What Day Is It Again?

April 17, 2020

Update to the Corona Virus Pandemic:  Stay-at-Home Day 29, or what feels like Day 1,906,732

We're many days into the 'normal' that is our life right now.  To be honest, many of my kids are really enjoying the forced 'time-out' from the super stressful end of senior year.  Although they love all their extra-curriculars, volunteering opportunities, jobs, and (for some) school, it's a lot.  Really, y'all--our students are doing A LOT with their time, especially the secondary kids.  And although they love what they are doing, I can't even begin to count the numbers of kids over the years who have said they wished time could stop for awhile so they could get caught up.  The Catch-22 is that it's a myth, that wishful stoppage of time.  When we step out of time to catch our breath, the rest of the world keeps going--homework is still assigned, chores continue to loom, tasks multiply in our absence...until now.

I'm with them, too.  So many times I've wished for a week to catch up, but taking a time out just means there's more to come back to when I jump back into the fray. Now, however, EVERYONE is taking a time out, and for many of us it gives us an opportunity to just breathe--and it's been, perhaps, the wake up call we need to rethink what we want the Merry-Go-Round to look like when we jump back on.

This is not to say that all the kids (and teachers) love all the downtime.  We miss the social interaction of our friends, teachers, and colleagues.  It's a huge part of our educational world--the relationships that are formed within that world.  We miss the ease of the literally thousands of ways we informally check-in with our kids and each other academically, emotionally, and mentally.  A subtle expression.  A sassy smile.  Body language that shows something is 'off' today.  A slight twinkle or tear in the eye that indicates state of mind without saying a word.  A virtual meeting is a wonderful way to connect while we're all in different places, but the subtleties of communication don't always translate across the screen.

Right now we're all just doing the best we can with the impromptu system that we've hastily cobbled together out of necessity.  I'm wondering what the long-term effects of all of this will be--institutionally, practically, and emotionally.  The fallout could resonate for literally years to come.