Covid Confessional: My Thoughts on Going Back to School

Today I went to school and started work on my classroom. My sons and I moved all the extra furniture out to make room for spacing student desks. I got a little grumpy with my children. I was hungry, but I was also worried we were moving furniture in vain. Several times I wondered if what we were doing would be enough. I also wondered if we would even return to school next month. “Just put the table there. I don’t know,” I barked at one of my kids. I was thinking about all of the uncertainties that loom over everything and are threatening to ruin my joy. I pushed the thought aside and continued moving furniture. 

The debate is getting hostile on social media and in Walmart and everywhere else. Some teachers across the nation are infuriated about the idea of going back to school right now. It’s too dangerous, and they did not sign up to die. They will be assigned extra duties without receiving extra pay. It’s risky and unfair.

Some teachers across the nation are just as infuriated about the idea of not going back to in-person school right away. Virtual instruction is ineffective; our kids will be behind; parents need to go to work; our kids need social interaction and so much that face-to-face school provides that virtual instruction simply cannot. It’s risky and unfair. 

Yes. No matter what your school officials have decided to do, teaching this fall will be risky and unfair. So how do we respond? What do we do?  

First, I would say that teaching has always been risky and unfair. The dangers and unfairness just take different forms over the years. 

Second, I would suggest that we teachers have an incredible call this school year that will ask us to continue to take risks and deal with unfairness, but it goes much deeper than if school is in-person or virtual, if kids have to wear masks, and how often we have to wipe down desks. 

Those of us who have chosen to be teachers have the responsibility to educate our youth this school year amid a pandemic and resurgence of the fight for social justice. Our students are being raised in a climate of polarity that has reached such hostility that families and friends are being ripped apart. Our citizens are guzzling bad information and lies as if they were living waters. Reason, compassion, and humility are missing from public discourse. Our students are watching their parents try to win arguments by name-calling and deflection and willfully ignorant retorts, rather than entering healthy debate where they try to understand each other and respect each other and learn from each other. 

This is where teachers can be part of the solution. I am thinking of Diane Mufson, the brave Iowan teacher who in 1968, the day after Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated, taught her white students about prejudice using a social experiment in which one day she and the students favored brown-eyed students and the next day blue-eyed students. The lesson worked, but it was risky. Ms. Mufson was shunned by her co-workers and rebuked nationwide for her “cruel” teaching methods. This, of course, was completely unfair to Ms. Mufson.

I am not suggesting we all do outrageous social experiments with our students, but what I am imploring all teachers is that we use our platform as educators to teach, and teach well. We have within our grasp the power to do much to remedy so many of the social ills that plague our country through the sound, effective instruction we provide our students. We can show our students how to be compassionate, reasoned, conscientious citizens through our example, our lessons, our curriculum. We can teach them not what to think, but how to think. Not what to believe, but how to exist peaceably in a society that respects the beliefs of others. Not erase history, but reveal true history. Not indoctrinate, but give them the ability to construct their worldview built on a solid foundation. Not teach colorblindness, but teach empathy and appreciation for all colors. 

It is risky. It might be unfair. But we have to do this. This could be integral to what saves our country for the next generation.   

Teachers, it is our job to prepare our youth to be productive citizens and conscientious voters. We are entrusted to prepare them as best as we can to pursue life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Public school is designed to provide opportunity for all of our children. It is designed to rescue from poverty, ignorance, bigotry, and prejudice. We teachers, more than anyone else in the building, can be what makes that happen. 

Our national situation is dire. We do not have the luxury to bicker over how unfair it is if we have to wear masks to work or report early or stay late to make sure our schools are as safe as possible for our students. Yes, it is risky and unfair. But we have a job to do. We are essential. 

No matter if I am standing in front of a classroom full of teenagers or sitting in my family room having Zoom meetings with them, I will be content in knowing that I am doing my part to serve my students and my community. 
​
How exhilarating and humbling it is to be a part of something so important.