Humbling of the Spirit

Children returned to school this past week in my district after months of quarantine and a few more months of statewide wrangling over what safely opening schools 'looked like.' 

I personally chose eSchool online teaching and was granted that assignment; many of my colleagues were not granted their requests for eSchool. That's a whole different blog post. After weeks of frustration, resistance, emails, social media posts...I have resigned myself to the task at hand and that is educating children. This is the hand I've been dealt, I will play it as deftly as I can.

I enter an empty classroom each morning; void of student desks, void of student product or motivational posters on the walls, void of noisy chatter, and void of smiling anxious faces looking back at me as I sit down to my lone desk. I have 240 kids on my roster in 3 different grade levels.

I am on campus, but not interacting with any of the F2F students or teachers; eSchool teachers are dangling out there on our own, as if we already are infected by a virus. Yesterday I arrived a little later than usual, the kids were already in the courtyard awaiting the first period bell. As I walked from the front office to my building (the last building on campus stuck between the tennis courts and the gym) I noticed the quiet; 100 kids in the courtyard and it was eerily quiet. Not the usual shouting, laughing, running, or noise...just quiet. It is difficult to chat when you are six feet apart. 

Each of my classes begins with a Zoom live class call. Surprisingly, the majority of my students are prompt and focused. There is something else I've noticed this past week and that is a humbling of the spirit, not a breaking of the spirit, but a humbling. The kids are subdued, both online and on campus. They are more polite, not as arrogant (especially the 8th graders). They are compliant, not whiney. They ask pertinent questions (every educators dream!). I posted a series of 'get to know you' discussion questions. One asked 'What was your favorite part of quarantine?' Almost everyone of them answered 'spending time with my family.'  After I introduced our first unit - Canine Heroes - I asked students to leave a comment as to what they would like to learn about working dogs in our society. I was blown away by the depth of the comments...they are capable of reflection and anxious to learn new information. Perhaps months of isolation actually helped.

Months of quarantine and the sheer fear of a global pandemic shifted all of us to a different level of existence. This generation of students will be defined by a global pandemic that brought the entire planet to a halt. Many of them were forced to relocate, many of these families are struggling to survive in a busted economy...yet they are online and in school anxious to learn! These kids and their parents were forced to spend time together, perhaps for the first time in years. They played board games, read books, watched movies and ate dinner together. Many children spent time with grandparents while their parents were fortunate enough to continue working and earning. I personally know the value of being raised and spending time with a grandparent. 

A five month school closure for these kids may have been a gift - wrapped in a shitty package - but truly a gift. Some kids were forced to take care of themselves; laundry, meal prep, looking after younger siblings, organizing activities, taking out the trash, mowing the lawn, and all of the practical aspects of keeping a household running smoothly. We can't teach that in school. A couple of my students told me they were 'sent to live with' an aunt, an uncle, or grandparents. One student said he was sent to his uncle's farm where he learned to milk the goats and sheer sheep! How cool is that!? Another student shared that she and her grandmother worked in the garden daily and canned vegetables together. We can't teach that in school. Another student painted everyday, she had her canvases displayed all around her room. 

When busy humans are forced to be resilient, forced to slow down, to find joy and contentment with the simple aspects of living there is a humbling of the spirit. Parents and educators were concerned that school closure would create huge gaps in a child's education that would be impossible to bridge. I personally feel, after just one week of eSchool, my students learned valuable life lessons that will only serve to enhance any instruction I deliver this year.

Debi Tolbert Duggar
Author of Riding Soulo
Part Memoir, Part Travelogue, Part Spiritual Salvation
Available at Bessieandme.com and online wherever books are sold