For My Teacher Friends: "Another opening, another show..."

And so teacher friends, the year of 2020 keeps on giving now doesn't it?  Let's not mistake our situation.  Public education is going to change permanently as a result of this pandemic. As children are asked to stay home "temporarily, " parents are already looking for alternatives to sending their children into a public school system.  We watch the news and witness the many new alternatives that are surfacing and it is not just the pandemic that has caused these alternatives to become available.  In short, it has been a long time coming...

Public schools have not been "safe" for a long time.  The bullying, the abuse of social media, vaping, the active shooters that cause us each year to perform "lock down drills" where the rules and procedures change each year as more violence occurs.  Schools are not "immune" much as we all would like to think that they are.   Why are we pretending and vilifying the idea that they are? 

 As soon as the structure of the traditional family changed, so did raising our children.  It became acceptable to have both parents work.  It became acceptable to send our children to day care, followed by pre-school, followed by public schools.  We found out we could indeed have our children and still claim a level of worthiness by earning a paycheck.  It was our modern day evolution of the family that made this acceptable and now, because of a pandemic we are scrambling to adjust to these unprecedented changes.  Some absoutely refuse to do so.  Some are definitely suffering, reaching levels of anxiety that they were not prepared to handle.  

We may be tired of wearing masks and we may be saddened by social distancing.  For me, that has been heart-breaking.  But more importantly, for teachers, they can no longer do what they longed to do.  They can not get in front of their students the way they want to and the way they were trained. I am going out on a limb here to say that that is quite all right. Those teachers will thrive in spite of this situation that has no true appropriate solution,  will teach to the very best of their ability and re-step out of their comfort zones to reach their kids.  This is what we have always done.  The difference now...is parents have to be more actively vigilant and support the educational cause and teachers have to support their parents with patience,  perseverance, and a gentle honesty about following up on their children's progress and behavior.  Education of our young people succeeds when parents and teachers are on the same page.

The quagmire of the single parent becomes equally difficult.  Those parents must talk openly with their children and let them know that "failure is not an option."  Their behavior dictates everyone's else's behavior that their last name counts for something greater than they know...They represent their family, pandemic or no pandemic.  We all have a "last name" and that name should be honored by being responsible.  

In a matter days, "our kids" will sign on and look to us to communicate, to talk, to reach out and tell them that everything will be ok.  "We've got this."  "We know this."  Trust has never been more important.  I wish my teacher friends a fabulous year.  September brings cool air and a reprieve from the heat.  "We've got this.  We know this."