Confidence, trust crucial for schools to reopen
The upcoming school year will be memorable for Texas students, parents and educators.
Whether they are fond memories remains to be seen.
“I was always a proponent that you can learn better in person than you can from a book,” said Barbara Roberts, who teaches government and politics in Fort Bend Independent School District. “2020 has had many teachable opportunities.”
It’s a year that keeps on giving. But right now, many Texans are grappling with immediate challenges, including schooling their children in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 4,000 lives in Texas, and more than 140,000 around the country.
On the one hand, there’s widespread agreement that face-to-face instruction is more effective than the virtual classroom, and that in-person learning provides students with the social interactions — and support — that many of them need. It’s also the case that until schools reopen, it will be hard for the state, or its economy, to regain some semblance of normalcy.
But is sending millions of children to crowded classrooms in the midst of a pandemic really a good idea?
Roberts is among state teachers
who have been volunteering as a moderator for a closed Facebook group, Texas Teachers for Safe Reopening, which has experienced exponential growth over the past few weeks and now has more than 46,000 members.
“As teachers, we want people to know that we’re
not expendable,” she said.
President Donald Trump in recent weeks has been adamant that schools across the country reopen next month for in-person instruction next month, even if the virus has yet to be contained.
“What we want to do is we want to get our schools open,” he said July 7, in a White House appearance with First Lady Melania Trump. “We want to get them open quickly, beautifully, in the fall. And the — as you know, this is a disease that’s a horrible disease, but young people do extraordinarily well.”
The following day, he reiterated this goal on Twitter, and took issue with the guidance that had been issued on the subject by the Centers for Disease Control.
“I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things,” Trump tweeted, adding ominously: “I will be meeting with them!!!”
His administration has since maintained that reopening can be accomplished safely.
“The science should not stand in the way of this,” Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said last week.
State leaders initially seemed inclined to follow Trump’s lead. The Texas Education Agency earlier this month issued guidelines
that would have moved state schools along to a swift reopening, allowing just three weeks for virtual learning, at the risk of losing state funding.
The agency last week relaxed that stance, after pushback from local officials and public health experts. Under new guidelines issued Friday, public school districts can require students with at-home technology to begin the year in virtual classes for up to eight weeks. But this move didn’t allay the confusion, frustration, or fears of many educators, who see such deadlines as arbitrary, if not politically motivated. In a statement, Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina blasted the revised guidelines and the “irrelevant deadlines.”
“Educators, students and their parents need assurance that school buildings will not be reopened until it is safe to do so,” she said. “Right now, with the pandemic still raging across Texas, we don’t know when that will be.”
On Monday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Dr Umair Shah, the executive director of Harris County Public Health, wrote a letter to the superintendents of school districts across Harris County, asking them to stick to virtual learning until mid-October, at least.
“In the absence of a widely available treatment or vaccine, our community must bring the virus under control before in-person instruction can safely resume,” they stated.
Katharine Garcia, an educator and parent of an Houston ISD sixth grader, explained that she and her husband have decided to go with the online option for the time being. That’s the best way to keep their daughter safe, she said. Plus, they can help ease the pressure on parents who might not have the same access to technology, or ability to work from home.
“I think that right now is the time to be the least selfish,” Garcia said. She’s confident that Texas students are going to get an education, either way. “They’re learning to be resilient, empathetic, collaborative; they’re learning on the fly to do different things.”
The same is true of educators across the state, who are doing their best to prepare for the challenges this school year might bring.
“Parents should know that while they love their kids, we love them too,” said government and politics teacher Roberts. “I’ve always taught seniors, but they’re still our babies. If we’re going to bat, it’s because we’re going to bat for them too.”
“We’re going to do everything we can to provide for their children, protect them, and keep them safe,” she continued.
Let’s hope our state leaders take the same view.