Finishing school

Arkansas students, teachers prepare for stress

Arkansas public school students are getting in their last few hours of a summer break that was anything but care free.

It doesn’t matter if they got a chance to frolic in the swimming hole at Kings River Falls or maybe even to ride a boogie board in the surf along the Emer- ald Coast.

Whatever fun activities were sprinkled through the unusually comfortable Northwest Arkansas sum- mer, they involved limitations on behavior that showed we’re still in the throes of a pandemic.

The end of the last academic year was, for all practical purposes, more than five months ago.

Sure, the 2019-20 spring semester continued with students offered some form of an “alternative method of instruction” at home, but as New York Times reporter Dana Goldstein put it, the nation’s children slogged to the finish line of a disrupted academic year.

It was a slog, but one necessary for the nation to better come to grips with the invasion of a highly communicable virus that has killed close to 800,000 people worldwide (more if you assume undercounts in some less-than-transparent nations). More than a fifth of the deaths are reported in the United States.

Now, educators throughout Arkansas prepare to welcome students back, ordered by the Arkansas Department of Education to offer in-school education five days a week, at least as the school year starts. Students have options — such as entirely online learning or some hybrid that reduces their in-class time — but school districts do not.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson decided all school districts need to begin the school year giving students a chance to get back to traditional, in-person learning.

Does that mean it’s safe? No, but nothing is entirely safe these days, so that’s not the sole measure or expectation. So why risk it, especially given the resistance some educators have in returning to their classrooms alongside their students?

Some of them argue the school year should start online and move to more traditional modes after covid-19 cases within the state are brought under greater control.

Hutchinson views in-school education as the touchstone of Arkansas’ educational system. He delayed the start of school by three weeks to give more time for preparations. As school openings approach, there’s greater knowledge than ever about how the coronavirus behaves, far greater preparation than was possible in the spring, more robust testing and tracing of cases, and students and teachers now quite familiar with the necessary precautions that aid in reducing the virus’ spread.

The governor also knows development of a vaccine is not guaranteed. Arkansans may face the 202021 school year in its entirety without benefit of protective immunity from infection.

Yes, there are hopes for something soon, but hope isn’t a plan. If face-toface learning can happen with mitigation through masks, social distancing, handwashing, contact tracing, rapid response to any flare-ups and limitations on traditional school activities, isn’t it worth trying?

Despite educators’ best efforts, the disruption of last year’s academic pursuits has eroded some of the learning that took place before covid-19.

That could continue with an all-online effort, no matter how hard everyone is trying.

But let’s not kid anyone. The 202021 school year will start with a high level of anxiety.

Teachers who care deeply about helping students find and develop their best selves will do their jobs with the added stress of guarding their own well-being as well as that of their students. They’ll worry about taking the virus home with them, too.

Students and their families will feel the stress, too, whether the education is taking place all at home or the kids are back inside the classrooms.

The entire school year might operate with the looming possibility educators and students might have to “pivot” to all-online learning for stretches of time. It’s great to have technological tools that allow it, but it’s even more potential for disruption.

Even if this year can be effectively managed to limit infections, guarding against that will demand a lot of energy that’s usually poured into helping young people mature and learn. The sense of risk will be exhausting.

We’re not trying to play the role of Debbie Downer. Rather, we believe everyone must recognize and fully appreciate the strains that will be at work within our educational systems and the lives of those they effect.

To recognize them is to address them.

Expect disruption and the stress won’t disappear, but it won’t be as unnerving, either.

And what the 2020-21 school year needs perhaps more than anything is grace, from everyone for everyone. We all need to watch out for each other and understand the pressures of this amazing effort to ensure students do not lose further educational ground.

Arkansas cannot afford to let that happen, and teachers need every bit of support as has been provided to frontline health workers.

Perhaps this year, as much as anything, will be a test of how much encouragement one can share in the midst of trying times, of how much gratitude all of us can conjure for everything that goes right, even better than expected, and for the amazing resilience of the human spirit.

Maybe in the end, teachers, parents, students, administrators, civic leaders, health professionals, school resource officers, counselors, support staff and everyone else will learn something about ourselves that’s worth knowing: We can do it, together.

Beyond covid-19, there’s one more set of standard reminders that might be overshadowed but remain vital to keep in mind: Watch out for the kids.

Don’t pass a stopped school bus. Don’t speed through school zones. Slow down even more when kids are present.

Be patient and kind. Finally, as Gov. Hutchinson noted just last week, disruptions in schools will arise from community circumstances with covid-19, not just what’s happening in the schools. It’s not, he said, really about starting the school year, but finishing it. What’s that mean?

Wear your mask, wash your hands and social distance.

It’s an investment in the children of Arkansas.