[ I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the
artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children
where they are, not where we think they “should be.” ]
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WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT THE CHILDREN AFTER THE PANDEMIC  
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Teresa Thayer Snyder
December 12, 2020
Diane Ravitch's blog
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_ I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial
constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they
are, not where we think they “should be.” _

Students line up to have their temperature checked before entering PS
179 elementary school in the Kensington neighborhood, Sept. 29, 2020
in Brooklyn, AP Photo/Mark Lennihan // Politico

 

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I am writing today about the children of this pandemic. After a
lifetime of working among the young, I feel compelled to address the
concerns that are being expressed by so many of my peers about the
deficits the children will demonstrate when they finally return to
school. My goodness, what a disconcerting thing to be concerned about
in the face of a pandemic which is affecting millions of people around
the country and the world. It speaks to one of my biggest fears for
the children when they return. In our determination to “catch them
up,” I fear that we will lose who they are and what they have
learned during this unprecedented era. What on earth are we trying to
catch them up on? The models no longer apply, the benchmarks are no
longer valid, the trend analyses have been interrupted. We must not
forget that those arbitrary measures were established by people, not
ordained by God. We can make those invalid measures as obsolete as a
crank up telephone! They simply do not apply. 

When the children return to school, they will have returned with a new
history that we will need to help them identify and make sense of.
When the children return to school, we will need to listen to them.
Let their stories be told. They have endured a year that has no
parallel in modern times. There is no assessment that applies to who
they are or what they have learned. Remember, their brains did not go
into hibernation during this year. Their brains may not have been
focused on traditional school material, but they did not stop either.
Their brains may have been focused on where their next meal is coming
from, or how to care for a younger sibling, or how to deal with
missing grandma, or how it feels to have to surrender a beloved pet,
or how to deal with death. Our job is to welcome them back and help
them write that history.

I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial
constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they
are, not where we think they “should be.” Greet them with art
supplies and writing materials, and music and dance and so many other
avenues to help them express what has happened to them in their lives
during this horrific year. Greet them with stories and books that will
help them make sense of an upside-down world. They missed you. They
did not miss the test prep. They did not miss the worksheets. They did
not miss the reading groups. They did not miss the homework. They
missed you.

Resist the pressure from whatever ‘powers that be’ who are in a
hurry to “fix” kids and make up for the “lost” time. The time
was not lost, it was invested in surviving an historic period of time
in their lives—in our lives. The children do not need to be fixed.
They are not broken. They need to be heard. They need be given as many
tools as we can provide to nurture resilience and help them adjust to
a post pandemic world.

Being a teacher is an essential connection between what is and what
can be. Please, let what can be demonstrate that our children have so
much to share about the world they live in and in helping them make
sense of what, for all of us has been unimaginable. This will help
them– and us– achieve a lot more than can be measured by any
assessment tool ever devised. Peace to all who work with the children!

_[Teresa Thayer Snyder was superintendent of the Voorheesville
district in upstate New York. She wrote this essay on her Facebook
page.]_

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