It has been some time since I have visited this tool, but I find a need for it again. I find a need to write, to document this time and its impact on classroom life, for me and my students. Meditation will certainly be a part, but the focus may shift as I go.
For now, I need a space to keep track of the writing I am sending to the government with my concerns, and so I begin.
Letter of August 27, 2020
Esteemed Leaders in Education and Government,
Thanks to those who responded to my previous letter. Once again I am taking significant time to voice my concerns about the safe return to schools in a comprehensive manner. I am hoping the government, and my school division, will continue to be proactive and take more significant steps to keep all staff and students safe as we return to the classroom. The government has directed me, and all of my colleagues, back to work early next week, stealing three days of our summer, and it is my hope that the time will be put to good use, enacting potential plans, instead of preparing for a futile, and possibly deadly situation, should class sizes remain the same.
Mandating masks was a good first step, but will be useless if social distancing is not maintained. Doctors Roussin and Tam have consistently stated that two metres of social distancing is essential to keeping Canadians safe. The province has upheld their recommendations, enforcing its importance, fining establishments not in compliance, yet seems to believe that schools will be immune, and a meter if/when possible will be fine, as masks, and cohorts, will take care of the rest.
My classroom is a relatively large portable, and under regular circumstances, when my 24-25 students come together, around our large conference-like tables, we are shoulder to shoulder, resembling the best of the United Nations. In June, when we allowed a maximum of 10 students back in the classroom, remaining socially distanced at about 2 meters, and adjusting to the new norm, was challenging, but possible. In many cases, students did a better job than adults.
Keeping even one meter apart, with a full class, by replacing the brand new furniture with single desks, will still be tight. There is simply not enough space, and even with masks, I am skeptical it will do any good. With all the people breathing in the same space for hours, in what I understand is a $250,000 room with its own heating/cool system but no ventilation, the setting remains precarious, especially as more and more research indicates the hazards of indoor settings.
The danger is then compounded by the belief that cohorts of such large numbers can bring some sort of safety or better security. If each class were confined to a bubble, then perhaps. But each member of our schools, staff or student, is also part of the greater community, and has other contacts of their own, including essential workers and vulnerable populations. The contacts increase exponentially the larger the group, just as transmission can be exponential. The numbers in Manitoba continue to increase, and are worse now than they were when schools closed in March. We know so much more now, and yet there are still so many unknowns. Why are we taking steps backwards?
Why do Premier Pailister and Minister Goertzen presume to know what happens in classrooms and what is best for students? Is it because the Premier once went to school and his mother was once a teacher? I wonder what he would say to her if she were returning to the classroom next week?
Of the 25 students in my classroom, which is reflective of many across the province, skills range from 2-3 levels above grade level to 2-5 levels below. There are students learning English, students recovering from trauma, students who need motivation and confidence, and students who excel and enjoy every part of their learning. At the best of times, we are underfunded, short of resources, and students’ needs, as well as their right to a meaningful and relevant education, goes underserved. Even if we assume students and staff are safe, under these new, stressful, and limiting circumstances, what will happen to our students’ education and learning?
To be clear, teachers will step up. Teachers will do what they have always done, and make the most of what they have, to support their students in their learning and growth. Many teachers are already spending their own money, and are in their classrooms as I write, on their own time, doing the best they can to get a handle on what could come, and make their classrooms safe for students and enjoyable for learning. We, educators, are professionals, able to reach children so they can learn, and will continue to do so, regardless of the circumstances, as it is simply what we do, and as it has always been. It will be challenging, and annoying, and I pray no one gets sick, which will be the fault of the government, but we are adults. We have choices and the ability to advocate for ourselves. It will be the children who suffer.
Teachers are experts at implementing classroom procedures and routines for learning, and students are smart and capable of learning, but everything takes time. Time in school is precious, there is never enough. There is never enough time to meet the needs of each student and their learning at the best of times. Now, if our time is eaten by cleaning and sanitation procedures, or staggered arrivals to the same room, or not being able to collaborate, what happens to the learning?
So much of learning is collaborative, and the collaboration is not limited to groups and meetings. Resources in schools are often scarce, and now can no longer be shared. My middle-years school has a population of about 500 students, and 2 Chromebook carts with 25 computers. Beyond those, and the 20 in the library, where the space to accommodate students and learning will also be cut in half, we often rely on using the 2 or 3 computers in each others’ classrooms. Sending students to work in another classroom will no longer be possible. We will need at least twice as many computers in our schools to start, not to mention the space, like corridors, which will be lost as well.
If everything takes twice as long, and we don’t have the resources to provide the same quality of education anyway, then why are we putting so many Manitobans at risk?
Prime Minister Trudeau recently announced new funding for the provinces specifically for education, relieving some of the burden and allowing for creative solutions. Now is the time to reinvent schools, to align with their purpose of a meaningful and relevant education, as well as keeping Manitobans safe, in order to keep learning in the future. Here are just a few ideas, extending beyond the current models, and requiring significantly more staffing, to ignite the potential and hopefully conversation.
