door for the radical mistreatment of their offspring. The fact that the government can not just allow but order the public school system to abide by guidelines is utter madness. This is not right and it is not healthy, mentally, physically, or psychologically.
This setting seems like it would be psychologically damaging.
Imagine the culture of fear this creates for children. When you drum into a child the constant worry that others might be infectious, how do you expect that child to learn to communicate with others, make friends, and enjoy learning? This is how you make children afraid of human contact.
Active children will be miserable. If you think the number of diagnoses for ADHD and similar behavioral issues is high now, just wait until energetic 7-year-olds are forced to sit in the same chair all day and then walk in a properly distanced around a playground, past all the fun stuff like swings and slides.
If their work isn’t even graded or evaluated, what could possibly be the point of returning to school?
I guess there’s one point.
If you want a population of worker bees who will quietly submit to authority and distance themselves completely from the influence of others, this is how you produce that population. You drum into them that they can’t even choose when to go to the bathroom, that they can’t congregate with others, and that they must remain seated with their hands strictly kept to themselves at all times.
I wonder if the monitoring of the bathroom will be similar to what was discussed in this article or if somebody will actually go with them. And if so, isn’t an adult being alone in the bathroom with a child pretty inappropriate?
You teach them that every single moment is structured and supervised. You teach them to walk only in orderly formation – no skipping, no running, no playing.
And just think, all this time public school parents were worried about homeschooled kids not being properly “socialized” with others.
Would you ever allow your child to be subjected to these conditions?
We don’t know exactly what the conditions will be like when kids return to school in the United States, but it wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to expect something similar to this, particularly in harder-hit regions of the country.
I wouldn’t subject my kids to this horrible setting for any reason. I’ve always tried to be open-minded regarding the homeschooling vs. public schooling debate – one of my kids graduated from a public high school and the other was homeschooled. But I urge any parent who is able to stay home not to send their children back to school if it’s going to be more like a prison camp. Continue if you can at all to educate them at home and let them play outside, paint beautiful pictures, and do science projects.
Let them be children, for crying out loud.
Article posted with permission from Daisy Luther
