Possibilities for School Re-Opening: A Letter

COVID has been hard. It has isolated individuals and families. It has closed businesses and shattered dreams. It has interrupted commerce, education, faith communities, sports, and social interaction. People are tired. We are frustrated. We are fearful and anxious about the future. But there are positives to this situation – silver linings of sorts. Many of us have enjoyed the slow down, the enforced shift in our responsibilities and the reduced stimulation provided by staying home. We may not be less busy, but we are less on the run. On a larger scale, it has forced us to examine the wider world. We see that change can, in fact, happen almost overnight. We can work from home. We can do business without travel. We can have parties without contact. It is truly amazing what we can do when we decide it is necessary. It is hard to believe that the sudden increase in appetite to change systemic racism is not related somehow to COVID. George Floyd was not the first Black man to be killed by police, so why the sudden shift? In the wake of three months of lock down, there seems to be hunger for change – change that has been badly needed for a very long time. I am hopeful that the balance has tipped toward lasting change. My hope is that we can move forward with both social justice and environmental protection. I contend that this is also a perfect opportunity to reimagine education.

The following is a letter that I sent to my local school board superintendent, trustee, MPP, MP, and the Minister of Education:

The return to school is top of mind for many right now, and there is precious little agreement about when and how to do that safely. I think part of the problem is that we are trying to get back to where we were, while making it safe for children and staff. That goal severely limits our thinking. When faced with a problem, it can help to start over. Reframe the problem. What is it we need? What are we trying to do? What are the variables? What are the resources? How can we redesign creatively? Here are my thoughts:

1. We need childcare. This is key to restarting the economy, giving families a break from each other, meeting children’s needs, and protecting children at risk.
2. We need to limit exposure among people, keep groups small and traceable, and ensure proper hygiene and cleaning.
3. Children need socialization and opportunities to be physically and mentally active.
4. We need to rebuild social skills, confidence, and resilience after the trauma of living through six months of a global pandemic.
5. We WANT to continue education as before. We want sports teams and clubs. We want recess to be fun. We want music and phys. ed to include singing and sport instruction. We want to meet all of our curriculum expectations as set out in the curriculum written for non-pandemic times. We want all of these things, but we do not NEED them. We need the first four points. So how can we meet those needs creatively?

GOAL: We are trying to set up a system that allows children to safely socialize on a daily basis in small, traceable groups, where their physical, emotional, and mental health can be fostered and their minds can be stimulated to increase future success when we return to a more regular school year.

Variables: Staff, Space, Transportation, Safety Protocols, Academics, Training, Organization. The following are outside-the-box, inexpensive suggestions for handling these variables.

Staff:

• Use all available staff, including homeroom teachers, specialist teachers, prep teachers, ECEs, occasional teachers, etc. to make groups of a reasonable size.

Space:

• Spread students out as much as possible, using all school spaces, community centres, churches, etc. so that each small class has their own space.
• Allow unlimited movement within that space, but physical distancing and masks outside (like in hallways, washrooms, etc)
• Alternatively, allow parents to sign their children up for ‘outdoor school’ where students would be engaged outdoors like the Forest School model already widely used in other places. Move some classes outside and let teachers request to be part of that model. This could occur in school playgrounds, city parks and ravines, conservation centres, etc. ***Consider this model as a stand-alone, if we return full-time or hybrid.***

Transportation:

• This one is tricky, especially since we were planning to use fewer buses this year, with the rejigging of schedules. At the very least, return all buses, and space children as much as possible, with mask wearing mandatory.
• Have as many students as possible attend their closest ‘school location’, to reduce the need for bussing.

Safety Protocols:

• Use multiple entrances, one-way hallways where possible, limit number of students in washrooms (washroom keys in office?), masks in public areas, direct instruction about safety and hygiene.
• Allow students and staff to operate as a bubble while in class, to promote mental health and positive connection, sharing resources and normal contact.
• Monitor health and have clear protocols in place for handling symptomatic students and staff. In case of outbreaks, close classroom and/or school until testing or quarantine is completed.
• If hospitals, restaurants, and stores can clean properly, schools should be able to do the same. This may require extra staff.

Training:

• Provide online training to staff on mental health and resilience, managing trauma, outdoor learning, and other topics related to teaching in our current situation.

Academics:

• Reduce or remove academic expectations to allow staff to focus on behaviour, anxiety, and social skills. Allow learning to happen more organically.

Organization:

• Where possible, group students in family or childcare groupings to limit exposure. If academic focus were less, they wouldn’t have to be separated as clearly by age.
• Form groups from age 4-8, 6-10 and 8-12. These overlaps would allow siblings to belong to the same class, thereby reducing exposure.
• Work together with childcare centres so that children who need before and after care could receive that in the same location. Take this into consideration when grouping students.
• Offer an online option for medically fragile children or those whose parents prefer to keep them home. Arrange for higher risk teachers to cover online learning.

Possible troubleshooting options:

• Shorten day slightly to allow teachers to provide their own prep time.
• Provide prep in larger chunks less frequently, with one prep teacher covering only a few classes to reduce the interaction between groups.
• Lengthen the school day by 15 minutes, but make the week only four days, with one cleaning day. Teachers would have one day/week of prep time (reducing the need for coverage).
• If unions resist, consider ‘cancelling’ school for the year, laying off teachers, and offering them positions in the ‘temporary pandemic model’.

Problems addressed that aren’t addressed by other models:

• Less inequity for students who miss school due to parental choice or illness, because ‘formalized’ learning has been suspended (if we send all sniffles home this year, there will be a lot of missed school time).
• True focus on mental health, which is REALLY hard when also trying to meet curriculum expectations, catch up students from missed spring classes, and manage anxiety around daily interactions and a global pandemic.
• The closest return to ‘normalcy’, where students interact organically and comfortably with peers, teachers, and materials, thereby lessening fear and anxiety for students, parents and teachers.
• Small cohorts that aren’t widely expanded by piecemeal childcare on ‘off days’ in the hybrid model. Easy contact tracing.
• Perfect conditions to experiment with different learning models to see what really works.
• Opportunity for leadership in out-of-the-box creative problem solving for modern education.
• Students who come out less stressed and more ready to learn when it is safe to return to a more traditional style of education.

Ideally, I would like to see some of these innovations (like reduced curriculum demands, outdoor school, smaller class sizes, seamless day, etc) become part of our regular school system, which was in dire need of an overhaul, even before COVID-19 hit. This year just seems like the perfect year to try out some new methods and strategies. If we begin to re-imagine education, what would you like to see?