Pandemic Education Can’t Work Until We Decide on the Purpose of School
Are schools job trainers, day cares, sorting mechanisms, or communities?
Everyone involved in the American educational system — parents, students, and teachers — can agree on one thing: this has been a terrible school year. Our educational system — usually ignored or quietly disparaged in our national conversation— has become a central issue in our politics and our discourse. The truth is that there are no good options this year — in-person school can be unsafe (and, frankly, not that effective given the fact that masking, plexiglass, and distancing make many of the best parts of school impossible). Virtual school is a lonely, enervating slog for students and teachers.
We probably won’t find any good solutions for this school year, but the debate over school this year reveals one thing — Americans can’t agree about what school is for. One of the reasons that our discussions about school during the pandemic haven’t been productive is that we can’t agree on the terms of the debate. If we can’t decide on the purpose of school, we won’t be able to find a suitable solution.
