My Thoughts

We who have chosen to devote our lives to the education and nurturing of young people feel immense sorrow that we will begin a new school year with our students through a screen. We worry about their mental health. We worry about lack of motivation and the difficulties we will face engaging them in virtual learning. We worry about vast inequities that exist between families in terms of economic resources and adeptness at supporting children’s academic and emotional growth. We worry about children who will be confined to crowded and noisy apartments as they struggle to focus on their work on the screen.

But do you know what we worry about more? We worry about losing students and colleagues to this virus. Sending our APS community back to classrooms at this time would be a dangerous and irresponsible gamble with our lives – children and staff. No, children don’t appear to contract the virus as easily as adults, and if they do, they do not seem to suffer severe effects. However, children with underlying conditions are at significant risk, and research indicates that as children approach and enter their teen years, they are more vulnerable to contracting the virus and suffering more serious effects than those of younger children.

I would be lying if I said I was ready to sacrifice my health, and possibly my life, at this moment, and I believe a vast majority of our community values the lives of educators. To those who are willing to gamble with educators’ lives, I have a question: when teachers begin to fall ill, who will teach the students? We have difficulty getting substitutes as it is; can you imagine what securing a sub during COVID will be like? Besides, how effective do you believe the average substitute teacher would be in nurturing children, academically and socially, especially during this traumatic time?

We are only beginning to learn about the effects of the virus and how to treat it. Think about the middle and high school setting: how is it a good idea to put twelve or more students in a room with a teacher for 90 minutes at a time, often in a space without windows or with windows that don’t open? At the end of those 90 minutes, do it again, and then again. And the next day, do it again with three to four new groups of students. How many people do you know who would be comfortable with this scenario right now? Teachers are not trained to be front-line workers, nor is a classroom that looks like the front-line a mentally healthy place for students.

Thankfully, we have a superintendent who is putting the safety of students and teachers first, and we are now able to move forward without fear and set upon educating ourselves about effective distance teaching and putting plans in place to support our students the best we can virtually until it is safe enough to begin to phase in in-person learning. This also gives us time to learn more about the virus, time to learn more about sanitizing the spaces we will share, time to – I hope and pray – see the numbers come down. We have counselors; social workers; diversity, equity, and inclusion specialists; an office of family and community engagement; administrators; and teachers who are hell-bent on protecting and educating our students. I love these children fiercely, as do educators across the country, and I believe we are pressing ahead with the option that does less harm. In the middle of a deadly pandemic, that’s what we’re stuck with right now: doing less harm.