Week 1 Reading
Though the situation is of course different, Selingo’s article hit close to home for me because my mom is a kindergarten teacher. And while I don’t know how other school districts are handling their decision making, the teachers in my mom’s district have been kept extremely in the dark about the specifics of how the school year will operate. I draw parallels from the treatment of faculty to the treatment of these teachers when it is mentioned that these individuals are not informed of decisions in a timely manner and that they are expected to show up to work no matter what. Of course, however, the faculty discussed in this article face the highest level of uncertainty in the equation while having the least autonomy. Many of these workers are in positions where they could be negatively impacted by any outcome. If students return and remain on campus, they face an extreme health risk. If their school goes remote, they may lose their income. It’s disappointing that so many people are facing the similar issue of having no assistance work or government assistance to fall back on if they are furloughed.
Fetter’s article was a reminder to me that every choice we make relating to education and the pandemic comes down to money. I’ve read many articles discussing how universities are prioritizing money over safety. It’s interesting to see schools that opened two weeks ago being shut down, and other school like Temple that are opening now ignoring those schools’ experiences.
I also find it interesting that we as a country are so much more interested in pursuing school in a traditional way rather than investigating alternatives that have already proven to be effective in other countries, such as Denmark. It’s been put on individuals to find a solution rather than having some provided by the government. As a nanny, I’ve seen many job postings for families looking for someone to teach their kids in their homes as well as separate families creating school pods together. I was even hired specifically to help a child entering kindergarten for the school year. Though these are good short-term solutions, they are, of course, only available to families that can afford them. I believe we have not prioritized finding working alternatives because as a country, we do no prioritize education at any level. Even before the pandemic, teachers, staff, faculty, and families have practically had to beg for any sort of funding, and with little success. This could be remedied by moving some money from our military budget to education, but I know that this is very unlikely to happen. Because of this, I also do not have a great solution to help. We would do well to model ourselves after other countries that have found success with alternative schooling methods, but as long as every family must figure it out for themselves, it will be difficult to provide education that is both consistent and equitable for all students.
