Rethinking educational goals makes sense while pandemic continues

Times Herald-Record

And so it begins.

This is the message from beleaguered teachers across our region as they struggle to coordinate the Covid safety protocols of their districts amidst the reality of the spread on the ground. For even in New York state, where the adult vaccination rate is, thankfully, above 60 percent, containing the highly contagious variant of this virus remains difficult, if not impossible.

Mala Hoffman

Although schools have been slow to acknowledge this, parents are keenly aware. Even now, in only the second week of school for many districts, there are petitions and demands for remote options from families who do not feel secure despite the 20- or 30-page reopening documents diligently prepared by their superintendents. Because the documents are only paper, and children are, after all, children. So despite mandates for mask wearing, teachers at all grade levels are finding themselves reminding students over and over to cover their noses in addition to their mouths. And despite a requirement for six feet of space when students are eating, elementary classrooms are the source of breakfast, resulting in a bizarre do-si-do of students munching cereal bars in alternate rows.

The recent news that 13 unvaccinated school staff members in the Miami area contracted the virus, or that a teacher in California spread it to her students indicates that teachers are not exempt from responsibility for their own safety. But even those who have received their shots are at risk of spreading the virus given the level of community infection.

Photographs of students swarming hallways in high schools throughout the area only highlight the impossibility of maintaining any modicum of social distance. And reports of infections in various schools, after only a few days of in-person learning, demonstrate that school is certainly far from “going back to normal.”

The wisest and safest course is to reset goals and expectations for how learning is going to unfold in what remains a pandemic. While everyone understands and supports the idea that students perform better in school, that should not come at the cost of their lives and the lives of those around them.

Mala Hoffman retired from teaching in June. She lives in Gardiner.