Is there a perception that teachers who are scrambling to provide distance learning from home are mostly doing nothing? There couldn’t be anything further from the truth.
In my role as an early education consultant, I have been working alongside administrators and teachers to navigate this new distance learning world. It was thrust upon us with little or no warning. No one knew what to do. We were inventing the biggest, heaviest wheel together. They continue to spend hours doing the intense brainwork of trying to keep children’s skills going even though they know it may be futile. They are helping families and, in some cases, becoming the brunt of their emotions.
I suppose that decisions are being made based in fear. These days, many of our decisions are unfortunately are rooted in fear. I suppose the states and private settings that decided to cancel spring break are afraid that if the teachers are not on the computer with the children every day at the same rate, that skill progress will slip. I guess they want to be sure that the children maintain connections with their peers – which is the only part of this decision that may hold water though their families could find each other on technology.
Here’s the thing – The progress that children are making now is in their overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious families’ hands. We are not returning to School the same, none of us. We have all experienced trauma and the world is not just picking up where we left off. We will have to regroup and figure out how to rejoin the children in school with the same exhausting mind shifts as when shifting to schools being closed. Schools closing and schools reopening will be the same level of scrambling in the dark.
Teachers need the mental health break for what we thought was going to be a sprint but has become a marathon. If the break has been canceled, I hope that the powers that be realize that teachers also have personal stress but are stuffing it away to work with students and families. I hope they suddenly say, “These people are struggling” and they give them some random days off to rest, regain a little sanity and get back on the computer refreshed.
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This post first appeared on Helping Kids And Families Achieve With Cynthia Ter, please read the originial post: here
