Growstuff
I’m glad you agree with me that children should go to school. When I mention children I particularly mean primary children because I realise secondary children are a different dynamic and need different arrangements. Possibly, as you mention, they could attend school half time. Of course that will still radically affect their life chances if it has to continue for more than this academic year.
Older people are capable of making decisions for themselves. Children are not. I’m surprised that some people don’t recognise this simple fact. Older people can completely isolate if they so desire, or they can take all reasonable precautions to protect themselves. But we cannot get away from the fact that older people are at the end of their lives, I’m 67 and am taking precautions in order to try to stay alive to see my grandchildren grow up (my oldest grandchild is eight years old, and the youngest is two!) However my grandchildren have barely started their lives and deserve special consideration, along with all other young children, and that means going to school. The United Nations actually mentions that one of the rights of a child is the right to education. And yes, although I think what has happened in our care homes is reprehensible, I do think very young children should have greater rights to a normal life than people who are extremely old and at the end of their lives anyway. I realise that this is a controversial view, but as an ex primary teacher, I’m afraid it is my view. I totally agreed with the complete lockdown initially, including the closing of schools, but now we must balance the needs of different sections of society, and therefore schools must remain open wherever possible.
I have already mentioned that my elderly mother is 92 years old and I have done everything possible to ensure that she did not contract Covid19. She lives in a sheltered apartment quite close to me. If necessary she may need to go back into a personal lockdown this winter, but I do not think either she, or myself, should have greater rights than our youngest, and most easily damaged, members of society.