> ACCURACY PLEDGE
Nothing is more important to us than accuracy. We strive always to ensure the information we provide our readers is factual and correct. But sometimes we make mistakes, and when we do we will correct them promptly and prominently.
If you see a factual error, please contact the newsroom at 905-684-7251 ext. 1625 or by email at angus.scott@niagaradailies.com
We’ve given up on accepting things will just happen this year because they’ve always happened.
These days, life goes week to week and for now they all sort of feel the same.
That’s why Premier Doug Ford’s announcement Monday that most of Ontario will begin some form of economic reopening next week was met with a mix of relief and caution.
We all want to get out a little more. But is it too soon?
Our businesses are suffocating from a loss of shoppers. But if we go in, are we putting our health at risk?
The lockdown we’ve endured since Boxing Day is paying dividends as our COVID-19 caseload continues to fall. But what about the new coronavirus variants we hear about?
No one knows the answers, because these are the times we live in.
So this opinion is as good as any: Keep wearing masks, remember to keep distanced from people when you’re in public, wash your hands and ease yourself slowly back into a normal life, one step at a time.
There has been too much disruption. We need to open up, but we have to do it the right way.
For the same reason — too much disruption — we believe March break should be cancelled this year.
Granted, planning that far into the future is risky. The week starting March 15 is a long way away and if the fight against COVID-19 takes a turn, schools could be closed again for all we know.
The question now is, what is to be gained by keeping the kids home another week?
Their lives have been turned upside down like everyone else’s. Especially for younger students, life has been pretty difficult to comprehend lately.
There was hesitancy to close schools in the first place because of the psychological effect it might have on some kids. The isolation, loss of routine, time away from friends.
A lot of parents would agree that despite best efforts of teachers, kids do not learn as well studying at home on a computer as they do in the classroom.
We finally have them back at school, and the schools are operating with restrictions. Teachers and staff and nearly all kids are wearing masks, desks are distanced, and visitors are not allowed into the buildings.
They’ve been home for nearly eight weeks now. Giving them five weeks back, then keeping them home for a week, then sending them back to finish the year is not the right thing to do.
Not this year.
Not only are kids finally settling into routines, so are parents.
An awful lot of people in Niagara are still without jobs due to the pandemic, and many parents have had to carry the double stress of living without work and with less money while acting as a teacher’s aid.
Teachers are stressed out these days, too, and their routines have also been thrown off-kilter.
They’ve had to basically turn on a dime and get used to teaching through the computer, which likely goes against every good thought that ever motivated them to want to teach children.
We have sympathy, but the fact is we are all burned out.
Whether you’ve had to adapt to working from home, or still go to work and have to deal with all the headaches that come with COVID-19 safety precautions, we’re just tired.
The best thing for our kids, this year, is to stay in school until June. Be with their friends and their teachers and learn to the best of their ability.
As for March break, there’s always next year.