Why Are We Stressed About Worksheets in the Midst of a Health Crisis?
Like you, I am at home and continuing to adjust to this surreal point in history. As a parent I have quelled tantrums, fought with online learning systems, longed for the good old days of long division, and felt apprehension amidst the reality of over three months of school closure and isolation. I’ve also scrambled to get groceries and agonized over the best way to juggle homeschool and work. As your School Board representative, I’ve fielded questions about the closure, staff requirements, online curriculum, food distribution, and school sanitation.
Now in week two, one thing is clear: if there is any lesson we parents should be teaching our children at this moment, it should be the ability to soften routine and breath in a time of high-anxiety. Now more than ever, we should spend less time holding ourselves accountable to arbitrary metrics and more time holding space for what is actually happening around us.
My kids are anxious. They miss their friends, their teachers, their routines. They worried they would fail because they couldn’t access the online programs. I fell into the anxiety trap too. I worried about everything: What will my kids do when they complete their packets? Are they spending too much time online? What happens to families without internet access at home? What happens to my family when my work and their home education come into conflict?
This anxiety is unsustainable, and it’s time we stepped back and took stock of what is possible.
As parents our job is to care for and support our children. We aren’t failing if they aren’t on iReady all day long. We should find good books, have conversations that build trust and community, and talk to your kids about what is happening. We should talk to our kids about their lives. We should talk to our kids about our lives and our jobs. Focus on keeping safe and keeping stress at bay. If that means time away from worksheets, so be it. This is a national crisis. Not everything will proceed as normal.
We must, as a community and as a district, recognize that we are not proceeding as normal. Our families can’t take on the burden of home-schooling full time.
To my board colleagues, who are also looking to best support our kids in a time of crisis:
Our teachers continue to bear the weight of community care in an economy that has left whole communities struggling with housing and food insecurity. In 2017 I ran a campaign focused on re-engaging with our educators to build community power. Today I have even more respect for the people who care for our children daily in our schools. Their work is invaluable; and they cannot be replaced. Schools can never succeed as a franchise because at its core, teaching is about connection.
Yesterday, the board was asked to approve a $700k budget transfer for the purchase of Chromebooks and hotspots to be provided to students. Today, I am asking for thoughtful consideration in how we proceed, with teacher voices at the lead. There is no question that our students need access to technology, but this budget decision like every option needs context, and it needs to happen in coordination with our educators who are on the ground, supporting students in every way they can.
In the reality of our strained budget, it is critical that we consider every question when making an investment like this. How would IEPs be honored in a digital environment? How would the needs of English Language Learners be met? Who will support our teachers in the rollout? Will student work be assessed? Do we have other community priorties that haven’t been met? Do we have tech support for thousands of new computers? A top-down reallocation of funds for technology acquisition without a learning plan, corollary curriculum, or infrastructure is a significant risk. The cancelation of SOLs offers us a rare opportunity to take a step back and determine where we wish to be headed. RPS’s equity crisis did not begin with COVID-19. The solution to our crisis is build our path forward from the bottom up, with parents and teachers in the lead charting our path ahead.
My wish is that as a nation we come away from this crisis with a shared belief that educational software is a tool, but it will not save us. In truth, we can only return to normalcy when we recognize that the focus on impersonal systems and testing has done nothing but create an abundance of stress through “teaching” that runs contrary to our creative human minds. When our first response to this crisis was to print reams of worksheets it is clear — we have missed what education should truly be about.
Let this be the catalyst for deeper school/community collaboration and diverse, grounded curriculum that allows teaching professionals to do what they do best.
