Kudos to those brave and innovative parents who have begun to act on their vision and faith in themselves by taking increased control of their children’s learning, shaking off the flaccid, paralyzing national response, striving to do their best for their kids through some form of home or micro-schooling.  In the absence of clear decision on how to proceed, some parents are choosing to take responsibility to keep essential learning moving forward in the only way they feel safe.

For all of us, being human and therefore vulnerable seem reason enough to avoid the virus, to physically distance as much as possible, to try to extinguish it so that our country can finally get back to the business of living.  Communities across the nation having no  incidence of the virus are obviously better positioned to begin the experiment of reopening but schools in the Philadelphia area are not there yet.   A study conducted by the state and  shared with public school superintendents recently ran simulations of different return scenarios;  in one, the longest that students could remain in school was one day without increased cases.  In the most promising scenario, schools remained open for approximately four weeks before having to close.  No one needs simulations to recognize that return to school creates greater risk of exposure not just to children and teachers but to the entire community.  

Absolutely it would be a relief to many parents and teachers to have their children physically back in school; for some households how to handle childcare while parents work is a huge question; but in returning to the classroom and facing the distracting obstacles and safety concerns involved with being in presence of others, children and teachers will not have anything close to a normal creative or social learning experience.  Nothing about a physical return to school would be simple. The experiment to return physically to school will not last. 

 In a letter dated June 24, PA Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera acknowledged that there “is tremendous hunger for precise guidance on reopening” but left the decision as to how to reopen to the districts themselves, leaving school administrators to wrestle with shifting data that seems to make  a firm  conclusion impossible.
https://www.education.pa.gov/Schools/safeschools/emergencyplanning/COVID-19/messages/Pages/June24.aspx
The extraordinary efforts that school district administrators have undertaken in an attempt to create effective in-person instruction is laudable, but it’s planning on quicksand, sapping a sense of calm and focus not only from parents but also from teachers who find themselves in limbo, distracted by doubt and inundated with shifting return-planning minutiae.   Teachers cannot plan while standing on quicksand, either.

Moving solely to a home-schooling model has its own issues.  In our diverse nation, interaction and argument grow understanding, and so the forming of small and potentially insular learning-pods should give us pause; but the same passion for freedom that made America an almost-virtuous nation at its inception also empowers parents as essential communicators of their individual experiences, perspectives, history, culture,  beliefs, and values.  This learning from their parents is unquestionably the most important in a young person’s life.  We are all worthwhile and absolutely essential in shaping and preserving our versions of the  American dream for our children.  Out of that exercising of individual freedom may come a larger health as we offer our visions through our children for the consideration and potential enrichment of the national community.  In a healthy world, public school classrooms are the best place for bringing together diverse points of view; for now, however, the best possible health – intellectual and physical – has to be grounded at home.  

 Like parents, teachers share the desire to nurture and guide; fortunately it is not too late to empower teachers to seize the day and join parents in doing this important work.  Teachers and parents need a firm decision about how school will look in the fall; neither can thrive with a decision that could change in a day or a month.   Districts need to liberate teachers to work in safety, undistracted by indecision and overzealous micromanagement, empowered to create rich, positive online approaches now. 

To richly educate their students, teachers need these dwindling weeks of summer – time they did not have in the spring – to focus and prepare for online learning that is personal, thoughtful, focused, and inspiring – learning experiences that will build an effective bridge to the home.  

 Failing that, parents will need to follow their own best instincts.

…Somebody should.