Today is National Daughter’s Day. To be honest, every day is Daughter’s Day to me. They are the reason I look forward to each day, getting through the many health issues that I face. Though giving up has never been an option, it is amazing that I have had all these years to spend with them, and now look forward to many more years as they head into adulthood. To my daughters, I would be lost without you.
I love you,
Dad
Tomorrow, many more children will return to school, many for the first time physically in over a year and a half, due to the precautions and protections of Covid19. Several states children have already returned to school. It is at this moment, are we learning anything in the past few weeks, what works and what does not work, in regard to living in a world of Covid19 and our schools?
The first day of school has always been exciting for me, and much to the chagrin of my daughters, it always meant a photo that morning. But as my daughters begin tomorrow, that excitement has been tempered by caution and wariness.
To be clear, I want my daughters physically in school. The last year and a half, honestly has had mixed results in both grades, study habits, and social skills. When all is said and done, I believe the best thing for them all around, is to be in school. But I also want to be clear, this can only be possible if done safely.
After a year and a half, we are all “experts” now in Covid19, what works, what does not work, who is to blame, what precautions need to be done and what are foolish. Many of us have gotten our experience and degrees in Covid19 from social media. Most of us, have come to accept, this crisis was new to not only us, but to science. And while we expect science to be the “truth”, it is what it is, science we are learning, is about getting to the truth. Which means, we are learning as we go along. What we think is the problem and solution, can change. Just because something may be discovered to be a wrong thought, does not mean when the correct answer is found, that science cannot be trusted, quite the contrary. It is because science did correct itself, that we should trust it even more. Science did not stop looking, just because it thought it had all the correct answers.
Schools in Texas, Georgia, and my home state of Florida have been back for several weeks, and other states around the country have also returned. In these three states however, one thing stands out, all have governors that stood in the way of taking precautions, during what is called our “4th surge” of Covid19, and the count of children sick with Covid19, once thought of as inconsequencial because of its lower risk to children, is quickly becoming a major concern. Pediatric hospitals being inundated with children needing hospitalization, way beyond what we saw last year. And yet, the governors, and many residents of those states, still fight for any mitigation efforts to protect their children and the staff responsible for them.
For me, I am not thinking about the start of my daughter’s senior year being a milestone, getting a “last photo” of her last year of high school, or the fact that her sister is right behind her. No, instead my thoughts are two-fold. Has the school district done all that it can to assure my daughters safeties, and what about all the potential “nut jobs” willing to disrupt and cause problems with the efforts of the district?
The answer to the first question is easy. Yes, I know that my daughters school district has done everything possible, and are following not only federal recommendations of the CDC, but also of the state’s health department. Further, the district has the benefit of an extra layer of caution, having a county that has its own health department. The district is following all the levels, federal, state, and county when it comes to mitigation.
The steps that district has taken has earned it recognition by the CDC, to earn status as a subject for a retroactive study on the mitigation. Retroactive meaning, looking back, to see “why” the things worked the way that they did for the district. Engineering controls such as air handlers and sanitation efforts are critical, and yes, cost money. But this is a key step to getting the kids back in the classroom, especially when a district this size, is unable to make the classrooms comply with the social distance recommendation. So, of course, that also leads to vaccines and masks. With my daughters in high school, they are of age to have been vaccinated. But does this mean that all teen student have been? Of course not. And definitely, none of the elementary students have had any opportunity. That means there is only one other possible form of mitigation to help, not fully prevent, but help reduce the opportunity for spreading Covid19, masks. I will not spend time on this post about how many in the district feel about this. All you have to do is go back to a couple of my recent posts.
There is one more very important layer that the district employs. I mentioned that the district has access to the county health department. This allowed the district early on, to impose contact tracing and testing of its students and staff. In other words, they can catch most cases before infecting anyone else. This is important with the likelihood of selfish or ignorant parents, having been exposed to Covid19, sending their children infected to school anyway, for whatever reason, which is not acceptable.
I will say, my daughters district does appear to be more of the exception than the rule in that state, by looking at social media posts from friends elsewhere in the state. One friend’s school district may as well be compared to Florida’s attitude, so it is likely just a matter of time until that district realizes its mistake.
As I look at my daughters first day of school tomorrow, I have hopes this will be a year where they can get back to focusing on school, joining clubs, going to activities, and hanging with friends. My daughters are doing their part to go in that direction, even though vaccinated, respectful and caring of those who may still be at risk. None of us, want the return to virtual studies, but if the district ends up compelled to do so, so be it. Whatever keeps everyone safe. If all could just work together, instead of against each other, this may have been over a long time ago.
