Dr Lisa Thorley By: Dr Lisa Thorley
Teaching Fellow- Global Development
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28 Jun 2020 : Pubs over education, sure!

There’s been so  many things I could have written about during the last few months, (and probably should have, but I’ve been dealing with our new reality) for example my thoughts on the Black Lives Mater demonstrations, after all I’m the mother of an 8 year old mixed raced daughter who is more than aware that her white sister has a privilege that she’ll never, her ‘whiteness’. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve a lot to say on this, however, I’m not going to talk about that, I’m going to talk/write about how I feel about lockdown being lifted and the issues I have with the lack of direction with regards to schools and getting our kids back into them.

Boris and co are happy to reopen the economy, however I just don’t think we’re ready to go back to a new ‘normal’. People are simply too complacent, they don’t wear masks and though people understood what 2 meters meant pre Cummings gate, they have well and truly forgotten what it means and I’m not happy about it. I’m not happy because Covid 19 hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s here in our communities and it will continue to cause damage, of course it will, there’s no vaccine and no treatment, so here we have an issue. Of course, we can’t keep the economy locked down forever and why would we want to, however if my kids aren’t able to go to school, they how can we even contemplate opening attractions and the pubs? When you’ve got a country that puts its economy before the education of its kids (not the private school kids of course) then for me you’ve got your priorities all wrong.  

Let’s go back to my youngest, until this week she’d not seen nor socialised with another child since March20th. She’s spent her fun time learning time, as well as all her ‘free’ time (we needed to rebrand from home school)  with me and on the odd occasion her 17 year old sister who’s life’s all over the place as she’s due to take A’level’s next year, though she’s only actually had 5hrs of face-to-face teaching in 3 months. This simply isn’t heathy. Kids need to socialise, they need to play, they need to learn by doing, by being with their peers. Now how can this happen with the social distancing? Like I’ve said I think we’re not ready to reopen and people are complacent, but I desperately want my kids to be able to go back to school, but how? If anyone has the answers, please share them.

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