> Somehow nobody seems to feel a need to justify why would we make any changes* to in-person schooling. Here in Canada we responded more aggressively than most

> Somehow nobody seems to feel a need to justify why would we make any changes* to in-person schooling. Here in Canada we responded more aggressively than most parts of the USA. While we never had a lockdown that ordered us into our homes in most of the country, we generally shut nearly everything non-essential besides health, food, supply chain, etc. towards the start and then started re-opening various businesses and facilities. Schools and daycares (private and public) closed in March 2020 along with most workplaces. That justification seems self-explanatory enough. We intended (and still intend) to contain the virus from doing too much damage too quickly until we're all vaccinated. (The vast majority of Canadians have still not been exposed to the virus because of our more drastic reaction. In terms of the virus alone, we did control it better because of it.) So at that point, it became a question of when and how to re-open under conditions that would prevent the spread of COVID-19 sufficiently. That includes in the schools. I supported the lockdowns in March 2020. But we seem to be unable to navigate the discussion into the next phase of living with this. We cannot sacrifice child education, and the more of us are vaccinated and less likely to get ill, the more compelling the argument to resume truly normal education becomes. (In person education re-opened in September 2021 here in Ontario, but the doomsayers are already calling for closures, and many students are remote.)