With Texas, Georgia, Florida and others, we have had a chance to see what is not working, at the expense of students and staff. As schools continue to open this week and the coming weeks, hopefully they have seen what is not working. We just have to wait and see.
The dentist, a meeting with the boss, even going through my cancer treatments, I have never tried to prevent something so much, rather accept, what I am facing this year. My daughters are growing up, um… grown up, one now eighteen, the other in her late teens. As I go through the department store with either, and we pass the early childhood wardrobes and footwear, I am reminded of a time, seemingly long ago. I want to go back. I cannot. But that does not mean that I cannot dig my heels in as deep as I can, holding on to the very last second, that I have to let go.
Of course, time deals with my resistance. As I said, I have one daughter now eighteen, which means no longer covered by the custody order between her mother and I, she now decides on the time that we get to spend together. Not that she does not want to, but, she does have other things in her life to deal with, whether it be a school activity, hanging with friends, a date, or even work.
The “W” word, work, came up some time ago, actually a couple of years ago. Though I had been resistant to the idea, in spite of the fact that I myself worked as young as the age of fourteen, my only hesitation was the impact that working would have on their school work. As a student, I was a slacker. I was good at just taking tests, not applying myself with homework and studying, so, working did not impact my grades. While my grades were good, needless to say, had I applied myself better to my schoolwork, by not working, sure, my grades would have been better.
As a parent, I have a different outlook. The one request I made of my older daughter, that any hours that she worked, would not interfere not just with her schoolwork, but any activities related to school, especially when it came to the potential of earning any kind of college scholarships.
Earlier this year, she did enter the work force. It is not interfering with school, nor family time.
Now, my younger daughter wanted to get into the act. And again, I found myself in the position of saying, “it must not impact your school work.” Complicating things for her, she is still under the custody agreement, meaning that she is visiting me during the Summers yet, the best time for a teenager to earn some scratch.
Controversy aside from the so-called “worker shortage,” and being somewhat difficult that she would be considered a “seasonal” worker, I began to look at opportunities for her while she would visit with me. I did explain to her, that I would not allow her into the food industry as of right now, for two reasons, low wages and hours that would likely take advantage of her. I know this, I worked in the food industry a long time ago and have friends working in it now. It has not changed. I attempted retail for her, but they all wanted her of adult age. Then it hit me.
We have a seasonal water park, and they were looking for help. Perfect! I will skip the whole process of getting hired, but she was in fact hired, and is looking forward to her first paycheck. But long before that first dollar comes to her, I noticed something.
One of my first jobs as a teenager was also as an employee of an amusement park.
I actually worked there twice, once operating games, and in this photo, after graduating, operating rides. But it gave me a great experience. And I recently found out, after asking how my daughter’s first day went, that job also gave me a new perspective about employment, just as it did for her.
Sure, she is excited about earning money to save for college and other things. But she is also learning, just as I did, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to a business. We only see the board of menu items, order our food, pay for it, and eat it. We try on clothes in the fitting room, and leave the articles of clothing in a heap for some poor schlub to hang the clothing back up if we do not purchase it. And this one really bugs me, the poor person having to gather shopping carts located all over a parking lot just because someone is too lazy to return them or at least place them in a holding area for shopping carts (Publix has them located all over the parking lot).
My daughter had experienced this park before, but as a guest. She was now getting to see what happens behind the ticket window, what employees have to deal with, not just let someone through a gate or put on a ride. She has gotten to see patrons with legitimate issues to deal with, and some that were just being a pain in the ass. She watched small children have meltdowns at the prospect of having to go home. And my personal favorite, having experienced it plenty as a ride operator, dealing with a guest who “lost his lunch.”
Yes, we go to an amusement park, we have a great time, bitch about the things that did not please us, and hopefully we had a great time. To the worker, sure the paycheck is nice, but the wall has been torn down. As an employee, we hope that we have never acted the way that our customers treated us.
It is a short stint for her, as it being seasonal and the kids go back to school soon, but it was a great opportunity and experience for her. As an adult, a happy environment is not always likely as the pressures of life and habits of adulthood become an added complication of the work environment, making it feel more like “work” or working to enjoy work.
Admittedly, it has been fun sharing stories of each of our experiences working at an amusement park, even if they were decades apart.
Paul's Heart 