Pandemonium in the pandemic: Where do we go from here?

Will the pandemic encourage America to rebuild our education system from the outside in? Even if not, is it motivating you, as a teacher or administrator, to rebuild from the inside out? Change can be uncomfortable – especially when it is forced upon us. Change can also be the catalyst to life’s greatest discoveries. Mother Teresa once said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters that will make many ripples.”  

It seems for so long we have skirted by on what we have done in the past, simply because “We have always done it that way.” I can think of many educational initiatives that have tried and failed, not because the ideas were bad, but because we seem to abandon new initiatives in favor of what we have “always done,” sometimes rebranding the status quo in a shiny new package that is the same old program. This time, the traditional method of education may no longer be an option, but we must remember out of the brimstone rises the phoenix.

Author Scott Trettenero wrote, “It is a universal human nature trait for us to seek comfort. You would assume that comfort would be a worthwhile goal for us to pursue but in reality, it is one of humanity’s greatest built-in impediments of growth. If we weren’t wired with our affinity for comfort, our possibilities for a better life and world would be unfathomable. It may be that seeking too much comfort is what is holding us back from our goals and may inhibit the personal growth necessary to reach them.”  

Like everyone else, we as educators sometimes become comfortable. Comfortable with what we know, comfortable with what we have done in the past, and comfortable with routine. When the 2019-2020 school year started, never would we have imagined that going into spring break would lead to one of the biggest challenges in education in the 21st century. How do we educate our future leaders of tomorrow remotely? After the shock of our new normal subsided, I think we moved into a bit of the acceptance phase. Not that we accept what is going on, but that we recognize the charge ahead of us. Not even that we emphatically embrace remote learning, but that we know education is going to be different. Not only that it is going to be different, but that we are living a part of history that can forever shape and carve how learning can happen in the future. What an exciting prospect.

Change and growth are at the very core of education and in our current circumstances we are all students. As the world braces itself for an unknown future, many things have come to light. First, our calling has always been to educate our children, to keep them safe, to offer them security and comfort. A pandemic does not dim that desire but makes it stronger. Second, we need to remember as we go through these challenging times that out of chaos will come life’s richest ideas. Out of challenge comes reward, and out of necessity perhaps comes the deepest rewards.

We must roll up our sleeves and work together to navigate how we will reframe education to meet the challenges caused by the pandemic. We will ascend again, like the phoenix, and soar to new heights as we to contribute to the rebirth of America’s education system.

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