Separate but equal never did work…
Separate but equal was a very false dichotomy from the beginning and it hasn’t gotten any better over the years. It appears to rearing its ugly head again.
As the full impact of online instruction is becoming more and more apparent with both reduced learning and damage to children’s mental health, politicians are pressing hard for a return to in-building instruction.
As school systems around the state begin to prepare for full return by the next school year, some families are thinking about having a parallel school system in which some students are in buildings but some will remain online. In Maryland, two members of the general assembly have introduced this parallel system as a continuing option. Here we go again, separate but equal.
It is a terrible idea!
Children go to school for many reasons. And as we have learned during the school shutdown, one of the primary reasons is to provide child care so parents can work. While that is not a child-centric reason, it is still a reason. They also go to school for instruction and to learn
Online instruction may be popular among parents for a few reasons. It gives them more control and input into their child’s education. Some parents feel it is safer. One parent remarked that she is not sending her child back to school until the COVID virus is totally eliminated. Good luck with that. Besides, living in a bubble makes a person much more susceptible to all manner of illness once the bubble is removed. Some parents just really like having the kids at home all day so they do education at the family’s convenience. A separate online system will deny children all of the things that make school fun for kids- hands-on art classes, sports, theatre, having a real best friend that changes weekly and getting into fights with your last best friend. All, important skills for living.
Some school systems are now requiring that teachers teach in-person and online at the same time. Talk about a one-armed paperhanger. No kids get a good education with that approach and teaching becomes even more impossible. Some districts have the kids in the building but the teacher is at home. Students are in the building with Chrome books propped on their desks and an aide walking the room for discipline.
Can we PLEASE get real here. It is time for schools to open fully. It is time for students to be back in buildings. It is well past time for teachers to start earning the salary and benefits they have been receiving and to get into classrooms.
If there is some extra money around, let’s hire more clinical staff because I can tell you that when kids do come back there are going to be some serious mental health issues that will need to be addressed.
We have been so busy worrying about the virus that we have not noticed a whole lot more that has gone wrong. The piper is about to be paid.
Separate but equal was always inherently unequal and it still is!
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