MADERA – The first total solar eclipse in the continental United States in nearly 40 years will take place on Monday morning starting at 9:03am and ending at 11:41am with the most peak of the eclipse to take place at 10:17am.
The entire event will last over two and a half hours. While we here in the Central Valley will not have a total eclipse in this area, the sun will be covered by 75% of totality by the moon at the apex of the event and will not be safe to look at with the naked eye in the Central Valley at any time.
Madera County schools are taking advantage of the eclipse for their fifth grade classes. All the fifth grade students at Madera Unified will have the opportunity to view the solar eclipse. MUSD has provided this opportunity to all 5th graders because solar eclipses fall in the 5th grade study of Science. The district purchased ISO Certified viewing glasses for every fifth grade student in the district.
Fifth grade teachers have received specialized training on the safety procedures to follow with their students in the use of the glasses for safe viewing of the sun. According to MUSD spokesman Babatunde Ilori, “Madera Unified is excited to be able to provide this once in a lifetime opportunity to directly view a solar eclipse to our students.”
However not all MUSD students will be allowed to participate in the solar event. Thursday afternoon a Connect-Ed phone call was sent out to all of the Madera Unified parents warning that their students, other than fifth grade, would not be allowed outside during the event and that all out door actives for Monday morning would be moved in-doors.
In an email from Madera South Vice-Principal Adam Caudell sent to the teachers stated, “We need to make every effort to keep students indoors during the eclipse, so we are moving break up between 1st and 2nd to ensure that students will be indoors during the majority of the event. Please reiterate to your students on Monday morning to practice safety during the morning passing periods. To ensure the safety of staff and students all school outdoor activates will be moved indoors during the event. No students will be allowed to bring solar glasses from home. Students will be instructed to not look directly at the sun during the event.”
Many parents have shared on social media that they will be keeping their children home on Monday so that they can experience this “once in a lifetime opportunity” with their kids. These unexcused absences from school may end up costing the school district a significant amount of lost revenues from the state. Some school districts in the country are simply canceling school on Monday to avoid the potential liability from eye injuries from the eclipse.
Understanding the frustrations many parents who want their children to experience this solar event, Madera Unified Superintendent Todd Lyle issued this statement to the readers of Big Valley News, “Guidance from several reputable public authorities called out the challenges with such natural anomalies. Solar eclipse radiation is different than the intense sunlight of a typical day as the darkness often deceives viewers until an injury occurs. The same guidance recommended protecting all students as their safety is the school's responsibility. We also understood commercial solar lenses had too high a failure rate to rely upon. The 5th grade will use professional grade lenses from science education firms with a well planned lesson. Many districts are employing similar safety measures and we felt our students were too important to do less.”
EDITORIAL COMMENT: I find it interesting how the moon is in the exact spot it must be in for an eclipse to take place. As we know the moon is much smaller than the Sun, and therefore must be an exact distance from the sun, and near enough to the Earth to completely block the Sun, and ensuring a solar eclipse.
This tells me that there must be an architect of our physical universe. The probability is too staggering for this placement to be chance. Although, there are writings that speak of a time before the moon was in our skies. Regardless, the placement is not debatable.
It is an interesting topic which has fascinated me since a child and therefore I do not want my children to miss out on this event. While I am going to send my children to school on Monday, I will be there to take them out of class so that they can witness the eclipse with our cereal box pinhole cameras in the parking lot like I did in 1979. Hopefully they will then share this experience with their children the next time this event takes place in North America and remember me.
Isaiah 13:10
