The pandemic has left public education in the United States in crisis. The virus caught America and its schools unprepared. It is now the beginning of the 3rd school year that has been uprooted by the virus. In large districts across the country, enrollment is down. Many students are far behind academically and may never make it up. Students are floundering emotionally. Schools are already short of substitute teachers, bus drivers and food servers.
According to a Rand study, nearly 25% of teachers are considering quitting their jobs. Most had not been training on delivering education remotely. Principals are struggling as well. According to a survey from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, almost 40% are planning to leave the profession in the next three years.
Remote learning has taken its toll on the mental well-being of students and their parents and educators. Teachers hadn’t been taught how to teach remotely. Parents have had to learn how to teach their children because of forced home-schooling. They have lost work and salaries. They have had a difficult time arranging for home care when they went to work.
Children have been forced to learn remotely. Some children who were supposed to enter kindergarten and first grade one or two years ago have still not seen the inside of a classroom.
In some places, computers sat in warehouses and not in the hands of children. Parents hadn’t been trained on how to teach their children how to run computers. Children, in many cases had to teach their parents how to teach them using computers.
Worst of all, we’ve lost children, their parents, and families and many of our educators died.
But we have survived. A little beaten up, a little battered but we have survived.