Back to school?
 
 
A decade ago, my weekly Target run consisted mostly of diapers—and the Diet Coke I thought kept me functional on the four or five hours of sleep I was getting each night. But I couldn’t help noticing how, each year, right after July 4, deck furniture, grilling supplies, and water wings disappeared, replaced overnight with #2 pencils, glue sticks, composition notebooks, and Post-its, as well as backpacks to tote it all to class on that first day of school, still two months distant here in Chicago. I felt an atavistic sympathy for kids stumbling upon this unhappy reminder in the midst of their summers. Did people really shop that far ahead?
 
Now I know: the next year’s supply lists come home on the last day of school each June, crammed into backpacks along with the previous fall’s notebooks (mostly empty) and 10 months’ worth of art projects. I’m one of those parents who can’t wait to get their hands on these lists—entering them into my phone as soon as I have them and setting a reminder for July 5.
 
We didn’t get supply lists when school “ended” last month. Like many school systems around the country, Chicago Public Schools intends to have in-person learning in one form or another come September, but that’s about it for specifics. The University of Chicago has offered more detail in its plans for the resumption of on-campus programs and operations. But it’s clear that planning for school, at every level, will be an ongoing conversation, one that continues—and evolves—well past the fall.
 
Read on for some of the latest ideas—and please share your thoughts and experiences as we all navigate this together.
 
Sean, AB’90
 
P.S. Know any other parents who could use some guidance at this time? Share this issue with them.
 
 
  July syllabus  
 
 
  1.  
College planning during COVID-19
The traditional college tour isn’t happening this summer, so UChicago Admissions has created resources for your virtual college search, whether your student is focused on UChicago or still looking around. (Also, LEGO!)
 
 
  2.  
The big question
What do 132 epidemiologists, including UChicago’s Sandra Tilmon, think about sending their kids back to school?
 
 
  3.  
Putting the pieces together
Take a few tips from UChicago psychologist Susan Levine to make playtime more fun as you boost early spatial and math skills with puzzles.
 
 
  4.  
To playdate or not to playdate
It’s still summer. Kids want to be with other kids. How do you do it? UChicago pediatric infectious disease specialist Allison Bartlett helps you ask the right questions.
 
 
  5.  
It’s the schools, stupid
Being able to reopen schools and daycare centers will be key to fully rebooting the US economy, according to research from UChicago’s Becker Friedman Institute.
 
 
“The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”
 
—James Baldwin, “A Talk to Teachers,” 1963
 
 
  For the grown-ups  
 
  Historian Adam Green, AB’85, and sociologist Reuben Jonathan Miller, AM’07, put the current wave of protests into a broader historical context.