It really depends on the school and the level and so many factors. Many schools, even in affluent areas, were not safe. Toxic mold, poor ventilation, etc.
My wife’s school had a bucket to collect raw sewage into her preschool class. We had asbestos in our high school teacher break room just removed last year. My AP and Honors students are doing amazing work online, but I’ve been flipping the classroom for five years; video lectures on YouTube and podcasting lectures on Spotify. They also have the tech and the support; it’s like a college course for me, and it’s better in person of course, as that’s where the energy is created.
But for elementary students, who usually see one teacher, it’s better to be in person. Way too much screen time. But we tend to treat all teachers the same: Sweden brought back the young kids, but didn’t they keep the older kids and teachers remote?
We have a tendency to have one solution for all approach. I have many students who love learning from home. No bullying. Sleeping more. Listening and writing and reading with dog or cat on lap. Personal space. Lectures listened to on their own time. No longer scared of school shootings… less stress…. It also depends on the teacher.
The transition to the remote world is dramatic. What has been done for twenty years does not translate into the Now, but many still try… we need creative and innovating assessments, and nothing that can be run through a machine for easy grading.
I was usually criticized for flipping the classroom, but my energy was on the students performing in class; it was student based and not teacher centered. Covid had brought out many troubling aspects of our education system; bloated bureaucratic systems, antiquated evaluation systems based on 19th paternalistic and sexist assessments of teachers who were mostly single women; too much energy and time and money funneled to students who didn’t fit the System of rows and order and obedience to the teacher; more trade schools needed to train kids rather than two months teaching Beowulf, lol.
Kids who didn’t care for school under the old system are not showing up in this new system. Is that a surprise? Teacher friends of mine are frustrated and tired and have logged many hours reworking a system with so much lack of support or acknowledgement.
My own wife left education temporarily, and I find myself bewildered by the total lack of voice in how we are facing this; dictums from On High from former history teachers on infectious disease control and the unions seem powerless, or neutered, or in bed with admin to protect jobs. Idk.
It’s a mess with so many districts making decisions with so much at risk: mental health, educational quality, and physical health. No easy solutions, but we haven’t looked hard enough at what successful counties have done, but we also have deeper issues of income inequality in the US where property taxes often determine the quality of education.
Sorry for this diatribe. Thanks! Be safe, teacher friends!
