Just in case long-term lurkers think I've changed gears about the efficacy of e-learning because I'm advocating for remote learning, rest assured, this is not the case.

E-learning is still pedagogically a bad idea for most students. No question or equivocation here.

THAT SAID, when the government refuses to invest necessary millions (BILLIONS?) into making schools safe, we're still in a state of stop-gap, emergency remote learning.

Emergency remote learning is no more pedagogically sound than regular e-learning. But it can keep kids connected to their schools, and it keeps them out of harm's way. It is an emergency measure, and we, in a pandemic, are dealing w/an emergency.

If the provincial government genuinely cared about maintaining the integrity of public education, every publicly funded school building in the province would have been inspected for air quality/flow, and HVAC would have been repaired/optimized.

If the provincial government genuinely cared about maintaining integrity of public education, thousands of teachers across the province would have been recruited, community spaces & portables would have been secured, & small full-time class cohorts could have been implemented.

If the provincial government genuinely cared about maintaining the integrity of public education, non-essential spaces like shopping malls, restaurants, bars, movie theatres, etc. would have stayed closed to keep transmission numbers down & increase schools reopening safely.

If the provincial government genuinely cared about maintaining the integrity of public education, they would continue to advocate for CERB or some other form of Universal Basic Income to be continued so that parents didn't feel forced to send their kids to school unsafely.

Remote instruction is a stopgap measure we have to consider because it *isn't* safe to go back in-person to school at this point.

That doesn't mean it's a great option.