End of summer, and...?

"Someone asked the other day, how my summer has been going. I answered in one word - 'weird'. The person nodded this head and replied, 'I hear you. Ours also'."

August starts this weekend. When our kids were young, August was always the month to start getting ready. Ready? For? Labor Day weekend. The upcoming school year. Back to school specials were everywhere. My teacher wife was getting ready for her school year, and the days were finally starting to get cooler (sort of). Mixed in with the excitement of the new school year, was the summers last big hurrah - the Minnesota State Fair. But that was then, this is now.

This COVID everything year will be quite a bit different for a lot of reasons. First off - there will be no last big hurrah of the summer. No county fair, no state fair, no game fair, no anything fair. Boo hiss! Many of us in this state, look forward to that final summer event - the Minnesota State Fair. Every year, it is judged to be one of the finest fairs in the country. Not this year. 

But the back to school issue will be the biggest change. This week the Governor is going to make his announcement on how we will do back to school this upcoming year. Rumor has it, he will punt. He will defer to the individual school districts. That could be a mess. Many parents are ready to "let it rip" - sort of. In class learning from a real teacher. However, even "in class" learning will be different. Face masks, eating your own lunch at your desk, no recess, few if any sports, no theater productions, and so forth. Social distancing, constant cleaning, daily temperature checks. Sounds like fun - NOT.

But - and here is the big but. Education Minnesota wants nothing to do with any face to face time with your little darlings. They are afraid of catching the virus from them. So as a union, and a very powerful one at that, they are strongly advocating another school year of "distance learning". In other words parents - you got the ball. While you are at work, your child will be sitting in his or her bedroom, looking at a computer screen all day. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Of all the things we learned from our COVID shortened school year last year, was "distance learning" was for the most part useless. Didn't work. It worked to a degree for the secondary students, but the primary kids? Not well at all. Then why do it again, if it did not work well? Hint: With Democrats holding so many positions of power state wide, whatever Education Minnesota wants, Education Minnesota gets. 

So that is it. Summer is coming to an end, and besides being no fair(s), there is also a huge uncertainty about the upcoming school year. Anything else to share? Only that the medical gurus are already warning us this flu season will be a whopper. With COVID still around, throwing the common flu into the mix will be bad news. Oh - and I have heard there won't be much of a Halloween this October. 

Someone asked the other day, how my summer has been going. I answered in one word - "weird". The person nodded this head and replied, "I hear you. Ours also". All indications are this weirdness will continue into the fall. Welcome to the world of COVID in Minnesota.