Looking back on 2020. Part one: School, we learned a lot!

Opinion

In March a temporary blip came in to disrupt the school year.

​The Governor closed schools and virtually gave us all stay at home orders for a few weeks. This meant the school year would likely be extended, but it was a temporary measure. Then it became evident after a couple extensions to the shutdown that it might last the rest of the school year.

Something called "remote learning" was brought into action. For homeschoolers, nothing changed, but for everyone else things certainly did in a major way. Schools scrambled and put their heads together to find ways to continue teaching their kids from a far. Virtual classrooms and special log in sites were created to communicate lessons back and forth.

Teachers did not stop being teachers, in fact they may have developed new ways of teaching more effectively with new tools to help in the future.
With what they learned and set-up, perhaps things like snow days might go the way of the dinosaur(though if I was a teacher or kid I'd have mixed emotions about that, sometimes those snow days are much needed mental health days!)

Perhaps an even better outcome is these changes could eventually bring about healthier schools. Kids with mild cold or flu-like symptoms could stay home and work remotely instead of bringing germs into the classroom that spread like gang-busters throughout? Or mask wearing might be a better alternative when someone has the sniffles and still goes to school. The eventual acceptance of masks for everyone's health could be a great outcome of this and perhaps the flu won't ravage us so much in the future.

Schools also stepped up big-time with providing nutrition to the students that could be picked up or in some cases delivered. Staff, administrators, teachers and other volunteers found themselves meeting and carefully giving out meals several times a week. They feared the students who depended on the meal plans might go hungry. They wanted to be sure this didn't happen.

Mental health among the kiddoes was also a worry. So teachers arranged safe distanced drive through parades to say hello to their kids. Parent organizations wanted to thank the teachers for creating innovative ways to teach via the internet and show their love and concern for their students. Many teachers tried to keep in close contact to give their students a little piece of mind and normalcy.

As the school year ended, seniors were seen as being a terrible victim of the virus's effects on their education. Senior trips were cancelled and their senior year was robbed. Playoffs in winter sports were cancelled and spring sports completely cut out. Again school's found ways to allow their seniors to at least experience the right-of-passage by giving them a graduation. Some schools did social distanced one on one passing out of diplomas while  others found ways to hold ceremonies outdoors.

It is possible that COVID-19 will be looked upon as a time great advancements in education and school health and safety were first developed.

Nothing can replace face to face learning, but perhaps with technology, we can become a little safer and our young people won't fall behind with these new ways of learning now at their fingertips. There is obviously many glitches to work out, but perhaps this was a start.

​And teachers certainly are up to the task.