It must be a balancing act

We must balance our move back to normalcy, taking into consideration the economic disaster if we don’t get back to work soon, against the possibility of a staggering death count if we move too soon. It is equally important to get our children back into the classrooms, not only for the sake of their education but the side effects if we don’t, such as the inability of parents to return to work.

My granddaughter just finished her first year at UConn, and she sparkled in every sense of the word. I hope she can return this fall to continue, but I have fears about doing it too soon. Online classes are good, but they do not offer the same experience that an on-campus education does. Still, there is risk in sending our children back to dorms where contagion emanates with the arrival of a single case of this virulent virus. To mitigate that, perhaps a hybrid program should be developed.

The classes that are necessary to be given on-campus could be confined to two days, say Monday and Tuesday. Those students would spend one night in their dorm rooms, and the places the students had been would be scoured with anti-virus cleansing on Wednesday. Thursday would bring another batch of students in for their on-campus classes, with a complete cleansing after they’ve left on Friday evening. The rest of the students’ classes would continue online. By splitting the student body into two smaller distinct groups, it would also facilitate social distancing. This would lessen our children’s exposure to the virus.

James R. Weber Sr., Unionville