COVID-19 has uncovered some of the solid truths about education and "school": How much we need and love the actual physical space, how much we value what happens there, how much we depend on one another for energy and momentum. These are truths we’ve long known, as educators, but now get to see the rest of the world understand, too.
Here they are.
Community: Yup. We’ve always known it matters to be part of a community—as a classroom, a school, a town, a place, a where-we-live community. We see it so clearly now in our students and their parents. They are looking around for their people. They’re finding it in different places, but it’s still there, in Hangouts and Meets and Zooms, in Homeroom and S’More and SeeSaw, in writing and reading and phone calls and waves from the classmates taking walks down the street: My friends. My class. My teacher. My school. My district. That’s me. I’m part of this thing.
Connections: In terms of power and potential, there’s no match for a teacher’s connection to students. Academic rigor isn’t our priority right now. Instead, it’s about connections we make with students. That’s it. Teachers have immersed themselves in what they do best: Being present. I have piles of evidence of this unique teacher-student magic, now done virtually: Students grinning into the screen, engaged in conversations with their teachers; Google Classroom with pages of dialogues between students themselves and between their teachers; emails; snapshots; learning new things about one another every day.
Camaraderie: This C-word could be “collegiality,” but I crossed it out because it wasn’t… well, it wasn’t enough. It has to be bigger and broader. Why? Because there is a genuine, powerful affection we have for one another— not just between educators, but also between students, parents, and community. Even students who drive us bananas during the school day are part of our network of mutual trust and affection. We miss it. We miss them. All of it and all of them.
Confidence-building: “You’ve done well.” “This is fantastic.” “I am so proud of you.” In these past weeks, I’ve heard these words said between teachers, from teacher to student, from teacher to parent to student, all around and back again. We’re rooting for each other. Whether it is stretching how to use technology, or discovering fancy and fun new ways to share learning with our students, or just managing to get through the day, we are telling one another how great we’re doing. It feels like we have a constant pep rally for the collective whole, and it feels good.
Conversation: This has emerged as an undeniable: We need to talk to one another. All the online assignments in the world don’t make up for talking something through. We need the uplift of human voices and a place to put our rhythm of thought. We need words to bring our ideas and discovery into the light.
Care: “Take care of one another.” We’ve known this; we’ve said this. And now? Well, now we really know it and we really mean it when we say it. Being human, and working to educate the world’s youngest humans, means we, teachers and educators, know, in our souls and in our guts, how to care for others. Now, though, it feels more real and tangible and touchable. Instead of breezing through a standard series of “How are you?” “I’m fine. You?” “Fine.” “Thanks,” we’re slowing down and listening to the answers. Indeed, that’s how we should always take care of one another.
I feel human connection more acutely now that I can no longer do it on auto-pilot. I miss what we’ve lost, but I feel reaffirmed and revalidated in what I know to be true about teaching and learning. I look forward to the future with a new, unexpected excitement, because I know we will teach better, stronger, and with more focus on the things that really matter.
