17 Days.  A lot can happen in 17 days.  When I wrote my first corona virus blog 17 days ago, I talked about how far away all of this seemed.  It was affecting people across the ocean, not really here.  I was literally in the middle of spring break when my supervisor called and said we needed to think about teaching online.  Ok.

17 days later, this has become a reality.  Teachers and administrators across the country are scrambling, kids are out of school indefinitely and in some cases, won’t be back this semester.  Some states have stopped teaching all together, mainly due to the fact that they can’t provide the same educational experience for everyone the same way virtually. There are those students without computers or internet.  Or a home.  There are students without food.  Students now stuck in abusive homes 24/7.  Students not being loved.  Things that brick and mortar schools were providing.  Somehow, the education part doesn’t seem so important anymore and we’re seeing just how much schools provide their students besides a great education.

I read a post from a friend this morning, who spoke of the things his parents taught him growing up, a mixture of the traditional – math, grammar, reading, writing, chemistry, history, and the not so traditional – working with tools, building and fixing things.  These were taught in the home.  I remember my dad teaching me music, science, grammar, spelling and so much more.  It was those conversations about those subjects that got me excited about learning and what brings back memories today of sitting at the kitchen table learning these things.  There were those silly frustrating corrections of course.  It was “idea” not “ideal” and “may I”, not “can I”.  I frustrate my students with that now.  Parents are going to teach.  It just may not look like what some of us in education have been scripted to teach. 

I wonder if, as educators, we’re not trying to recreate our brick and mortar virtually?  Not my district, but I’ve heard stories of students and teachers being expected to actually have “classes” for the full school day while sitting at a computer.  Or teachers expected to obtain child care for their own children (really?  During a pandemic?) while they “teach” online.  I mean, teachers are the greatest, the most flexible, the most “everything”, but to learn a completely different delivery system of teaching, especially those of us who have been teaching awhile, this is not something that happens overnight.  Or in 17 days.

So, what happens if kids don’t attend school for a semester, in the educational sense?  Well, they won’t be stressing about testing or grades.  They may get a lot of unstructured play outside since there are no organized sports teams right now.  They may get to eat and work and play games with family.  They’ll do little art projects with chalk on the sidewalk, and cut out paper hearts to display on the windows of their home.  They’ll listen to and sing with their favorite artists in their rooms.  They’ll FaceTime with friends.

While it’s hard, we can reschedule things like sports, and graduation and prom celebrations and end of year events.  Just imagine how good it’s going to be when this is over.  Maybe we’ll  have rearranged our priorities a bit.  And when we do open the doors to our schools again, I hope there’s a new appreciation of all the things schools and the adults who work there do for the kids of this country and why it’s so important that we do this face to face.  Technology is a great tool, but I think we’re all finding out that there’s nothing like a smile and a hug from your favorite teacher.  Here’s hoping it’s not another 17 days.