Fighting quarantine fatigue with yet another newsletter. I love all of your emails, links and memes –you can find them in my past newsletters. I’m also thrilled to hear that people are forwarding this along – if you’re new, join my mailing list. And, as always, thanks for protecting yourself and others by staying home when you can, washing your hands slightly obsessively, and masking up!

It doesn’t seem to matter if your kid is in preschool or college, the word of the month is “pod.” Which makes sense, because these days the only way to gather safely is to do it in small groups– yes, masked, ideally outside, and for sure not sick with any teeny tiny little symptom that may have been blown off in the past. Because a pod can mean many different things to many different people, you’ll want to define terms before entering an agreement – even a conversation – about one. Are you thinking about a learning pod for a small group of kids during school hours? Or an activity pod for a group needing afterschool recreation? Is the pod for little ones being supervised by an adult? Or big ones living away from home but in a group – on or off campus – and not really under anyone’s supervision? Today’s newsletter is dedicated to the big and small questions swirling around podding.
 
One of the major drivers of this hot topic are articles suggesting that schools aren’t safe. By now, everyone has heard of the school in Indiana that opened last week, only to close two days later. And, by extension, the camp in Georgia, which faced an epidemic of COVID. The school situation and the camp really have no relation to one another – the camp allowed kids to be mask-free, cheering, yelling, and bunking up together, easily spreading coronavirus and looking nothing like schools will look come this fall. But still, the two news stories hit simultaneously, increasing anxiety about gathering kids in one place big time. This article also made headlines last week, suggesting that the closure of schools last spring saved as many as 1.37 million coronavirus cases and 40,600 COVID deaths. (Here’s the study being referenced if you are interested in the actual science behind the headline.) But it bears adding that a sentence later, the author quotes experts describing the numbers as bonkers and needing to be taken with a grain of salt because they are computer models – extrapolations – and they were done at a time when other interventions such as masking, distancing, and hand hygiene were being aggressively advocated and when many cities shut down all restaurants, gyms, bars, and social gathering sites. So basically, it’s not at all clear how much credit should be given to school shutdowns. For those who are constantly trying to make sense of exactly how dangerous school might be, here’s a helpful infographic. While the chart doesn’t quantify risk, it does help parents think through how to mitigate against it.
 
For older kids, every college seems to be approaching reentry slightly differently, with the ones planning a return to campus riffing on the concept of pods in some way or another. But it doesn’t take a crystal ball to know exactly where the story will go: inevitably, there will be cases of coronavirus on campuses across the country. There already have been – at least 6600, according to this article. The question isn’t will there or won’t there be, but rather what will happen when there are. Emily Oster asked the exact same question about teachers in grade schools, but her clearly outlined call for an advance plan applies just as much to students at college.
 
The pod conversation – the whole school debate, frankly – is a mess, and that’s before addressing issues of inequity. This piece speaks very bluntly to the double-edged sword of school reopening among families of color. Children of color have the most to lose if schools remain closed and their parents are disproportionately impacted by losing access to childcare or a safe place for their kids to be all day (and for many, to be fed). But many of these parents express profound worry that their kids will become infected with coronavirus and bring home the infection because they themselves are more likely to become critically ill or die of COVID. And pods aren’t an option for many of them – sometimes because of affordability issues; other times because their children are excluded because the parent is working an essential job. So, while pods may be the social saviors of some kids, the only opportunity for them to engage with other children in the flesh, they may also deepen divides between different communities, namely separating those with resources from those without. Schools have long faced a steep climb in terms of diversity and inclusion, but coronavirus is widening that gap by the day.
 
I realize I have probably not helped you make a clear decision to pod or not to pod, but that’s my point: there is no right answer. While there are some absolute health and safety standards regardless of whether or not you pod – yes, even if there are only 5 kids in a yard, everyone must still keep physical distance, wear masks, maximize outdoor time, and stay home if even the slightest bit sick – there’s also a ridiculously long list of variables that impact a family’s decision, from geography to family structure to logistics to age to, of course, health.
 
In my mind, it’s probably most critical that we all acknowledge the big picture risks and the drivers of the choice to pod or not to pod. If we don’t, we will have inflicted irreparable damage to the fabric of our culture, an ugly and preventable legacy of coronavirus. In the meantime, since September is breathing down our necks and many of us have kids set to go back to school in August anyhow, here’s the beginning of the Natterson list of questions to ask yourself as you contemplate podding:
 
  • Who is doing the wipe down? Seriously, however and wherever you are podding, who is in charge of the deep cleaning?

  • How will distancing be enforced? Not just when the pod is together in a given space, but when the pod members leave and return to their own homes or go to a college class or attend a party? Who is in charge of making sure the pod’s germ pool remains closed?

  • Who is smoothing over the social hiccups? Because you can bet 100% that someone associated with a pod – maybe a member, maybe family of a member – will break the agreed-upon rules. And 99% that an image of them doing so will be posted to social media.

  • Speaking of which, who writes the rules? As pods are forming across the country, many families are signing waivers. But who is coming up with guideposts and mini-community standards? Are they scientifically sound? And what’s the process for changing them as the science evolves? And are they legally legit?

  • Who holds the license? This is a question mostly aimed at parents deciding to home school their kids in pods. If you have volunteered your house as the home school site, you had better look into the laws around licensed care of other children.

  • Who holds the liability? This is another biggie for the parents offering up their spaces. What happens if a child gets coronavirus? Or the teacher? Or someone who lives in the home but isn’t technically in the pod? And what about all of the other liabilities that go along with opening up your home, such as if a child falls and gets seriously hurt on your property? If you are volunteering to host a pod, you cannot not have an answer to each of these.

  • Then there are the questions about educational quality. For the families venturing outside of the traditional school lane for the first time, many questions can and should be asked about how kids get educated effectively, who is doing that teaching (be it in person or online), and how achievement is measured. For some families, this academic year is one of transition, when their child will be applying to new schools – in those cases, there are very basic questions that need to be asked, beginning with who writes the recommendations for the next school and how does that process go when there’s no formal administrative support?

  • And don’t even ask me to prompt questions about coronavirus testing, because until we have access to enough tests and quick turn-around results, it’s a moot point.