School Interrupted
Dear TEA Commissioner Mike Morath,
The reopening of schools seems to be the most pressing topic of this whirlwind year. I’ve heard or read about viewpoints from friends, family members, colleagues, and complete strangers, and it seems to me that are two big reasons in support of resuming face-to-face schooling soonest. The first is obvious. Students need to be educated. I get that. I’ve worked in education for 12 years. It’s the only profession I’ve ever known. I can’t not get that. I get the longing to interact again, to high five and hug our students who are more like family, to laugh together, to cry together, to look into one another’s eyes without the haunting threat of screen fatigue creeping in from the back of our eyeballs.
Almost presented simultaneously with the first, the second reason I’ve heard for reopening schools is that “parents can’t take any more time off from work” which suggests an obligation to reopen schools in order to give parents back their built-in childcare that K-12 schools (and their extracurricular programs) provide. My heart goes out to every struggling family. It is not my intention to sound inconsiderate. Nothing about this worldwide pandemic has been easy. But all the compassion in the world will not erase the fact that uninterrupted face-to-face instruction as we knew it before this coronavirus became part of our reality is NO LONGER A POSSIBILITY.
I do not write this to argue against the necessity of school, just against the necessity of face-to-face school. Instead of channeling our hope into a system that can’t be (right now), what if we channeled it into the best possible remote learning circumstances our suppressed energy and work ethics can buy?
Hold up. Did this working mom of four just say she is supporting the move to remote learning for 2020-2021? Yep, I sure did. And yes, I am aware that any online schooling program, no matter what it promises, requires daytime availability from parents, guardians, and/or other caregivers that face-to-face schooling does not.
You see, we can reopen schools. But can we keep them open, without interruptions? I can imagine schools opening, and the virus inevitably spreading, and this leading to dysfunction and/or reclosure due to teacher, administrator, and staff shortages as catching the virus or fearing catching the virus becomes their reality. Or what will happen if the area a school is located in experiences a peak in cases? Guess what will be first to close? The schools. And let me also throw in a reminder that medical professionals do not only ask those diagnosed with covid-19 to quarantine for a couple of weeks, but those who have been exposed to a person with the virus are asked to quarantine at home for a couple of weeks as well. Do you see where I am going with this? DO YOU?!
Let’s say I resume teaching my university students face-to-face and a student in one of my classes contracts the coronavirus. One student. Obviously that student has been in contact with my one classroom of 25 students which s/he is enrolled in. Now I go on to teach another of my sections with 25 students while, likewise, the student with the virus attends class with three other professors, each with 25 (or more!) students. (I’m being generous with these low numbers by the way.) The student then rides a bus to get home with 20 other students (plus a bus driver). So, right there, we have at least 197 individuals needing to be quarantined (five whom are responsible for instruction) just to avoid a super-spreader situation. Also, I didn’t take into account any fellow faculty or auxiliary staff I may have also come into contact with. Can you imagine what happens to the operations of face-to-face schooling when administrative assistants are at home quarantining?
What’s worse is imagining myself or any other individual returning from quarantine only to be exposed yet again and landing ourselves right back into quarantine. This goes beyond an educational disruption. (By the way, who will be supporting students while they quarantine?) I can imagine this turbulence being quite physically and emotionally taxing as well.
Ultimately, this seems black and white to me. For me to continue to teach (and for my university students to continue to learn) while in quarantine, I must proactively plan to teach (and for my students to learn) virtually. No, virtual instruction is not always the best instruction. I could get on my soapbox easily and preach to anyone who will listen about the benefits of face-to-face instruction. It is by far my preference to online teaching, where building rapport with students, especially college students, is a challenge. But it’s an obstacle I am forced by these circumstances to overcome.
My daddy always said, “Life’s not about how hard you fall, it’s about how well you get back up.” Unfortunately COVID-19 is a virus that we, our education system, and our country cannot remove and throw away like a banana leaf. All we can do is what we can do. And right now, that’s wiping away self-righteousness that tells us we are entitled to use K-12 schools as solid, reliable childcare and gearing up with the best remote schooling armor we can find.
If we’re going to do this, let’s do it well. That’s the true American way, is it not?
Kindly,
Amanda Kay Cruz, Ph.D.
Amanda Cruz is a former K12 teacher/current higher ed teacher in Texas.