I Hope Schools Never Go Back to "Normal"
It might sound like an odd sentiment, but I hope schools never go back to “normal”. Normal was excessive testing and a focus on “skills”. Normal was over-scrutinized teachers under unrealistic and contradictory expectations. Normal was over-disciplining and under-educating Black and Brown children. Normal was a profession limping along amid widespread dissatisfaction, teacher burnout and shortages, and a severe lack of resources. Why would we go back to that?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying what is happening now isn’t that bad or worse. NTI as it’s happening in most places is unsustainable for teachers, students, and families. It needs to change ASAP.
Still, I think that some of the problem is that we are approaching this from a reactionary standpoint. Something unprecedented happened and we had to quickly come up with a solution. Unfortunately, that solution was to try and get as close as possible to “normal”, thereby compounding the issues we already had. Almost every problem I mentioned in the first paragraph worsened with all-online K-12 education.
What if we were proactive instead of reactive? Since we can’t do “normal”, why don’t we try something new? Why not see this as an opportunity for innovation?
I’m not pretending it’ll be easy or that I have even a fraction of the answers. I’m just saying, look at the possibilities:
opportunities to truly partner with families in ways we never have before (imagine the breadth of skills and knowledge families might have to offer if we asked them)
opportunities to partner with community programs and out-of-school learning spaces to make sure we’re making learning accessible to all (imagine safe groups of kids at their local community center where, thanks to reliable internet, the teacher can video chat from a big screen and community center employees can support the kids during the teacher’s lessons, and engage the children in other activities at other times)
opportunities to build mutually beneficial partnerships with teacher education programs (admittedly, this is the one I’ve thought most about because of my own job—I imagine my preservice teachers (PSTs) getting valuable experience while also helping schools to educate kids safely in-person; perhaps 10 or fewer children are in the classroom masked up and distanced with their teacher, while the others are in small groups with PSTs in the gym, cafeteria, or outside under the supervision of a staff member or university supervisor; the students would rotate through the groups like centers…you get the picture)
Keep the conversation going in the comments or in your own circles. Questions for Reflection: What innovative ideas do you have for creating a new and better normal?