My two older sons Ollie and Ethan went back to school in-person two weeks ago. There was a phase-in process the week of the 30th, and last week was the first full week of school for them. Ollie and Ethan attend Chiaravalle Montessori, a private toddler-8th grade school in Evanston, Illinois. It’s been a challenging but overall wonderful two weeks, and I'm overjoyed they are going to school in-person.
Biden is right. Students going “back to school” remotely in America is a massive failure. Like our inability to ensure that no children go to sleep hungry in our country, the collective choices by elective officials and selfish citizens to prioritize their own political gain and convenience over the education of the children of America is shameful, reprehensible, and embarrassing.
Every single school in America could start the school in-person, safely for teachers and students if adequate resources were allocated to teachers, administrators and medical professionals last spring. There’s a view from some people that “remote learning” is good enough. It’s ok if students learn from a computer screen for hours. It’s the idea that the “freedom” to go out, to party, to “note wear masks” is a far exchange for students learning remotely. It’s not. It’s not even close.
Teaching remotely by even the greatest of teachers is barely a shadow of the education students get in-person, even if that education includes students being in small pods, wearing masks and socially distancing. Having seen my own children and my students experience in-person learning with all of these precautions, I can say with absolute certainty that modified in-person learning is far superior than remote learning.
We are very privileged to be able to send our children to a school that has figured out how to make in-person work. Some of this has to do with the school’s resources, but even more of it had to do with the quality of the administration and the incredible dedication of the faculty.
The opening week was carefully crafted with Ollie’s first day of second grade only lasting half an hour to work on arrival and dismissal. The next day was two hours to add a couple more routines. The fifth day they added eating lunch, and after one week of this careful work he has a full day of school.
Ethan had a similar phase in at the toddler level. The first couple days were simply forty-five minutes visits to the playground. After sixth months away, he needed to just get the process of going to school in his head. The teachers made good connections with Ethan while he played but they mostly gave him space, carefully observing how he was acclimating to being back in school. His days also slowly got longer until he stayed a full day.
This plan allowed the students to get used the new routines of the school year, and the new school’s safety routines of wearing masks and social distancing deliberately and slowly. During Ollie’s short first couple days they could be seen working on social distancing through games, and joyful interactions.
Yes, Chiaravalle has space and staff. Most other schools do as well. This may mean changing community centers and libraries into classrooms, but with imagination these things can happen. Yes, we have a shortage of teachers in America. So we do what we did for doctors when COVID-19 was peaking in the Spring. Bring teachers out of retirement to support school work remotely, and get young teachers in teacher education programs sped through certification and into schools with large financial incentives. Even with the ridiculous mismanagement of the response to COVID-19 by the trump administration, and so many Americans, we can open schools for in-person learning, and many schools are figuring it out.
I felt like that Ollie’s and Ethan’s school made the impossible possible. They didn’t give up, and neither should we. Schools are not going to be able to return to “normal” this school year, even if the vaccine comes in the winter. We cannot settle for remote learning for an entire school year.
We can’t give up on our children.
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