Re-opening

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.  

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source:  Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

March 13, 2020 is a date that I will always remember as will all Californians. It was the date when the Sars CoV-2 virus effectively shut down the state. My school district, Santa Clara Unified, told us through our site administrators that we would be off for “two-three weeks” because of the virus.

I don’t think that many of us at this point knew exactly what we were experiencing. I initially thought of it as a two week vacation. We could go somewhere. It clearly hadn’t sunk in yet that this was serious business.

Within the week, we received guidelines for remote/distance learning that would take place using computers. This would continue for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. I had plans to make the 2020-21 school year my final year of active duty teaching. I would turn 65 in April of 2021 and would have been a middle school teacher for 30 years.

The Summer of 2020 brought the reality that my plan was not going to happen, at least not in the way that I had pictured it. Instruction would be through a computer screen and my students, my kids would be images inside a small rectangle and so would I. There would be no sports (I coached basketball), no school play, no morning announcements which is how I started out my day and the day of my colleagues.

No Valentines Day, Staff meetings, greeting kids and staff members with a smile, riding my bicycle to school as I had done nearly every school day for 29 years. No end of year party with my Sixth Graders or my staff colleagues at Cabrillo Middle School.

By the middle of July 2020 I had made the decision to retire a year earlier than planned. On August 1, 2020, I was no longer employed by the Santa Clara Unified School District. It was a difficult decision to make. As it turned out, it was the right decision, but it would be 15 months later before I brought closure to my time as a public school educator.

Compared to most people, my Pandemic experience was mellow and mild. I lived in a nice, recently remodeled suburban house shared with my wonderful wife, had a pay check coming in from my teacher’s pension plan and had access to the comforts of life. I knew a couple of folks that had tested positive for the virus, but knew of no one in my circle that had actually been sick, hospitalized or died from the virus.

I was able to sporadically follow events at Cabrillo over the course of the 15 months via a staff Facebook page. I attended a couple of Ukelele Club classes being held online by a friend and colleague. That was about the extent of my contact with people that I had considered an essential and vital part of my community for the past 20 years.

Grieving during a pandemic is an experience that I did share.

Tracy Pope, much loved and respected former journalist, yearbook advisor, social studies and language arts teacher passed away unexpectedly on October 11, 2020. Grieving remotely is no way to grieve.

Guadalupe Roman, Principal, friend and Sixth Grade colleague since he recruited me to teach at Carl F. Smith Middle School in Terra Bella, CA in 1990, was killed in a Thanksgiving eve head on collision heading home to Terra Bella after a meeting in Bakersfield. I decided not to attend a celebration of his life in Porterville because of the ongoing pandemic. Grieving remotely is no way to grieve.

During the pandemic “lockdown” I was able to continue bicycle riding, started writing this blog, help my wife as she helped her parents and her aunt navigate life while in their 90s, become more active in my church and engage in the Presidential Election of 2020. Singing in virtual choirs is not my favorite thing, but it played a big role in helping me cope with the challenges of the past 16 months.

Before you knew it, the toilet paper shortages and Zoom jokes were fading from memory as was the impact that the Pandemic had imposed on the country and the world in terms of lives impacted and lost since January 2020. How quickly we forget.

But, ready of not, life appears to be returning to some level of a new normalcy here in California. Quite possibly and probably because a great many Californians made the personal sacrifices necessary to stop the spread of the virus.

So, here we are, or at least here I am. After 16 months of Zoom, I am seeing people in person again. Shaking hands with people again, hugging people again, able to walk around outside without wearing a mask again, eating outdoors at restaurants again.

The virus is still out there and I am still wearing my mask indoors (and likely will for the foreseeable future) and maintaining social distance when appropriate to slow the potential spread of the virus, but I am feeling more comfortable being out and around again.

It feels really good, but it also feels somewhat surreal. Is this really happening? Is it really ok to be this “normal” again?

In the past two weeks, I have sung live with two choirs. For me that is a huge deal. I have eaten out in two restaurants, less of a huge deal, but a return to normalcy. I have visited with friends that I hadn’t seen during the entire Pandemic represents normalcy in yet another way.

Normal is ok. Let’s get back to normal and stay there. It feels good to be here. Come on America. let’s do this! We all deserve it. Yes, all of us!