Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Yesterday was a very productive day for me. The reason I was able to edit, upload, and schedule seven journal-reading videos yesterday is because my seven-year-old, Mika, slept until almost noon. My older daughter, Megan, woke Mika up before she left, but when Mika came downstairs, she climbed into the baby cage and went right back to sleep. I half-heartedly attempted to wake Mika up a few times, but I was in the zone and did not insist she actually get up.
I checked my personal email today, a task I do not do every day, and saw an update from the school district dated Monday. It read, in part: Dear Families, Today, with the support of our Board of Education, we have made a difficult yet important decision to continue with our remote learning plan for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. While we do not have all the answers, we believe this is the right move to protect the health of our students, staff, and community. We realize this announcement will be disappointing to many, while others will appreciate the honest attempt to focus on health and safety. Our remote learning opportunities will continue through the end of the school year on May 21, 2020. We will work hard to refine our remote learning in order to make sure our students are ready to start school with minimal learning gaps in the fall.
Seriously, the school district is still not going to even attempt to teach my child new concepts for the next five weeks? Way to continue to give up on your responsibilities school board! I am letting go of my anger to the school district; Mika has been making me angry enough with her unwillingness to do her schoolwork. I can only harbor so much anger, and there is not much I can do about the school district’s decisions at this time. I can kick this ball into July when I need to prepare Mika for third grade.
I saw a clip on the news that got me thinking. One of the states has restricted purchasing non-essential items in a store that is open to sell essential items such as Walmart or Target. My thought is that it is ridiculous to say I can purchase milk but not a sketch book in a store that sells both. I have already exposed myself and others to possible infection so what difference does it make? I see the other side also has a valid point. As a matter of health, the less time you are in and the less area you can physically enter in a space the less risk for infection. As a matter of fairness, why should Walmart or Home Depot be able to sell you a hammer when the mom-and-pop hardware store was not allowed to stay open? The corporate mass retailers are making money hand over fist without any competition at all. When the brick-and-mortar small businesses are able to open it will be too late for many.
Some brick-and-mortar small businesses will close because they were managed badly, and they would have failed eventually. I think poorly run businesses are a very small minority of the many business failures to come. Some brick-and-mortar small businesses will close because they had not yet reached the self-sufficiency level. Brick-and-mortar small businesses have tremendous overhead and it is not uncommon for a small business to need at least $5,000 per month revenue simply to cover expenses. How long can you pay out $5,000 per month before you need to throw in the towel? Some brick-and-mortar small businesses will close because they have not had the time to build an emergency fund yet. The business may have been making a small profit, but not enough to have six months of expenses on hand. The prospect of spending the next two years rebuilding their business almost from scratch again will be more than some business owners want to deal with.
My piece of advice to you is to look at the other side. Perhaps my school district did make the right choice to focus on the high school students while exploring a new method of teaching since those students are more mature. I cannot imagine any scenario in which I would agree, but maybe.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
Yesterday was a very productive day for me. The reason I was able to edit, upload, and schedule seven journal-reading videos yesterday is because my seven-year-old, Mika, slept until almost noon. My older daughter, Megan, woke Mika up before she left, but when Mika came downstairs, she climbed into the baby cage and went right back to sleep. I half-heartedly attempted to wake Mika up a few times, but I was in the zone and did not insist she actually get up.
I checked my personal email today, a task I do not do every day, and saw an update from the school district dated Monday. It read, in part: Dear Families, Today, with the support of our Board of Education, we have made a difficult yet important decision to continue with our remote learning plan for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. While we do not have all the answers, we believe this is the right move to protect the health of our students, staff, and community. We realize this announcement will be disappointing to many, while others will appreciate the honest attempt to focus on health and safety. Our remote learning opportunities will continue through the end of the school year on May 21, 2020. We will work hard to refine our remote learning in order to make sure our students are ready to start school with minimal learning gaps in the fall.
Seriously, the school district is still not going to even attempt to teach my child new concepts for the next five weeks? Way to continue to give up on your responsibilities school board! I am letting go of my anger to the school district; Mika has been making me angry enough with her unwillingness to do her schoolwork. I can only harbor so much anger, and there is not much I can do about the school district’s decisions at this time. I can kick this ball into July when I need to prepare Mika for third grade.
I saw a clip on the news that got me thinking. One of the states has restricted purchasing non-essential items in a store that is open to sell essential items such as Walmart or Target. My thought is that it is ridiculous to say I can purchase milk but not a sketch book in a store that sells both. I have already exposed myself and others to possible infection so what difference does it make? I see the other side also has a valid point. As a matter of health, the less time you are in and the less area you can physically enter in a space the less risk for infection. As a matter of fairness, why should Walmart or Home Depot be able to sell you a hammer when the mom-and-pop hardware store was not allowed to stay open? The corporate mass retailers are making money hand over fist without any competition at all. When the brick-and-mortar small businesses are able to open it will be too late for many.
Some brick-and-mortar small businesses will close because they were managed badly, and they would have failed eventually. I think poorly run businesses are a very small minority of the many business failures to come. Some brick-and-mortar small businesses will close because they had not yet reached the self-sufficiency level. Brick-and-mortar small businesses have tremendous overhead and it is not uncommon for a small business to need at least $5,000 per month revenue simply to cover expenses. How long can you pay out $5,000 per month before you need to throw in the towel? Some brick-and-mortar small businesses will close because they have not had the time to build an emergency fund yet. The business may have been making a small profit, but not enough to have six months of expenses on hand. The prospect of spending the next two years rebuilding their business almost from scratch again will be more than some business owners want to deal with.
My piece of advice to you is to look at the other side. Perhaps my school district did make the right choice to focus on the high school students while exploring a new method of teaching since those students are more mature. I cannot imagine any scenario in which I would agree, but maybe.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.