"Things haven't gotten any better"

 Originally posted to Facebook Friday, June 8, 2021

This morning our faculty had a meeting and some students were invited to share about what has gone well and what needs improvement after the last semester of distance learning. There was so much they shared that was so helpful. Here's one highlight that really stood out to me:
One student commented that the overall situation with COVID "hasn't gotten any better." I realized that often I will be frustrated with students, thinking "Come on, it's been so many months of distance learning and you still haven't got it together!?!?" This comment helped me to recognize that, just as much for the students as it has been for me, everything that was hard at the beginning is still hard, and only harder because it's been going on for so long. The extra effort it takes to engage forced all of us to dip into any reserves we had, and those reserves are long since depleted, and we are all working on a deficit every day.
So now, whenever I see a student actually engage or even just show up, I want to recognize it as a tremendous act of faith and generosity. "Wow, we've been doing distance learning for so many months and you still chose to show up today?!?!" This is so much to ask of our children, and we can do so much better about recognizing what it requires of them, and be gracious and grateful. It is tempting to adopt an adversarial stance and assume that students who are not meeting our expectations, most of whom we have never known outside of this pandemic context, are trying to get away with doing less than they are capable of. The students are not our adversaries, and it is not our responsibility to use grades and a harsh tone to "incentivize" them into submission. We need to stand side by side and fight the actual monster together.
Last note: this is from an educator who does NOT want to return to in-person learning until it is demonstrably safer than it is now (I also recognize that safety varies by region, and with vaccine rollout beginning and hopefully picking up steam, I am more hopeful that, at least in my district, that may actually happen for some students before summer, and I really, really hope it does). I recognize the toll and the cost this has taken on our children, including my own children, and it is heart-breaking and I hate it so much. The game of predicting what would happen depends so much on which sources we find most credible and on more-or-less educated "guesses" on everyone's part. I know that many of you feel that the sorts of costs I outline here should have tipped the scales long ago. I disagree with you, but I don't "know" that you're wrong. We can disagree and not be calloused toward our children's suffering on the one hand or deluded science-deniers on the other.

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