We have lost our way

 We have lost our way…

 

In the last year plus, hundreds of thousands of lives have been destroyed by this virus.   And that is not counting the hundreds of thousands of human lives that have been lost due to the illness.

Other than those with the illness and their loved ones, children have suffered the most by the pandemic.   The situation has been  made worse by the people who told us they have dedicated their professional lives to providing for the education of students.

The first response to the pandemic over a year ago was the closure of schools and the pivot to online teaching.  It did not matter that there was slim to no evidence (still isn’t) that schools were hotbeds for spreading the virus.  It did not matter that for many, many children schools were where they got food, emotional support, protection and, oh right, academic learning.  Life immediately switched to online teaching for the final quarter of the 2019-2020 school year.   Asynchronous learning began in full blast.  Kids got packages for worksheets mailed to them.  No matter that worksheets are one of the most boring forms of learning.  Next came Chromebooks so kids could watch that 12” screen for 3.5 hours a day.  Many times what they watched were videos and pre-filmed learning activities without real-time interactions with those well-paid teachers who received full salary and benefits.

Finally as the 2020-21 school year cranked up, there was more real-time teaching via internet access.  For those kids who didn’t have internet access, well there were hot-spots in parking lots.

During all of this time, where were the teachers and their unions.  Did anyone hear them jumping and shouting that “their” children were being deprived of an appropriate education?  I must have missed it.  Probably because that couldn’t be heard over the union cries of “hell no we won’t go” whenever they were asked to go back to work in buildings.  Finally it was the Maryland Governor who threatened that kids needed to be back in school this spring or he would need to look to see whatever measures as Governor he could take.  Miraculously, school districts began to respond with a few hours here for a few kids and a few hours there for a few more kids.

Data show that the course failures for the 3^rd quarter of this school year are in the double digits.  The few kids that are returning in-school are showing positive signs for being back in school but there are also obvious signs of emotional damage that we do not have sufficient clinical staff to help.

Meanwhile, politicians are getting into the game.   The Baltimore County Council has issued a veiled threat if the County schools do not offer a rigorous free program this summer to help students recoup, their review of the school system’s budget request for 21-22 school year might get a more careful look than usual.  After all, education costs represent over 50% of the County budget.

And what was the teachers’ union response to all this- a HUGE hosannah that kids were finally getting what they needed?  Nope.  But the president of the union did say, “it’s an opportunity for teachers and support staff to make some extra money”.  Well there you go, now we know what the unions are all about, not that anyone could have missed it.  

In addition to taking so many human lives, and damaging so many kids, seems like the virus has caused us all to lose our way on what schools should be about.