The Education Moment We Have Been Waiting For

I did something this morning I haven’t done in all the years I have been on Facebook. I made a comment on the New York Times page to an opinion piece written by Jennie Weiner. The title was “I Refuse to Run a Coronavirus Homeschool” and much of the article resonated with me. As a parent of two children, one in middle school and one in high school, I can fully appreciate the challenges of having to move into a new work paradigm. As a lifelong educator, in both public and private schools as well as a former researcher for the United States Department of Education I see this moment as one we have all been waiting for. The time has come where teaching and learning can change, not because we feel like chasing the latest educational trend, but because the world has been thrust into a new paradigm and we simply have no choice.

Early in my career, as a public school teacher I taught middle school English and Theater classes. I remember that in the mid to late 90’s teaching was still innocent. We hadn’t entered the era of big stakes testing and it was shortly after I left the classroom in early 2000’s that No Child Left Behind became the law of the land and what we have seen in our schools is a push to make the learning experience one that is driven by standardization and competencies. When I made the move to work in a private school setting, it came on the heels of having worked two years at a think tank that had received a grant from the US Dept. of Education Office of Education Research Initiatives. It was funded at the end of the Clinton administration and was intended to bridge the gap between educational research and practice. Our work was designed to create comprehensive school reform models that helped struggling schools reach struggling students and their families. It was difficult and hard work but I remained focused on the idea that education was the solution to many of the challenges we faced in the world.

During this time I saw teachers in some of the most under resourced communities struggle with large class sizes, few resources and a sense of feeling like the odds were stacked against them. However, one thing I saw in every school I worked with was a deep caring for students. The teachers truly and deeply cared about their kids and many of them did magical and amazing things with their kids with very little. The reality of teaching and learning in the United States has been to push kids and families into a rat race of AP classes, honors, extracurricular activities and a pace that I have found over the past several years to be unsustainable. We have lost much of what secondary education could and should be.

Which brings me to the idea that maybe now is our moment. The coronavirus crisis has thrust schools into an untenable situation. In the matter of days, schools across the country, public, private, charter and parochial have been asked to move their teaching pedagogy into a new paradigm. One that has disrupted the very fabric of what daily life has been like for all of us. Everyone is facing a period of uncertainty while managing the stress and challenges of the massive disruption to every aspect of our daily lives. Which is why this is the moment when we can rethink what education can and should be. My own children have come home frustrated by various aspects of their public school education. The countless worksheets, the meaningless assignments and the absence of agency in their own educational experience has been challenging for my wife and me to manage. I don’t fault teachers, I fault the entire educational system.  Both of us have worked in education our entire careers, but now we can look to our own kids and give them a small window into how they can provide a roadmap for their own learning experiences, even if it is for only a few weeks they have agency in how they might want to spend their time, whether it is at 8:00 am or 8:00 pm. Our only job in my opinion is to continue to do what we have always done, be available and provide support when they hit a roadblock or find that they can’t determine what the next step is. For now, they can explore to their heart's content and their schools and teachers are trying to give them some structure and connection. Their teachers are trying hard to remain available and accessible to them. They are also simultaneously being thrust into working from home, having to learn new technology, adjust their curriculum and try to provide support to their own children. 

This is the moment we have been waiting for. We should use this unprecedented opportunity to upend the antiquated and dated paradigms of education and embrace the idea that teaching and learning can and should adapt to the modern realities of the 21st century. True partnership between kids, parents and schools is changing overnight. We are thrust into a period where we don’t know how long we will need to live and work in this new way and yet, it presents an extraordinary opportunity to focus on what really matters. Inspiring young people to find meaningful connections in their lives and providing them with a solid foundation of skills and knowledge that will provide them with the greatest opportunity for life long success.