Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Is Tap Dancing Leadership ?

I actually like tap-dancing. The rhyming movement and the resulting sound is mesmerizing. While tap-dancing is entertaining in an appropriate setting, that setting should not be in political leadership, and especially when it involves the well being of the nation’s school children.

Sleepy Joe told us that he would solve the problem of returning children to school. But how, Joe? Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki’s initial suggestion, on 2/9/21, that “teaching at least one day a week in the majority of schools by day 100” might be enough to clear the bar was met with a torrent of criticism from parents, teachers and administrators. “One day a week!” Every bozo realizes that one day a week would be absurd . . .err, except Psaki, who the next day started to tap dance.

While I do not make a point of listening to CNN, (I never watch CNN), I did see an article from CNN titled:

“Biden’s 100 Day Plan to Reopen Schools Meets With Messy Reality”

(If CNN is critical of Joe’s supposed plan . . . wow!)

The following is from that CNN article:

“CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stirred the pot last week when she appeared to suggest that schools could safely reopen without teachers getting vaccinated.

“There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen. And that that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely,” she said. 

Very quickly the tap-dancing began when on the next day, Psaki said Walensky had been speaking in her “personal capacity,” even though Walensky had made the comments in an official administration Covid briefing.”

Is tap-dancing leadership?

Still from CNN:

“Without clear guidelines for a safe return, an already enormous public health challenge has increasingly become a political messaging contest: Democrats largely argue that reopening decisions should “follow the science” — without clear agreement on what that means — while Republicans have zeroed in on liberal-leaning teachers unions, accusing them of making unreasonable demands on the system.

Biden entered office three weeks ago with a pledge to reopen schools nationwide within his first 100 days in office. It was an ambitious goal from the outset, but that timetable is now in doubt and the parameters for success are muddy.”

It sounds to me that it was easy for Joe to pontificate from his basement, but when he gets on the stage . . . he tap dances.

Again from CNN:

“Nearly a year into the unprecedented national experiment in remote learning in the face of a growing pandemic, millions of children are still at home, with no expected return date. Studies show them falling behind, with low-income or Black and Latino children hurting the worst — but the science is unclear on how, or when, they can safely return to classes, even as some teachers get vaccinated and schools districts work to fit classrooms for reopening. There is scant information on the effects of bringing students back together, in close quarters, could have on the communities they reenter after leaving the building.”

(Keep in mind that this is from CNN.)

Perhaps instead of tap-dancing Psaki and Biden should pay attention to what is actually happening on the real stage.

In Clark County, Nevada, its school district is rushing to reopen schools as soon as humanly possible due to a spike in student suicides. And now, in San Francisco, they’re seeing the same tragedies, which prompted the city to yank its own school board into court in an effort to get kids back in the classroom. These schools have been closed for over a year (via NY Post). In San Francisco, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital has seen a 66 percent increase in the number of suicidal children in the emergency room and a 75 percent increase in youth who required hospitalization for mental health services, the lawsuit said, quoting pediatricians, child psychiatrists and emergency room doctors.

Joe, stop tap-dancing. Stop playing footsie with the teacher’s unions. 

Make a decision that helps the children.

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