Writer
Patrick Quinn acknowledges some thorny, family-centric aspects of the COVID-19
pandemic: all parents are wondering about school, and struggling not only with
uncertainties, but also with guilt, resentment, and anxiety. Like him, I can
speak from experience and say I know of no parents who aren’t concerned about
the return to school, be it remote, on site, or some combo of the two. Frankly,
if there are any chill parents out there, I don’t know anyone who wants to hear
from them.
As
Quinn puts it: “Should we go with the ‘1/16th-in-person, 3 days-a-week,
Zoom-every-second-Tuesday-morning, classroom-learning-if-the-moon-is-waxing-crescent’
plan? Or should we submit to the perpetual Groundhog Day that our lives have
become, and accept that the kids will virtually learn on our couches until
they’re 40?”
Interestingly,
Quinn admits that when he was a childless teacher in his mid-20s, he would have
strenuously objected to sending kids back to school. But now, as a dad, he
realizes how much better his kids – and most kids – do in the classroom, and
what a poor substitute remote learning is for the real thing. And he
desperately cares about his kids’ education, and their socialization. Even as
he deeply recognizes the potential risks not only to his children, but even
more so to the at risk-populace to whom asymptomatic youngsters can – and do –
transmit the virus, he has also seen the increasingly detrimental effects of long
range screen time.
Teachers
need some love, too. He maintains they are even more frustrated than parents,
and they are being asked to do the impossible. The expectations placed on them
regarding reopening plans – a dizzying onslaught of new rules, protocols,
precautions – is being “thrown at them without even addressing the possibility
of them getting sick from one of the biological-weapons-in-a-Shimmer-and-Shine-backpack
they teach every day.”
It’s
a mess. Does he offer concrete tips on how to navigate it all? Not really. But
he articulates a lot of what both parents and teachers are feeling, hopefully
making them feel seen and respected, and sometimes that is more than enough.
Thanks
to Patrick Quinn for sharing
his experiences.
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