Achi news desk-
As North America prepares for a once-in-a-lifetime solar event, school districts across eastern Canada are weighing potential learning opportunities against potential risks, with most coming down firmly on the side of safety.
Many school boards are making arrangements to ensure that students are not in school during the total solar eclipse on April 8, canceling classes or opting for an early dismissal. They cite concerns that children could damage their eyes by looking directly at the sun, or that the mid-afternoon darkness will make their journey home dangerous.
The path of totality – a range about 200 kilometers wide where the moon completely blocks sunlight – stretches through cities and towns in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. Although the total eclipse will only last between one and three minutes, the event is expected to last more than two hours during the mid to late afternoon.
In Toronto, which is just outside the path of totality and will only experience a partial eclipse that will peak at 3:19 pm ET, the city’s largest school board rescheduled a professional development day for teachers from April 19 to April 8.
“As the eclipse will occur around the dismissal times of many schools, there were concerns that children would be outside and possibly looking directly at the sun, which without proper protection could lead to serious problems such as partial loss of sight or absolutely,” reads a letter to parents, signed by Toronto District School Board director Colleen Russell-Rawlins.
Painless in the moment
The safety issues are not to be taken lightly, according to a Toronto-based ophthalmologist who specializes in retinal diseases.
When a person looks at the sun, it is usually so bright that their eyes reflexively close from irritation, says Panos Christakis. But during an eclipse, only a fraction of the light comes through, so your eyes can endure looking for a longer period, increasing the risk of damage.
A UPEI physics professor says people shouldn’t watch the April 8 solar eclipse for too long — even with the right glasses. Maria Kilfoil, joins CBC News: Compass to talk about the best, and safest, way to watch it.
It would be painless at this point, so a person would not realize until it is too late that they have permanently lost a significant amount of central vision, a condition known as solar retinopathy.
That puts a heavy burden of responsibility on teachers in a classroom, he said.
“It might be difficult if a class is looking at this eclipse, getting people to monitor to make sure kids aren’t looking around the special glasses or aren’t using the right protection,” he said. Christakis.
Eclipse safe eye protection, such as the ISO 12312-2 glasses, are developed and tested specifically to prevent eye damage during an eclipse. But they are not effective if they are not worn, he said.
“They’re thousands of times darker than normal sunglasses, so you really can’t see anything except extremely bright light,” he said.
“Children may be overwhelmed by that experience and start looking around them.”
The learning opportunity of a lifetime
Tracy Webb, an astrophysicist with the Trottier Space Institute at McGill University in Montreal, worries that school closures are depriving children of a valuable learning experience.
Montreal is the entire route, and most schools and daycares – including the Center de services scolaire de Montréal, one of the city’s three main French school boards in the city – will be closed on April 8.
“It’s their job to keep the kids safe during school hours and I appreciate that,” Webb said.
“But at the same time, it’s important to be reasonable and not blow it into something it’s not.”
On April 8, a total solar eclipse is expected to pass through parts of Canada, the United States and Mexico. Andrew Chang explains what makes a total eclipse so special, and why it’s likely to be the only one you’ll ever experience.
Webb said that about a minute and a half of darkness in Montreal – which won’t be pitch black, but similar to dawn or dusk – “isn’t going to cause chaos in the city.”
Webb plans to bring her children to work with her that day to watch the eclipse. Ideally, he said, everyone would have the day off to see the rare show together.
“My concern about school closures is that only the children whose parents can take time off work will be able to experience the eclipse now, whereas perhaps school boards and the government could have arranged something with the schools so that those children also have a chance to see the eclipse,” he said.
Students on the Island will get out of class two hours early on April 8, the day the province will experience a total solar eclipse. Find out the reasons behind the move and where parents have left.
Montreal scientists Pierre Chastenay and Camille Turcotte wrote an open letter in Le Journal de Montreal stating that the Quebec government is fueling hysteria and causing confusion by recommending a shutdown.
Discovering the Universe, a program run by Canadian astronomers that offers astronomy training for teachers, encouraged schools to offer viewing opportunities, writing on its website that enabling students to engage with the eclipse “is the safest and most productive course of action that schools can take. .”
Proceed with caution
In the United States, some schools are canceling classes while others are organizing group visits, even busing students to a path of wholeness. Teachers in Dallas were told at a teaching workshop that it would be “almost criminal” to keep students inside during the eclipse, according to the Associated Press.
In Canada, most major school boards are cautious.
While most Ontario boards are rescheduling a professional development day, Ottawa’s largest school board simply didn’t have a spare day to move that way. eliminate a teaching day.
Prince Edward Island students will be dismissed two hours early “out of sufficient notice,” the provincial government said in a news release. Alberton, PEI, will have one of the longest views in Canada, lasting three minutes and three seconds when it occurs at 4:35 ET.
When the sun, moon and Earth align on April 8, Hilding Neilson will be outside looking up – even if it’s pouring rain. Neilson is hosting the Solar Eclipse Soiree in Gander, a four-day festival celebrating the science, culture and fun of this stellar moment.
Students in New Brunswick may be sent home early so they can “reach their after-school destination safely before the eclipse begins,” the province’s education department said.
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District has not announced plans for an early dismissal, although it will experience the eclipse later in the day, hitting Gander at 5:12 pm NT. The eclipse will skim the northern tip of Nova Scotia, where it can be seen in Meat Cove.
Tips for safe viewing
Even if schools opt out, Webb encourages parents to look for viewing events in their communities.
In Montreal, McGill University will host an eclipse fair where 20,000 pairs of protective glasses will be available to the public.
If you have eclipse glasses, Christakis said you can test them by looking at a bright light bulb uncovered. You should be able to see a “very faint dot.”
He emphasized that it is only safe to take off the glasses during the short period of totality, when the sun is completely eclipsed by the moon and only the sun’s corona is visible as a faint glow.
You will know this is happening when you can no longer see anything through the glasses, he said. Once even a patch of sun reappears, the glasses need to go back on.
“It’s a once in a lifetime experience that our children should probably take part in, or consider taking part in, but obviously in a safe way – using the right glasses and being supervised by an adult,” he said.
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