Most of us would have cast a judgment-laden or nervous eye six months ago at someone wearing a mask. Most of us would have scratched our heads or laughed six months ago if we were asked to convert “distance” into a verb and combine it with “social” to create a new catch-all phrase defining our interaction with fellow humans.
But the pandemic is six months old and the abnormal is now normal and with the Sept. 16 start-of-school for most communities weeks away, it is parents who are slogging their way through homework.
School superintendents spent their summer crafting, then re-crafting plans for starting the school year. The hard work undertaken by superintendents translates into homework for parents tasked with understanding what exactly “remote” and “hybrid” mean and barraged with a host of dates and other information.
Once upon a time, the start of school meant spending Labor Day night unpacking the car from the last vacation of summer even as the kids scrambled to find the school supplies they bought and pack them into their new backpacks.
Parents and students now have to think in terms of the first week and the first month of school. How education at the local level works in early fall will temper and set the tone for the rest of the school year.
“Return to normalcy” is, sadly, not a phrase educators plan to utter any time soon. They are more likely to be whispering the words, “one step forward, two steps back.”
The first full school year during the pandemic is sure to be marked by fits and starts. Setbacks are going to require people to roll with punches and focus calmly on facts while taking social media proclamations with a healthy grain of salt.
Coronavirus’ onslaught last spring forced parents to adjust on the fly, shouldering sudden changes in childcare and education. That experience and the bad or good memories associated with it, will underpin this month’s return to school with all of its missteps and eventual opportunities to once again see friends and teachers.
School in one way, shape, form or another, doesn’t start until Sept. 16 for most students. But the pandemic has already provided parents, students and educators a crash course in flexibility, perseverance and, hopefully, patience.
