This. Is. A. Mess
On the one hand, many parents want to dictate what teachers cannot teach (for example, Critical Race Theory, which isn’t actually taught in K-12 schools).
On the other hand, many parents blame teachers and schools for last-minute closings based on uncontrollably rapidly changing COVID data.
On a third hand, there seems to be some sort of equation that pits students’ health against teachers’ health. If we go remote, we’re valuing teachers over students. If we go in-person, we’re valuing students over teachers. It appears to be a
zero-sum game.
I’m not sure what kind of game we’re playing with COVID, but I worry that it’s overly simplistic. It isn’t taking into consideration the complexity of the binds this pandemic puts us in.
It isn’t taking into consideration the expectations we have of schools that we apparently have never had to question before. Expectations like
Teachers will never get sick — or can never be frightened of getting sick.
Schools will always offer reliable child care.
Learning will never make students uncomfortable.
Learning gains — as opposed to “learning loss” — must be made at all costs.
Schools must alleviate mental illness.
School leaders should be able to predict the future at just the right time.
Existential inconvenience is someone else’s — like the school’s — fault.
UHHH.
I’m frustrated by these expectations. I feel for parents who are juggling unresolvable pressures! I do! But the fact that schools become such a convenient scapegoat makes me wonder: What roles do we expect schools to play in our lives? Are these roles consistent with what schools are? with the resources they tend to have (and not have)? Are these expectations commensurate with reality?
What is the reality schools supposedly exist in?
How has the pandemic exposed and changed that reality?
What adjustments does the reality of this pandemic suggest we need to make to our expectations of schools, to the roles we assume they’ll play?
What other societal changes need to be made to reduce the impossible pressures on parents, students, and schools? that will allow us to link arms rather than battle each other?
How can we clean up this mess so that the order we co-create is
way better
than it has ever been before?