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Sure, but don’t expect other people to follow suit. They will hire private teachers and remote home school to get ahead.

supergeek133 6y ago
That's been the case with or without school.
mc32 6y ago
I guess that may happen for kids who go to private school (public in U.K.) but for kids in public schools, skipping a grade when the schools know their status before the pause might be harder to do. Additionally it’d likely be a minority of students—most would take the opp to remain refreshed and current rather than learning new subject matter.
fossuser 6y ago
Get ahead of what? I’m not convinced any of this remote learning stuff matters that much as long as parents have money to feed their kids and house themselves. Canceling remote learning to spend time with the kids and giving them space to let them learn about something they’re interested in for a year probably does zero harm and might even be beneficial. I would have loved it. Obviously bad family situations, and poverty are not helped by this - but those things are probably made worse by throwing remote learning on top of it. Wealthy countries should have a vaccine and distribution done by end of 2021. Waiting that out is what I would do if I had kids.
- mjayhn 6y ago
  I failed 7th grade because my parents were divorcing in the middle of it and literally everybody including my family acted like it was the end of my school career and I'd never recover and get a real job and would be SOO behind my peers. I'm 100% on the "yeah you can take a year off, it'll be ok or better in the end" side of things. I can't imagine myself at 13 having to deal with that + quarantine/2020.
  - fossuser 6y ago
    Yeah - I’d argue that social response and the psychological toll from it does ten times more damage than the actual “failure” of seventh grade. People can spend decades afraid to learn because some shitty teacher made them feel dumb when they were young.
  - danShumway 6y ago
    I'm not an expert on education, I'm not going to speculate on the psychological effects of having a year without school on a kid. I don't think I'm qualified to do that. Outside of developmental effects though, by the time you get to college does it really matter if someone is one year older than another person? Is anyone going to get rejected from a first job interview just because they're 26 instead of 25? Plenty of people take gap years before they go to college, so my concern with taking a year off school wouldn't be, "but how will they ever catch up?" It would be about the resources that parents are relying on, the developmental effects of having a routine interrupted to that degree, the ability of parents to keep working, early socialization, etc... I think those are all valid concerns, and (again) I'm not going to pretend that I can speak on them. But I'm not worried about, "some other kid will be one year ahead."
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - treis 6y ago
      You can't push pause on human development, though. Having your first job interview at 26 instead of 25 doesn't matter. Missing out on a year of socialization when you're 6 almost certainly does.
      - fossuser 6y ago
        You're still taking in input and experiencing the world. I was really young for the grade I was in which made things harder than necessary. It would have been easier to be a year older. You'd still get the socialization anyway, you'd just have one year with a little less (and I'm not really convinced that remote socialization via remote learning is particularly helpful, whatever alternative socialization outside of remote learning is probably just as good or better).
- threatofrain 6y ago
  Get ahead on placement exams. Schools have only so many teachers for Algebra. Also not all kids are doing remote education.
  - balfirevic 6y ago
    How does that work? The idea is to just resume schooling where you left off a year prior. In what way can anyone get ahead? Kids who didn't pause would simply be in a higher grade, others in a lower grade, but so what?
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
romwell 6y ago
"Get ahead" in what sense? Yay, now some 7-year-olds will be just as educated as some other 8-year-olds, and will be able to skip a grade when school resumes. So.. what? Also, why don't we imagine something better than just keeping kids at home all day. Having a year devoted to outdoor activities instead of formal education would be wonderful for everyone, including the teachers (who can still have work), parents (who can get some time away from the kids), and, most importantly, the kids (who are effectively under house arrest until they turn 12).

supergeek133 6y ago

That's been the case with or without school.

mc32 6y ago

I guess that may happen for kids who go to private school (public in U.K.) but for kids in public schools, skipping a grade when the schools know their status before the pause might be harder to do. Additionally it’d likely be a minority of students—most would take the opp to remain refreshed and current rather than learning new subject matter.

fossuser 6y ago

Get ahead of what? I’m not convinced any of this remote learning stuff matters that much as long as parents have money to feed their kids and house themselves. Canceling remote learning to spend time with the kids and giving them space to let them learn about something they’re interested in for a year probably does zero harm and might even be beneficial. I would have loved it. Obviously bad family situations, and poverty are not helped by this - but those things are probably made worse by throwing remote learning on top of it. Wealthy countries should have a vaccine and distribution done by end of 2021. Waiting that out is what I would do if I had kids.

mjayhn 6y ago
I failed 7th grade because my parents were divorcing in the middle of it and literally everybody including my family acted like it was the end of my school career and I'd never recover and get a real job and would be SOO behind my peers. I'm 100% on the "yeah you can take a year off, it'll be ok or better in the end" side of things. I can't imagine myself at 13 having to deal with that + quarantine/2020.
- fossuser 6y ago
  Yeah - I’d argue that social response and the psychological toll from it does ten times more damage than the actual “failure” of seventh grade. People can spend decades afraid to learn because some shitty teacher made them feel dumb when they were young.
- danShumway 6y ago
  I'm not an expert on education, I'm not going to speculate on the psychological effects of having a year without school on a kid. I don't think I'm qualified to do that. Outside of developmental effects though, by the time you get to college does it really matter if someone is one year older than another person? Is anyone going to get rejected from a first job interview just because they're 26 instead of 25? Plenty of people take gap years before they go to college, so my concern with taking a year off school wouldn't be, "but how will they ever catch up?" It would be about the resources that parents are relying on, the developmental effects of having a routine interrupted to that degree, the ability of parents to keep working, early socialization, etc... I think those are all valid concerns, and (again) I'm not going to pretend that I can speak on them. But I'm not worried about, "some other kid will be one year ahead."
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - treis 6y ago
    You can't push pause on human development, though. Having your first job interview at 26 instead of 25 doesn't matter. Missing out on a year of socialization when you're 6 almost certainly does.
    - fossuser 6y ago
      You're still taking in input and experiencing the world. I was really young for the grade I was in which made things harder than necessary. It would have been easier to be a year older. You'd still get the socialization anyway, you'd just have one year with a little less (and I'm not really convinced that remote socialization via remote learning is particularly helpful, whatever alternative socialization outside of remote learning is probably just as good or better).
threatofrain 6y ago
Get ahead on placement exams. Schools have only so many teachers for Algebra. Also not all kids are doing remote education.
- balfirevic 6y ago
  How does that work? The idea is to just resume schooling where you left off a year prior. In what way can anyone get ahead? Kids who didn't pause would simply be in a higher grade, others in a lower grade, but so what?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

romwell 6y ago

"Get ahead" in what sense? Yay, now some 7-year-olds will be just as educated as some other 8-year-olds, and will be able to skip a grade when school resumes. So.. what? Also, why don't we imagine something better than just keeping kids at home all day. Having a year devoted to outdoor activities instead of formal education would be wonderful for everyone, including the teachers (who can still have work), parents (who can get some time away from the kids), and, most importantly, the kids (who are effectively under house arrest until they turn 12).