Brevet Kids on the Slide. But not on the Playground.
Brevet’s been lucky. Despite the outbreak of COVID and the nation’s approximate 500,000 death toll, we have yet to encounter a single case in our quaint town. Some of that has to do with our small population. But most of it has resulted from us banding together quickly to enact protocols from the CDC, and adhere to guidance by what some Brevetarians’ call: “that sexy Dr. Fauci and all his medical knowledge.” We’ll refrain from exploring that further. In our efforts to stay safe, our children have suffered. Has been one year since Brevetarian kids have stepped foot in school. Educators, who used to have to worry about summer slide (which is the backward progression many children have in their reading and math skills over the summer), now have to contend with COVID slide. We asked one of our educators to explain what all the worry is about.
Brevet Chronicle (BC): Tell us how COVID slide has manifested despite class rooms turning to on-line learning?
Educator: Despite on-line learning, teachers realize we don’t have the same captive audience. Kids are at home and they have so many available distractions. Despite all the zoom boxes we can’t get the non-visual cues that tell us a child is struggling with the material.
Educator: Being frigidity, slumped, and maybe playing with their fingers or drawing on their pieces of paper.
BC: How can parents help?
Educator: They can’t really. Many are working at the same time their child’s online learning is taking place. They don’t have the ability to pay attention.
BC: What about in the evenings? How can parent’s help.
Educator: Honestly they’re the problem. Brevet educators agree, parents just aren’t that smart. They may be smart in their chosen profession, but most simply can’t help their kids with history, social sciences, algebra, statistics, physics, or chemistry. We don’t live in Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Woebegone. This is real life and Brevet is not a place “were all the children are above average.” Not even close. We can’t even say that as a joke, if Mr. Keillor meant it that way.
This educator, and her colleagues which she assured us, agreed with her-had us worried about our children’s future. For years Brevet has been attempting to tackle the issue of the town’s brain drain.
BC: What hope do we have?
Educator: My colleagues and I agree that our hope is most appropriately placed in your youngest kids: preschoolers through, about...first grade.
Educator: Those ages demand attention. Have you ever tried to ignore a toddler? Good luck with that! The power dynamic is shifted. Parents have no choice put to pay close attention during on-line learning (if that’s what you call it for a toddler). Plus, Brevet parents are intellectually equipped to help with “homework.” All our parents can read. They know their numbers and can do basic math. But God help our gifted toddlers...
BC: Do we have gifted toddlers in Brevet?
Educator: Not that I’ve seen yet.
BC: Then why did you say that?
Educator: I don’t know. Maybe I was caught in the moment of drama that is this conversation.
BC: Do you see anyway for our older students (we acknowledge the irony of calling a second grader an ‘older student’) to catch-up once schools reopen and COVID is brought under control through vaccinations?
Here we noticed our education expert get pretty quite. We had to ply her.
Educator: I do...I mean, my colleagues and I do. But it’s radical.
Educator: People won’t like it.
BC: I’m sure parents will be open to anything to ensure that their child don’t fall behind intellectually. Education secures our children’s future.
Our education expert did not seem convinced, but she eventually relented.
Educator: In normal circumstances I would never say this. But my colleagues and I agree, extreme times call for extreme measures.
BC: What do you and your colleagues suggest.
Educator: We suggest that we take a cue from our eastern adversary and the maker of all things Amazon-that’s China. We suggest an expanded school year from September through mid-July. Then we suggest full-time summer classes from July through August specific to the individual student’s needs, where she or he has had the most backslide.
BC: What about our high school juniors and seniors?
Educator: Yes. We’ve thought of them. Unfortunately every war has its casualties.... Look at it this way. If they didn’t know the ideas and concepts they needed to know by now to get into a good college, they weren’t going to learn them even in the best educational circumstances.
BC: What do you think about the CDC saying it’s safe for schools to reopen.
Educator: I’m not sure in larger cities. But here in Brevet because we still have no COVID cases I think we can reopen, ONCE, we put all the needed desk guards up, and have enough PPE. Our education force isn’t unionized (as you know given our confederate and union history). All it takes is for all of us teachers to agree that its safe to enter the class room again. We’re like that old show Friends, we stay together in negotiations or the show does not go on.
Ironically, that sounds like a union to this staff writer. You heard it first. What do you think of the our educators’ plan? Drop us a line or tweet us @BrevetChronicle!