Mount St Marys Academy in Grass Valley, California, where our son Mitchell went to grade school and middle school, is on the front page of the Los Angeles Times this morning in a feature titled “This school is open.” It’s a good read of the challenges that schools face with COVID-19.
The teacher in the front-page photo is Dave Pistone (see below), who was Mitchell’s math teacher. I’m a fan of Dave, who was an engineer at Intel before becoming a grade-school math teacher. (I have another friend who did something similar: Sam Harper, who worked in the venture capital world after receiving a Stanford MBA, but he made a mid-career switch and became a high-school math teacher in Tennessee, where he grew up. Students can benefit from teachers with these skill sets and experiences).
“While remote learning is the rule at nearly all public schools right now, Mount St. Mary’s is opening because it is in Nevada County, which is not on the state’s coronavirus watchlist, and also because its administrators believe it can do so safely,” according to the L.A. Times article.
“As parents across California struggle with plans for more at-home schooling, Mount St. Mary’s is engaging in an experiment it hopes will provide a model for other schools like it.
Dave’s quote ends the article, displaying his typical dry humor: “We are going overboard,” said David Pistone, a middle school teacher who used to be an engineer at Intel. “I am surprised my hands are not falling off from the bleach.”
The complete article is here. Good going local schools!
(Photo: Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
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