Thank You
I want to thank all the educators who did me the great favor of responding to my post from a few weeks ago. (That offer still stands, by the way.) You educators — teachers and administrators — if you ever were in COVID denial like me, you no longer have that
luxury.
You are worried about the fall, which is well-nigh upon us. You are worried about yourselves. And your families. And your students. You are worried that you or someone else will get sick and die.
In your words, you are
terrified
anxious
guilty
confused
stressed.
Because concrete decisions are now being made. In the midst of overwhelmedness and uncontainment, when our country is leaderless, in this surreal time, major decisions are being made.
And these are tough decisions. Because they involve life and death. And, perhaps — how could they not? — they involve some degree of COVID denial.
But these decisions need to be made! Someone has to make them! There’s the rub!
Here are my pleas, at a time of decisions made through the fog of overwhelmedness, uncontainment, and surreality:
Leaders, please make decisions based on what seems best for your community. Of course. And — but? — please be flexible and caring in making exceptions. Teachers are not front-line health care workers. They are not trained as doctors or nurses and schools are not constructed like hospitals. A teacher who puts her own or her family’s physical and mental health before her students’ (or their parents’) preference to be studying in person must not be punished.
Teachers and parents, be kind to your leaders. This is not the time to act out your anxiety on people who are doing the difficult work our country’s (and in some cases, our states’) leaders are unwilling to do. Yes, you are anxious. Yes, you have legitimate needs and concerns. Please mobilize the resources available to you to communicate those needs and concerns. But please, let your first steps be considerate and broad-minded. If those first steps take you nowhere, then by all means start yelling.
Leaders, teachers, parents, please work together to co-create the Nth. Show up for yourself and pay attention to others. Honor your own reality and honor others’, and co-construct mutual understanding of the facts and constraints of the various realities — all legitimate — that co-exist right now
despite their multitudinous contradictions.
It would be radical if, at the most local level, we could begin to enact with each other the healthy relationships that should characterize our educational systems and, by god, our political system.
What we need in these crazy times, I believe, is effective containment. And a shared sense of what is true, real, and possible (and impossible).
Sadly, we’re on our own here.
How can we work together to manage this chaos?
Mantras: How can I contain myself (and yet mobilize my energy constructively)? How can I appreciate others’ attempts to contain responsibly? How can we work together to craft a survivable reality?