Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!norn-news!news.mcu.or.jp!navi.honnet.co.jp!honnetnews!yynet.tama.tokyo.jp!nf.asahi-net.or.jp!newsfeed2.kddnet.ad.jp!newsfeed2.kddnet.ad.jp!newspeer1.nwr.nac.net!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!postnews.google.com!q19g2000prn.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: MonkeyBoy Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: Classes continue despite measles Date: 28 May 2007 07:26:36 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lines: 79 Message-ID: <1180362396.418000.188190@q19g2000prn.googlegroups.com> References: <1179987801.888246.10470@b40g2000prd.googlegroups.com> <5bo114F2t21tlU1@mid.individual.net> <1180140821.761034.307780@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.com> <5bpo9nF2rbqlpU1@mid.individual.net> <1180311625.423857.160210@z28g2000prd.googlegroups.com> <5bvuogF2ta8k0U1@mid.individual.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 122.249.64.100 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: posting.google.com 1180362432 12780 127.0.0.1 (28 May 2007 14:27:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 28 May 2007 14:27:12 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: <5bvuogF2ta8k0U1@mid.individual.net> User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: q19g2000prn.googlegroups.com; posting-host=122.249.64.100; posting-account=kRQWXgwAAAAEtxGjVpoSPwCYJBlZj8bF Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:165635 On May 28, 9:03 pm, "John R. Yamamoto-Wilson" wrote: > MonkeyBoy wrote: > > This is where the concept of personal responsibility comes into > > play, but apparently that lesson is one thing not taught at some > > universities. > > I'm not quite sure what you're saying here. Surely, if it was down to > personal responsibility, the schools would remain open and it would be > up to any students who were infected or thought they might be infected > to take appropriate action and for others to get inoculated. > > > the same students doing arubaito would be doing it with classes > > canceled or not > > I didn't mean to suggest that they wouldn't, just that students from > affected schools are finding that they are not all that welcome at their > part-time jobs. > > > - only it's that much worse when they become infected in class > > and then go spread it around the restaurant they work at. > > Yes, that might be a problem. But another scenario is that, if large > numbers of students are incubating the illness and the schools are > closed, they then spend more time hanging around in places where they > may spread the illness more generally around the society. > > > Actually, the problem is that as long as classes continue to be > > held during this outbreak, students are compelled to attend them > > whether they are sick or not. > > Not at my institution, where we are bombarded almost hourly with PA > system announcements warning all students with anything that might > remotely resemble symptoms of measles to remove themselves from the > campus immediately. Are other schools not doing the same? Surely no > school is saying "You have to come to class whether or not you're sick"? > > > The same mentality of the sick salaryman who jumps on a train to > > go to work because God forbid he eats a vacation day when he's sick. > > What's wrong with a sick note from the doctor? Teachers can be > instructed to respect such notes from the point of view of excusing > class attendance requirements and - if it drags on long enough - > affected students can be given alternatives to sitting the term tests > with their peers. These are all more practicable measures than outright > closure. > > > There is no reason to assume adverse implications for temporarily > > delaying classes until such an outbreak of disease is under control. > > It's actually just the opposite case. This is not about such a noble > > cause as education - it's about time, money and convenience. > > That, too, of course. Resources *are* finite. My university has so far > sacrificed a week through closure and students and their parents have > been told that the term will not be extended to compensate for tuition > they have paid for but not received (though teachers may teach a make-up > class at their discretion if they wish to). Any further loss of > term-time may lead to extending the school term, which would inevitably > result in mass cancellations of aeroplane flights, holidays, study > trips, conferences, etc., etc., and inevitably some students would > simply cut classes held during what would normally be vacation time - > many more, I would imagine, than are likely to miss classes through > sickness. > > > I am not a health care professional either, however this appears to > > be common sense. > > I don't think anyone would disagree that a comprehensive programme of > vaccination is common sense. After that it becomes a little fuzzy, to me > at least! > > John Okay, your points are well taken. Where you are in the university environment you're more qualified to assess the situation than I am. Perhaps I have overreacted a bit on this :-) Although, still, as a company employee, I do have a problem with people coming to work sick all winter long.