On August 16th, schools in Los Angeles will be open for in-person school for the first time since March 2020. Both students and teachers are anxious and excited. It will be different. It’s not just that masks will be worn or that everyone on campus will be tested for Covid and temperature checks every day. Those are just protocols that appear different. That is on the surface that everyone screams about on social media and never dive deep into the real issues. There are underlying issues that make this school year very different from any other school year. It will not just be about learning reading, writing, and arithmetic.
As we enter the classroom, we all wonder how everyone will accept us. As a teacher, I’m feeling like it is my first year in teaching all over again. Do I remember all the details in routines? What new routines do I need to add or take away? Can I smile on the first day? Wait. That one does not matter as I’ll have a mask on my face. Whew. The students are also full of questions.
The students wonder if their friends will still like them. They worry that others will belittle or bully them for gaining weight during the pandemic. They worry if they will get Covid. They wonder if they can stay in a classroom all day without walking around the room or doing whatever they were doing with online school. They wonder if the teachers are kind or mean.
Do we even need to wonder why everyone is concerned? People on social media have been extremely rude and mean during the pandemic. During the time that most of us needed to connect with people with positive attributes, we were condemned, bullied, or ignored. We, as a society, need to do better. A whole generation depends on it.
First, we need to learn how to inspire and encourage other people instead of guilt shaming them. I have learned that in the classroom if I can empower students, they will shine, but the moment I begin to lessen my leadership skills to guilt-shaming, they not only fail but our relationship is severed. We all need empowerment. Guilt-shaming not only produces bitterness, but it also backfires. The church has guilt-shamed people for years, just like the Pharisees and the other religious leaders did in the days that Jesus walked on earth. Jesus empowered people, so more people followed him and his ways, rather than the religious leaders and their ways. Guilt-shaming pushes people away. Empowerment brings people closer.
Next, we need to accept people where they are in their present, so they can be successful in their future. Where they are on their journey in life is not for us to judge or condemn, but to meet them there and walk with them in their journey. It’s what we as teachers must do. I already know that my students are behind in their reading and writing skills thanks to last year. (They were behind before last year, so I must figure out how to bring them up from that too.) The same is with us accepting people in our own communities, whether in person or on social media.
We need to let go of the past. we need to understand that all of us had different experiences during the pandemic. Some of us never said anything about our experiences on social media; we just lived life with whatever was thrown our way. We need to realize that everyone has their mountains in life. Instead of condemning, judging, and guilt-shaming them, we need to come aside and walk along with them. They may or may not come to the point where WE think they need to be, but if we are understanding of who they are as people, we will not need them to be where WE want them to be, but where THEY NEED to be.
With our students, we need to be empathetic with their emotions and mental health. Their stress level is higher for so many more reasons than it ever has been. Not only are they concerned about Covid and their health issues, but some of them have been locked up with people that cause stress in their lives for various reasons. At a season in life that they should have been more social with their friends, they couldn’t meet with them. Some students struggle with being around people who are different from them. Some wonder if anyone will be their friend. Mental health is not a joke. We need to be more aware of the mental health of people around us instead of being right or authoritative. As a teacher, I need to recognize this daily.
Finally, this school year will be different, but we are all entering with gratefulness that we are not online, and we get to be in person with other students and teachers. We get to do learning activities that move us around the room. We get to talk with others around us. The students get teacher help immediately. As a teacher, I get to know the students as students and as young people. I can’t wait for the beauty that this year will produce. My restart of a first year just might be my best year ever.
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