Going back to school

or not going back to school?
The paediatrician across the road is sending her two children back to school and day care next week. Ms W is also going back to school. 
Risks? Yes, of course there are some but they are calculated risks.
The two little boys want to go back to school and day care.  They didn't spend any extra time at home. It has been the Easter break here. 
All their parents are hoping for is that it won't merely be a child minding service for essential workers. There should be no need for that. 
I know teachers are at risk. One of them told me that she is worried about going back to work but, "I won't be going into the staff room and I will be emphasising cleanliness even more than usual."
Ms W is, reluctantly, going back to school. Her reluctance has nothing to do with the virus. Her father is working almost entirely from home and she is not quite so concerned about him now. As she put it, "If I only have my Dad then I am allowed to be a bit worried."
Her reluctance has to do with the fact that she has actually achieved more, much more, at home than she usually does at school.  She has done all the school work required of her - and more besides. Their freezer is stacked with meals. ("If my Dad actually remembers to get one out and eat it.") The garden is almost winter ready. Ms W is, rightly, feeling rather pleased with herself. Her efforts put mine to shame.
It has been interesting to watch her from afar. We have talked - from the requisite distance. Her father told her to take some time off this week. I did the same. It hasn't stopped her gardening. She has been for exercise. She has done some paper craft ready to give her friends when she sees them and a copy of the fire and ambulance station for a child in her street. It's for his birthday because, at present, he wants to be a fireman when he grows up. He is a fairly careful sort of child so it will probably last some time but Ms W knows it won't last forever.
And she has not watched television apart from a documentary - which was "okay". The only real disaster has been that she has run out of library books and the idea of choosing them on line instead of browsing along the shelves made her uncharacteristically irritable. 
Does going back to school worry her?
   " A bit. We will all have to be extra careful I guess but I am bothered about whether our teachers might get sick."
Her reluctance has more to do with the fact that she feels she was achieving more at home. I pointed out that not everyone is as motivated to learn as she is. This is something she finds hard to understand.
   "But everyone should like learning things!"
I reminded her that not everyone does and that the good thing about going back to school will be seeing her friends again. In answer to that I got no more than, "I suppose so but it will be awfully boring if the others haven't finished everything we were supposed to do and we have to do it all over again."
Going back to school has all sorts of challenges.