To “suck it up” when it’s 25 degrees Fahrenheit all day. I assume you realize teachers shouldn’t talk that way to young children. (And maybe you don’t realize but the Atlantic Ocean helps make Europe warmer than eastern North America, at the same latitude). But I’m talking about NY, which I believe is about the same yearly temps as northern Germany. I will note, The snark of latitude comment is why I’m going to be sarcastic right back at you.

But back to my initial point, the only windows in the 150 year old school that open in my wife’s school are not right at the sitting level, and the city hired scientists who decided air in certain schools were not properly ventilating. There wasn’t a simple ventilation answer at the time for the winter.

But, I didn’t know it was so simple. I’ll let my wife know how easy it was. To just open windows and tell 6/7 year olds to suck it up and to just keep those masks on. No problems there either. And it wasn’t the teachers who said the ventilation sucked, it was experts brought it by the city.

I’m kind of surprised you would make these broad assumptions that there are simple counter measures that work in all environments, all situations, and with all students and teachers. Talk about being more political than scientific.

NYC was certainly not just moving old or comorbid teachers around to make it easier for them either. I’m guessing they don’t have enough of those type of admin jobs to easily take them away from the students. But that is more of a union thing than anything else. Conversation for another time.

I will *never* snark at a teacher, because it was all fucking awful.

Fucking. Awful. If you can find any of the posts that I made in the spring of 2020 (we went back in May) or the fall or spring of 2021, you will see that I largely agree with you.

If you check the weather in Munich, you will see that it will be about 25 degrees for a high all of next week. That's not unusual. I do know how the Atlantic Ocean works--I am a scientist who has lived in Germany for 14 years, but thank you for mansplaining it to me.

Our primary teachers did exactly that--they opened the windows in our really old building and kept the masks on. It was crap, but they did it, and it worked.

I am not in NYC, though, so I don't know how it is there.

I'm not going to argue with you, because I will never fault a teacher for feeling anything that they felt. Absolutely never. They had a shit situation, and they did the best that they could do. We did what we were told to do by the authorities, and it was fucking awful, and I hated every single minute of it, but we had absolutely zero choice in anything that we did.

Don’t give me the mansplaining line. You started the sarcastic crap with your latitude line. I just fired back. That’s not mansplaining, that’s giving snark for snark. Don’t send it someone’s way if you can’t deal with it yourself. I’m fully aware what you do for a living, I’ve been here since Janet too. And you would know better than I would, that latitude does not mean same yearly temperature. Montreal and Paris are much different climates.

But back to the topic at hand. The only thing my wife hated more than teaching at the school in horrible conditions is teaching from home over zoom. Not possible for 1st graders. Not possible for my daughter in Kindergarten either. She had no issue teaching in the cold if she had to, but the “experts” decided the ventilation needed would not justify the cold the children would be under.

But as you noted you don’t know how it was in NYC, just as I don’t know how it was in Germany. Hence, why my initial, harmless, post that ventilation doesn’t always work.

Mansplaining? Boy you triggered me with that. That’s such a BS way to get around being called out for incorrect comment and sarcasm (which I noted why I was throwing it back your way).

“I will assume that you don't understand that we are on the same latitude line as Montreal, so we understand "north" in the winter. “. That’s you starting the sarcasm and “mansplaining”, not me.

I'm listening to the wind (75kph gusts) howl outside, and wasn't totally sure that you knew that despite the Gulf Stream, it gets pretty cold here in the winter.

I'm going to duck out. I don't ever want to insult a teacher that went through Covid. There are moments that I walk into school early, and it's quiet, and I have a PTSD response to not having kids in school, and I remember all of the awful stuff that I did, that I asked teachers to do, and I asked kids to do, because our authorities didn't give us a choice. It'll probably end my career, and possibly my life, earlier than it should.

Have a great 2024.

It certainly was cold that weekend, but luckily I was prepared. A few years after college I was in Toronto when it was like -10F. That was without the windchill. I had on winter clothing, but had plenty of skin exposed on my face, because I thought I was tough. I walked 2 blocks from my hotel to a restaurant and holy shit that was painful.

People who live year round in Canada, and I’m sure parts of the Northern Europe too, are absolutely nuts.

I’ve been to Germany for Octoberfest and to Berlin and Frankfurt in the summer. But, have never been there when it’s cold. I’m sure it’s beautiful in the winter.

Apologies for my quick temper. As I mentioned above, the Michigan win last night has really messed me up. Need another 24 hours to decompress.

Have a great 2024 too.