Yesterday the governor of Virginia closed the schools for the rest of the school year. Not only that, but they closed ALL businesses where you cannot maintain a distance of six feet – basically all personal care businesses – salons, dentists, chiropractors, etc. It seems utterly insane to do this without an economic plan in place for these people.
Also, we live in a poor rural area of the state. I imagine that the schools being shut down is extremely difficult for people who are more well-off, but I cannot imagine how this is going to affect those in my community who depend on the schools to teach, feed, and watch their children while they are at work.
It is really hard for me to wrap my head around all of the implications of this move. I know we aren’t the only state who is doing this.
Where is all this extra time? People keep talking about all of the extra time we will all be having. What extra time? My extra time is my kids being in school. Right now I’ve got four children who need some sort of school-type guidance. Living in a poor rural area with dismal internet accessibility means that online schooling is going to be a no-go. It will almost all be on me to continue keeping my kids going.
If I think about this too hard, I get all panicky.