The Lost Year
What if we all skipped school this year?
Way back in February, when coronavirus was still a distant news story out of China, no one would have believed six months later we’d be living like we are today. Wearing masks. Social distancing. Restrictions on everything from travel to entertainment to family get-togethers.
But why? Couldn’t we have seen what was coming? When the 11 million people of Wuhan were locked in their homes, did we really think the virus would not impact us too? Or was it something deeper?
Perhaps it is human nature’s defense mechanism that allows us to process only so much information at once. If someone had told you in February or March that your kids would not be going to school for at least a year, that you would not be able to visit your elderly or vulnerable family members, that you could not travel freely, go to the movies, sporting events, concerts..or even take public transportation or go to the office…how would you have reacted? If you are like most people, probably not well. Yet we humans are remarkably adaptable. As work from home and lockdown orders were extended, it did not shock us in the same way it would have months ago.
Except when it comes to school.
Here we are, days away from the start of a new school year and somehow- somehow!- we are surprised that (most of) our kids will not be going back to the classroom. The recent introduction of the ‘hybrid’ model…the combination of in-person and remote learning…realistically was never going to happen. What were we thinking? That even though nothing has changed in the last few months with the virus, somehow we were going to return to normal just because the calendar says it’s time to start a new school year?
Don’t get me wrong — I believed it as much as the next person. Yet now that school districts are falling one by one across the country to 100% remote learning, I am surprised. And angry.
We are kidding ourselves if we think this school year will be anything except ‘less-than-ideal’. Zoom and Google Classroom learning last spring was hastily put together on a moment’s notice. Will it be any different this fall? As administrators and teachers spent the summer desperately trying to sort out safety protocols for returning to school, how much time was spent on innovative technology solutions to improve remote learning? Rather than push ahead with logistics that are not fully vetted, can we please hit pause?
Forget about school.
No school for one year.
Give us the clarity we all want and need. Next fall, after either a vaccine is distributed widely and it’s safe to go back to school, or after we have spent the next 12 months focused on new ways of educating ALL students in creative and appropriate ways for our new norm, we return to school where we left off. If your child were going into fourth grade this year, instead they will enter fourth grade next year.
It will be ‘the lost year’. But not ‘a’ lost year. Because everyone will do it together. No one will be left behind.
During those 12 months, we learn to just be. To be human. To be with our kids without pressure to do academics. To enjoy our families together. To teach our kids life skills. To re-learn how to connect as families, as neighbors, as ‘humans’.
Teachers and administrators could take the 12 months to use their creativity and passion for teaching to find new ways to innovatively teach all our children for the future new norm. They can divide and conquer. Some can focus on safety to determine how to bring back students in reimagined work spaces. Others can focus on creative and innovative teaching methods for the new norm. Still others can focus on volunteer and support efforts for families who need assistance. Everyone would have a role to play. Society continues to pay the teachers for this time as an investment in our children’s new future.
Quite simplistic approach, you may say. Not realistic. Maybe.
But what are our options? Living in this constant state of uncertainty is causing greater divisions and strife than the knowledge of what the future is/could look like. Let’s control what we can control. Isn’t it time to try a new approach?
