School by Concentrate

This year, it’s School by Concentrate. A week is a lot of lead-time, and every schedule has “for now” implied at the end of the title. Staggered Middle School Drop-Off Times, For Now. Lunch Recess Schedule, For Now. Meeting Agenda, For Now.

It’s September, but the exhaustion feels like May. That’s partly due to summer planning for a to-be-determined school year (how can you prepare for something that is as undefined and unpredictable as the 20-21 school year?). It’s partly due to the myriad schedule changes within the first month of school. Oh yeah, and there’s the confluence of climate change, an election year, racial violence, and simply the ongoing stress of masking up for the grocery store.

The world of education naturally comes with it a range of emotions. Those emotions are heightened these days.

Educators are living in a state of Red Flag Warning, something all too normal in California now. Our senses are heightened. We are on the lookout for handwashing like firespotters. We sense transgressions of safety guidelines like smelling smoke in the air. Just like I have my go-bag ready in case there’s a fire in the hills tonight, teachers and administrators are the embodiment of go-bags for our schools.

We are the water to quench students’ thirst for normalcy, even though we need it ourselves. We are the granola bars to feed the need to learn, even though we need it ourselves. We are the extra pair of glasses, the spare change of clothes. We are the extra set of keys and we are the passports, even though we need them ourselves.

We are go-bags of normalcy because that is what we need to be. For the students. Education has long been a selfless institution, but never have educators been so selfless than in the time of COVID. And, that selflessness takes a toll. Teachers need time more than ever. Teachers need support more than ever. Administrators are juggling variables more than ever, and one of those inherently needs to be supporting the culture and climate of our schools.

We need to balance checking in with our faculty while not scheduling unnecessary meetings. We need to balance adjusting to meet the needs of our students with trying not to impose too much change. We need to balance how our community finds balance.

And that’s it. Everything is more these days, including the need for community. COVID is but one crisis schools are dealing with, and emotions are heightened as a result. The only way to navigate a crisis is with community. Let's find a way to amplify that.