All is Not Lost

There is a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. In Vermont, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine's arrival means there's enough supply to vaccinate faculty and staff in our school. While I was not thrilled to lose an hour of sleep this weekend, the longer days mean more daylight and warmer weather are both on the horizon. This is bringing some much-needed relief to the human beings that are serving in education. 

Despite this good news, there has been something nagging in the back of my mind, and I've struggled to articulate it clearly over the past week or so. The way people are talking about this next phase of education in our nation and in Vermont is not sitting well with me. The word recovery is not appropriate for what we are about to do next. 

On a zoom call recently with my colleague superintendents in the Northeast Kingdom, one of them pointed out that Alcoholics Anonymous has a specific definition for recovery: 

In AA, we agree there is no cure for alcoholism... Some members describe themselves as "recovered" in the sense that they have got over the main problems drinking had on them. Some members prefer to describe themselves as recovering alcoholics to emphasize that getting well is an ongoing process which is never fully complete. 

Glossary of Terms Used in AA
www.aa.org/au

Now, I fully recognize two things: 1. We are not dealing with alcoholics, and 2. There is a tremendous amount of work ahead of us in education. That said, how we talk about it matters, and it matters a great deal. 

So for starters, we are calling our next phase in St. Johnsbury, Reigniting Education. This idea came from our Director of Learning Design, Jodie Elliott, and it captures more accurately what we are aiming to do in the next few years. I refuse to begin any work from a deficit mindset, and this is no exception. Our students and their families deserve nothing less than starting from the strengths of this past year. Even if there are none. 

As we go forward in St. Johnsbury, our Reigniting Education Team will read two articles to frame our work. The first is by Yong Zhao, Ph.D. called "Build back better: Avoid the learning loss trap," and the second is by Max Silverman, "Want to Tackle Learning Loss? First Listen to Your Students". We will not presume anything about our students' experience over the past year except one thing: they've lived through a global health pandemic. 

Looking back, I've sent numerous surveys to our families, and plenty have reported there are benefits to remote learning that they'd never considered. In social media posts, responses to the articles above have generated a high number of positive comments as well. Vermont's own Jess Lahey had a piece in the Sunday Boston Globe entitled "4 ways families can find silver linings from this terrible pandemic year." The very question that Ms. Lahey posed on Twitter inspired my own blog post about opportunities that we've capitalized on as a family. 

So, yes, there is plenty of work ahead. And, yes, our students have not had the year any of us had planned. But we will take on the next steps in the same way we have always approached education in St. Johnsbury: by meeting every student where she or he is. 

We will not presume anything about this year. We will only welcome our students back with open arms, delighted to have them learning with us again. 

Photo courtesy of Pintrest