Among the multiple realities that Mexico and United States share as neighbors, currently two issues co-occur: the failure to achieve Covid-19 cases decrease curve during the summer, and the return to elementary, middle, and high school of more than 84 million kids and teens (30 MX / 54 US), which takes place during these weeks.

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So, when Mexican government’s announcement to start 20-21 school year from home, for many families was like ‘cold water,’ always realizing that in all stories there are winners; that in this case range from computers sales that achieved a 75% increase over the latest ‘Hot Sale’ and estimates another commercial ‘peak’ these days, to the television stations (Televisa, Teleazteca, etc.) that closed a 450 Mexican Millions Pesos deal with government’s ‘4T’ for transmitting classes to be able to reach everyone.

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A fact that by the way should not be judged by the use of media perse (many talks about how outdated it is… like going back to the ‘70s) in a country with low-average connectivity, remoteness, etc… it should instead work under the ‘transmedia’ model, where different content travels through different platforms … transversality, as (we) do the large publishing groups such as Forbes or Condè Nast. Be purposeful combining and manage to mix the past with the future to expand the use.

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Meanwhile, In the United States, back-to-school is becoming one of the sources for the pandemic outbreak. In two weeks of classes in Atlanta, 1,193 students tested positive for COVID-19 and quarantined, according to New York Times, while the CDC traces corroborate that multiple infection cases (those where a few reach tens of thousands of people), 300 are tied to NINE summer camps in California, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, which strictly followed biosecurity protocols.

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Of course, reopening schools became a State matter (including political parties), where Trump Republicans insist on a safety protocols back-to-school… ‘We are going to take the pressure off and give peace of mind to parents that their children will be able to have normal lives,’ the president consistently affirms, while thousands of districts work putting plexiglass barriers in classrooms, always under one variable: the possibility that many students decide not to wear masks because in the USA is not a health issue, but a political and philosophical one. A whole Sword of Damocles.

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However, classroom promise implies that parents realized spread proven levels that involves having kids and teens reunited where, according to the American Journal of Medicine, ‘beyond verifying that minors are high transmitters of COVID- 19, it is understood that humans on their early stages develop more elevated amounts of saliva, mucus, etc., which makes them more likely to distribute mainly gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases in the population ‘.

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Because reality cannot be hidden: When a boy in the classroom gets the flu, a week later everyone has it, and when they leave school and return home -under this premise and extrapolating it to the present- the pandemic figures will change: if the territory has a relative level of contagion of 100 infected out of every 100,000 inhabitants (as happens in various parts of the USA and Mexico), it will be far from guaranteeing security, according to a vast majority of epidemiologists.

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The optimal level for reopening reaches ten infected out of every 100.000… today knowns in some countries as ‘Green Light,’ a moment that is far from the current one because more than a ‘peak’ there is a ‘plateau.’ Also, 4 out of 10 average kids and teens live with high-risk patients; and the figures end up confirming that the spread increases, parents must always act in terms of back-to-school, aware of this reality.

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You don’t have to be an expert to check that a difference between 10 and 100 is significant and difficult to change in a month. The parent’s feedback shows: According to Ipsos global survey habits, 56% of Mexican parents plan for greater peace of mind that their children return to school as of January 2021.

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Because for the vast majority of parents (all the media and social networks are full of testimonials, and market research firms also confirm this), time management at home has become complicated, not only because of having to stop work to explain chemistry and algebra but in many cases have to share a computer, physical spaces, internet broadband…

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Today’s fatherhood has much more surveillance and presence, with almost no privacy for their kids, discovering that school education is more than essential. The existing model is not complete (and lacks a lot of creativity) not just for kids, but for them too. And of course, the psychological impact of comparing their childhood with that of their children, who are far from the park -and other children- affects and makes them put more pressure on governments to reopen schools.

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How much does it impact that children do not return to classes in the business environment? For Goldman Sacks, 30% of the US workforce has children under the age of 12 at home, finding during the pandemic that this group decreases their productivity by 20% for understandable reasons, it’s a matter of empathy. So that schools do not open nowadays means that, through the ‘man-hours,’ in an eleven work team people -as in soccer games with a ‘red card’ case- today they are counting on ten members. Sounds quite expensive.

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All this under threat of forced migration for part of the workforce towards housework, considering (or having to) leave their job to carry the load. In a world where double family income alleviates burdens, this setback will help in the short term. Still, it will create a detriment to the quality of life of many households over time, especially in the less favored segments.

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A chain that impacts the education industry as it was known: in the United States, where 37% of students from private schools have been withdrawn according to local unions, in Mexico the National Association of Private Schools (ANFE-ANEP) confirmed that, at least 25% of the 48,713 private schools in the country today are in red numbers.

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And it is understandable… only in MexicoCity, a private school represents between $3,500 and $9,000 Mexican Pesos per month, which is between 40-45% of the average income of the Segment C employee in the city. Without forgetting the 18 billion Mexican pesos that the sectors related to back-to-school have lost due to the evident classroom digitization, because all human transformation comes with the evolution of the markets, an undeniable reality, according to Paul Geroski and his’ Evolution of New Markets.’

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For Antonio Guterres (United Nations Secretary-General), if a prompt solution is not generated for the return to school classes, ‘the world will witness an unprecedented generational stagnation because of the inequity and difficulty children experience home today also impact the quality of their education. ‘ There is an urgent need for greater support from teachers, creativity as a methodology to educate, and an intermediate to distancing, where fewer boys studying together is the ‘it’ in parents’ trends in developed markets.

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For parents, who cannot influence government decisions, between the pressure to be a ‘MsMom’ (because the reality is that, both in the USA and in Mexico, this work is falling especially on women), to be able to continue working after hours, make sure that their kids do not live the ‘technovirual childhood,’ and ensure that no one gets COVID-19, tension grows.

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What a moment… unforgettable. Quite a mental, spiritual, and economic challenge to what it means to be a father and have children. I have a lot of respect for all those who continue with today’s challenges this work with unconditional love, resilience, and creativity.

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