Articles written during the COVID-19 pandemic documenting its impact on education, society, public policy, family life, and everyday experience. Written by a high school teacher in Ventura, California during that time.
I work for the government, so I know what I mean when I say that the government often makes rules so stupid they should be ignored. And the majority of the Covid regulations of the past two years have been stupid in the extreme. Here in California they closed all the parks and tennis courts, … Read more
So I wrote late last fall about the impending darkness of winter, and my ability to get my workouts completed in the dark and the cold. Now we are on the other side: it is April and spring, and the sun is out for longer. Driving by the tennis courts last night and they were … Read more
Four weeks ago I wrote that one of my resolutions for 2022 was the following — “Don’t try to get COVID, but don’t exactly go out of your way NOT to get COVID.” I wrote that because it seemed like everyone was falling ill with the Omicron variant in late 2021, and sooner or later … Read more
“It is not the time for fear and cowardice, like with the Chicago Teachers Union. It is the time for resilience and courage.” Preface: School board meetings are about the surest cure to insomnia one can encounter, in my experience. And the vagaries of school district politics have always seemed to me beneath noticing or … Read more
The news of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 first identified in South Africa – the one designated “Omicron” – took the world by storm last week. Without any details or much of any information – the world panicked. The stock market significantly dropped. Headlines were full of non-stop news on anything of note. Governments … Read more
I have to admit I have paid almost no attention to the recall of Gov. Newsom and consequent upcoming special election. But I did sign the recall. Over a year ago I was biking along the boardwalk near the Ventura promenade when I spied two men sitting under an awning gathering signatures for the recall … Read more
It is just over one month since California officially reopened and face masks were no longer mandated. I was thrilled about about it. But the virulent “Delta strain” is out and about, and the numbers of COVID-19 infected has risen recently. Although small compared to previous “surges,” there has been an increase in the numbers … Read more
Today California “re-opened” officially. If you are vaccinated you can enter stores without a mask. I did so this morning, and it felt wonderful. To wear a facemask for some twenty minutes while at the grocery store is not the end of the world, and in the larger scheme of things it is a minor … Read more
My school year comes to an end tomorrow. It was my 27th. But my first full one during an epidemic. So it has been a long year of (distance) learning. I taught my students the best I could over the Internet using Zoom (and Canvas). I was there day-in, day-out for my students as much … Read more
This was the moment I realized the end was in sight. It was February 21, 2021. I came across a big stand of hand disinfectant on sale at the grocery store. A sign said “Manager’s Special” in front of a huge stack of unsold produce. It seems nobody was buying hand disinfectant anymore. So they … Read more
I talked to my aunt last night who is 75-years old, and she remarked that her pandemic life is not too terribly different from life before. She is retired and need not leave the house for work; she does not have any young children at home all the time because the schools are closed, and … Read more
“Men have become the tools of their tools… Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.” Henry David Thoreau Last week I wrote at length about my long slog through the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. I wondered why our society … Read more
It has been a tradition for me to plan and record my resolutions for the new year, and then to reflect back on them later. I put considerable thought into my resolutions, as you may witness going all the way back to 1999 and earlier — Rich Geib’s New Year’s Resolutions:Over Two Decades of Introspection … Read more
We are now in the deepest darkest winter of this Coronavirus pandemic, with the infection numbers rising sharply and the government restricting even further our activities. I read yesterday there were some 3,100 new coronavirus deaths nationally and 216,548 new cases reported on December 3, 2020; and that over the past week, there has been … Read more
We are in the eighth month of this SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic, and the end is not in sight. It calls for the endurance of the marathon runner — the mental toughness, the steel in the spine — which one encounters when one hits “the wall” around mile 18 of the 26 required to complete the … Read more
Forty seven days ago I penned a visceral (for me, at least) account of the pandemic and my reaction to it. I focused on the physical aspect, explaining how I would burn off the crazy with intense and prolonged exercise. That has gone well. The simple but strenuous task of identifying and analyzing how I … Read more
The runners and bicyclists shall inherit the earth, is a truism of this Coronavirus pandemic crisis, as I see it. The hot-yoga and spin-cycle studios — the mixed martial artists and cross-fitters — the swimmers and weight-lifters — they are all shut down. The state has closed their places of business. Such exercise is almost … Read more
As the Covid-19 “shelter in place” policies stretch into weeks and months of quarantine, the schools have tried their best in the city where I live but have not produced much quality instruction. The reasons for this are many and complicated. The public schools have tried, but despite much effort the results have been poor. … Read more
“Parents are the first and foremost educators of their children. Their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it.” Vatican II We are fourteen days into this home-school experiment. On March 13, 2020 the local authorities cancelled school, and we have been at home since. The government … Read more
“Improvise, adapt, and overcome.” U.S. Marine Corps Dearest Julia, So here we are in the midst of this global Coronavirus outbreak. School is cancelled — for you and I both — and we are thrown upon each other. We are to “shelter in place,” and it is just you, your sister, Mommy, and me. At … Read more
I remember reading decades ago a passage in some book where the author claimed that in response to the traumatic news of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., he went to his piano and started playing Bach. He explained there was something spiritual in Bach’s solo keyboard music which offered him profound solace in … Read more
So some ten weeks ago there was nothing. Then news of an outbreak in Wuhan, China. It spread to South Korea and Japan. Then to Iran and Italy. A ripple traveling across the globe and arriving everywhere sooner or later. Including the United States. Yesterday the nearby Cal State Channel Islands campus closed down to … Read more