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It’s time

February 5, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Doug Harkness

It has been 1708 days since I last dusted off the Olivetti and spilled ink on these hallowed pages. Not a whole lot has changed in my life, I’ve stopped the annual count of grey hairs as it was taking to long. I can rest comfortably though knowing that it’s still far less than our new mayor. The mop is getting a little long though so I’ve joined the hat wearing crowd until I can get back to see my Barber but that’s a story for another day… 

What has me riled up today though or rather what has Snowflake and her friends fired up is the continuation of our children learning from home. It’s pretty easy to understand why parents are upset given the 6-month March break that is still fresh in everyone’s minds. I think more than a few were surprised too when 4 more boards were permitted to open schools Monday given many of us were led to believe that after the first batch of openings there wouldn’t be any more until after the stay at home order was lifted. 

Now it’s pretty hard to argue that our provincial government hasn’t done a great job in handling the pandemic given our current standing compared to other states and provinces throughout North America. Ontario remains one of the safest jurisdictions in which to live as it has throughout the pandemic. It is far to simplistic to look at case counts however as a measure to determine whether or not our kids should be in school. 

Some will point to the rise in cases in the under 19 group in January as a reason to keep kids out of schools. I look at that another way. Maybe the cases have gone up because it is safter for them to be in school with the many protocols that are in place to protect them? 

We must consider the mental health of our children when making this decision as well and it isn’t easy to quantify. There have been numerous reports indicating a doubling of calls to Kids Help Phone in 2020 over 2019. Our kids are hurting and afraid. Getting them back to a normal routine could go a long way to helping them heal. I know that when school started in the fall for our own children that they were happy and engaged. The apprehension they had when returning quickly dissolved with the many safety protocols that were in place. Kids or their parents who are afraid to go can continue learning from home, it’s a win-win. 

I’m not sure either if there is a more trusted institution for children’s welfare than the Hospital for Sick Children. In their updated guidance released on January 21st they suggested that “the suspension of in person learning should be a last resort for pandemic control.” 

The local case for reopening schools is a strong one as well. Cases in Dufferin and Wellington outside of Guelph have been dropping steadily. People are listening to the various orders and staying home. There is no reason why our kids can’t return now while we wait for our friends in Guelph to catch up. The province has already made an exception east of Toronto where health unit and school board boundaries didn’t match up. There is no reason why they couldn’t do something similar here, the same body that is making the rules can easily change them. 

My greatest hope is that by the time you read this it will already have become obsolete. We have quietly done what we’ve been asked to do with the understanding that by doing so we’d get our kids back in the classroom. I trust that our leaders will keep up their end of the bargain and get Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm and all of their friends back in the classroom. Not after March Break or after another couple weeks of shutdown but right now, it’s time. 

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