Covid has made us really appreciate teachers
WHEN I was at school, the chance of a day off was cause for celebration. In winter, if there was snow on the ground your first thought was whether your school would close – which only added to the excitement of possibly getting out and playing in the white stuff.
There was also the time that while staying with my dad in Bristol over a weekend, his car wouldn’t start just as he was due to take me back home to Poole. It meant an extra day with him – and a day off from school. I cheered.
Yet after months out of school due to the pandemic, it has been clear that for most children it was the chance to get back into the classroom recently which has led to highfives and glasses of lemonade all round.
There will have been obvious delight among parents, of course, who have had to home school their offspring while all schools have been shut. While teachers have made a big effort to facilitate online learning and use video platforms like Zoom, there has still been an element of responsibility for the parents themselves, instead of just sending children off for the day.
Parents’ delight at having the house to themselves again, and not having to make sure that Johnny or Joanna were actually doing schoolwork and not playing on the XBox, was clear. But there was also delight among the children themselves.
Going back to school, which so many of us in times gone by would have frowned about or even dreaded, has been something that plenty of children have been looking forward to, and have actually enjoyed.
There will have been some nerves of course, and an element of worry especially among younger children – which is normal considering what we have all been through.
But from what I have seen, the overall feeling among children was one of delight at getting into the classroom, and most importantly seeing their friends.
One of the few positives which we can take from the pandemic – and there have been precious few – is that the current generation of pupils are far more likely to appreciate schooling instead of looking at it like I did.
Part of it has probably been the chance to get out of the house and see someone other than their immediate family for a few hours a day – something that many adults can also relate to.
But it might also be hoped that a more positive feeling about school might give the current generation of pupils a greater thirst to actually learn something.
That could be hugely helpful considering the amount of lessons they have missed during the last 12 months and counting.
Parents evenings might, I daresay, be slightly different too this year. And not just as they will have to be held over Zoom instead of in the classroom, with the adults squeezing their behinds into those tiny chairs.
A few parents who might have thought that it was the teachers’ flaws which had prevented their darling children from being adequately filled with knowledge may have had a shock at spending so much time alongside them.
Realising that Johnny was more interested in the contents of his nostrils than the textbook (or website these days) may help those parents appreciate the skill and effort that is really involved in teaching.
But a greater respect for teachers is hopefully just one of the ways that both parents and children alike might look at schools differently in the post-Covid era.
Unless, of course, you are talking about snow days: I doubt there’s much chance school will beat them.
One of the few positives is the current generation are far more likely to appreciate school