The other day, I saw a picture of my cousin's daughter, along with the information that she's thrilled because the school board just announced that students would be back in person in schools as previously planned. She's thrilled to go back to school.
I confess that I also said a prayer for those children heading back to classrooms. I broadened the prayer to all of us meeting in buildings. I realize that no matter how careful we are, we're taking a risk. If I could, I'd keep all of us at my school meeting remotely, doing virtual labs. But it's not up to me, so I'm trying to keep us all as safe as possible.
I used similar words the other day, when I took a phone call from a student. He asked, "When will you let us come back to campus to have class there?"
We had a fairly long conversation, about seven minutes, about the pluses and minuses of distance education, about disease transmission, about how long we'd need to meet remotely. Here, too, I was struck by what has changed; in the pre-pandemic times, I can't imagine getting a call from a student demanding more access to classes, demanding to be on campus longer hours.
I understand that longing. When I first heard that my certificate program was likely to meet via Zoom in January of 2021, my first response was to fight back tears. But I reminded myself that I was lucky to have a program that's continuing, leadership that can pivot. It's not what I imagined when I signed up, but here we are.
And we are likely to be here longer than most of us would like.
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