While school communities struggle with how to reopen the classroom safely, Richard Swerdlow is bracing for a sad new reality.
Corona virus has changed the way we live, and among those changes is how kids go to school. After all, schools are not only for kids or parents — everyone needs school to resume. We all have a stake in ensuring an educated society and leaders of tomorrow.
As a teacher, the question of what school will look like this fall has been a topic among my teacher friends. We agree days of classrooms crammed with desks, crowded hallways and rows of lockers are over in this era of contagious illness.
But we know lockdown has cost students months of instruction and kids need to start learning again. Education authorities are considering safe ways of operating schools and the proposals seem doable: social distancing, alternating groups with a mix of in-class and online learning.
I'll try to make it work. But these proposals, realistic as they are, are so sad.