My district was on its way to being ready when The Closure happened. State governors in the east closed their schools while I drank my morning coffee. By the time I was in the car, Los Angeles Unified was meeting to decide whether to close.
Tangent: In retrospect, school closures were going to happen. It was just a matter of when, and when it happens, society will take that as a signal. How long will this last? How prepared should everyone be?
On Friday the thirteenth- really? We had to reinforce that ancient superstition. - I knew it was just a matter of hours before my district would close. I reminded my students to reach out to each other. They should make plans to video chat, particularly, because they will need to see each other as well as talk. I hope they do this plus text each other through their days because everybody needs that small boost of friendship. Each of my students will have friends who are scared, worried, frustrated, lonely, or just sad. Those friends will need them. Make sure you connect as soon as possible.
Do you like that? I told each of my students that they are normal when they are scared, worried, frustrated, lonely, or just scared. Friends make this bearable. At the same time, it is a good thing to be someone’s friend when they need one. Others can have a turn. When we give them our time and our attention freely, we show good manners and patience.
This is what twenty-five years in the classroom teaches you how to do.
My students are eighth graders. I teach those values to them. I trust that teachers before me have done the same.
Anyway, my colleagues and I met on campus on Monday. Ignore for a moment how we were breaking a critical protocol. We had work to do. We needed to be in the place and mode in which we are our best selves. We needed to figure out what to do next, particularly with reaching our students.
We needed to show up because the district told us to show up. It is to the credit of my colleagues that I saw how hard they worked through the day to find and share resources. I watched how they grappled with all the problems that closure presented. They got themselves online if they were not there already.
My contribution was to remind everybody to use ways to let students see them and hear them. We are all representatives of those first adults in our students’ lives who were not family. We represent one place of stability in their lives, open Monday to Friday and sometimes Saturday. We represent an understandable reality. For many young people, we represent breakfast and lunch.
We represent a lot. We are criticized. We are caricatured. We are bullied over our pay; we are disrespected for and by how little money we make and yet we are damned for making so much and asking for more. We are the butt of the joke.
Nevertheless, on Monday I saw professionals take on massive problems. They are taking first steps to create public education in a new form. They have a role in the life we are going to live in for quite a while, it appears. Society needs to know that it is going to take some time. There is a lot that is helpful out there but it is going to take time to organize it.
Realize, society, that teachers have had their worlds ripped from them. The day-to-day connections of our workdays are gone, mostly. The things we say and the things we hear are gone. The order and predictability are gone. Teachers will have to reach within themselves to just keep going with what we do. We teach for you. We have been university educated and trained, but we were not ready for this. Give us some time. We are determined people. We problem solve.
We love the same people. It is time we met.
By the way, we need to remember this: