The Calamity in High School:
And what can be done?
As a veteran of 32 high school campaigns, I have ‘Teacher Dreams.’ I am told that a great many teachers have similar ‘dreams’. Usually, I am back in a classroom or at a high school event like a pep rally floating in strange, surreal dreams. I find myself trying to deal with some calamity that has befallen the students (or their befuddled English teacher). But the nightmare of last night woke me up — startled at the impact of this Covid 19 pandemic, which has shaken high schools to the core.
While pundits and politicians debate the pros and cons of ‘opening up the economy and the schools,’ few seem to grasp the emptiness that teenagers and teachers in high school are feeling every single day. I am not talking about the impersonal nature of zoom teaching on both sides of the monitors. No, the void strikes at the heart and soul of high school experience.
I can’t tell you how many tears of joy were shed, streaking the mascara, fogging up their glasses…and mine.
Think about how last year ended for high students. They missed their prom. Their sports were either curtailed of truncated in the spring. The seniors missed the culmination that is graduation. I went to a great many of those events as their teacher or advisor…
