Maybe One Option for Going Back to School Is Outdoor Classes

…At least, for a while.  Or, it could be a back-up option, when a facility needs to be scrubbed clean.

As education officials debate how to return students to classes during this pandemic, perhaps they could look at plans from the past.

When tuberculosis tore through city schools in the early 1900s, two Rhode Island doctors, Mary Packard and Ellen Stone, proposed teaching lessons with all the windows open.  Despite the harsh cold of New England winters, none of the kids got sick.

The model was so successful, 65 open-air schools opened around the country over the next two years.

Liat Olenick, a schoolteacher in Brooklyn, recently spoke to the New York Times, and told the paper of record, “Do I think it will be easy? No. But given that all our other choices are terrible, it is worth considering.”