Extend school hours by doubling staff allowing for smaller class sizes. Have two/three staffs of teachers in one building, at different times. This would allow for morning learning by one group, midday cleaning, and then afternoon/evening learning, and perhaps cleaning in between, depending on the needs of the school and communities. Let families sign up for class at times that suit their needs. Condense the learning time at school, and offer more at home resources and options. The operating costs likely wouldn’t increase that much, but would allow for a lot more flexibility and specialization, especially at the higher levels, and better meet the needs of the community, with small class sizes in place. Buildings could also be more multi-purpose, instead of just one level, and also house more community organizations and supports. Teachers would need to adjust to sharing space, and the idea of having “their classroom”, but as an added bonus, there could be more opportunity and flexibility for teachers. It could work that fewer teachers are forced to teach subjects in which they have no training, or any level of expertise.
Maintain the status quo, with school hours and class sizes, but assign two teachers per class, to balance at school and at home learning. Let schools, communities, and teachers, design the models that work best. Allow for students to be at school in small groups in the fall, while it is easy to be outside, to establish relationships and routines, while still building online learning classrooms. Then in the winter, it is easier to set up schedules, and determine who truly benefits from being in the classroom and which students are supported from home. Working as a team would also reduce the pressure on teachers, allow teachers to meet the needs of students, and allow us to build unique learning experiences for our students during these times.
Regardless of the model, doubling resource and support staff, including learning support teachers, guidance counsellors, social workers, and clinicians, is essential. Everything takes twice as long, and the needs of students have only increased, especially the strain on mental health. It is imperative the government and leaders recognize and meet these needs.
Trust teachers! Trust educators and their experiences, their professionalism, and their expertise. Worry less about scheduling, hours, and the quantity of everything, just for now. Defer to teachers, just as you do other professionals, when it comes to their opinions. Let teachers focus on the needs of students academically and otherwise, and support us in doing so.
I invite the Premier, the Minister of Education, and any other MLA, School Trustee, Superintendent, or leader to visit my classroom, not as a part of a photo opportunity, but to experience life in a school, and what teachers face caring for the minds, bodies, and souls of the children in our classroom, and begin to understand what we need to support their needs, in these times, and at all times.
Teachers have always worked beyond the hours for which we are paid daily, and still the government freezes our wages, fights to keep them frozen, and then steals three days of our summer without pay. And yet, when we express what we need for the benefit of our students, your children, we are told no, and to make do. Teachers have always done this, just ask your mother Premier Pallister, and will continue to do so, but when is enough, enough?
We are now being told we are critical care workers, which we knew all along. More than ever, we need our leaders to trust us to do our jobs, and give us the resources we need to teach children, beginning with whatever it takes to provide the space of 2m between each individual in each classroom and learning setting. Once you do that, we can teach.
Investing in education is always an investment in the future, and there has never been a better time, as the future is now, and lives depend on it. This is the second letter I am writing to you as I am concerned, and believe this government can do better. I plan to keep writing, and document my experience on my blog (https://dailyclassroommeditations.blogspot.com/), and I sincerely hope that my writing, and future letters aren’t to inform you of the experiences of illness and death in my classroom and community. I hope you choose to take action now, reduce class sizes, and support a safe and healthy return to schools in Manitoba.
Respectfully submitted,
Cari Satran M.Ed, PBDE, B.Ed.
Letter of August 16, 2020
Dear Esteemed Leaders of Government and Education,
As I sit on this Sunday morning and watch CBC news reporting a 90% increase in pediatric cases in the US, with findings that at least 16, and potentially up to 45%, of children have been discovered as asymptomatic carriers of the virus, I am writing to add my voice to the concerns over the Back to School Plan, or lack thereof, for Manitoba schools this September.
I have been teaching middle-school for the last 18 years and would like nothing more than to go back to the classroom and regular classroom learning. However, under the circumstances, there is no more normal. What we once knew has changed and is no more. The question is now, what will our leaders do to reinvent the social construction of “Schooling” to support all of our learners, and provide each individual the “meaningful and relevant” education promised in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom in this time of crisis?
Never has inclusion of every student been more relevant, challenging, necessary and possible, if our leaders actually rethink the constructs of school, trust teachers to do their jobs, invest in education, and most importantly, stop pretending that the current plan, or social structure of school, is about children and their learning or well-being, and instead acknowledge that today’s systems serve the economy and sustaining the social norms, rather than supporting the needs of individual students, or any concern for the safety and well-being of students and staff.
It has been said, over and over again, that we are in unprecedented times, and yet our leaders, including doctors and mental health professionals, are acting as though they know the results and its impact on children and their mental health. Acting under the assumption that going back to school, even if we could enforce the social distancing and wear masks to accommodate the existing standard of large classes in small rooms, is anything like “normal” is at best ignorant of what classroom life is/was actually like, and at worst dangerous, as today the situation is life and death.
While I cannot assume to know the long lasting impact of distance learning, or missing out on learning for a year or more, on a child’s mental health and development at all the various ages, I do know that students, their families, their teachers, and others who care, are more likely to be alive and well physically, to recover mentally, emotionally, and academically, if they are not forced to go to school in September.
Having experienced the death of my own father, at the age of 13, I can speak to the trauma, and how it impacted all parts of my life, including academics. I missed a lot of school after he died. In my case, his condition was genetic, and though there was nothing I could have done, I blamed myself, a common human response, through which I grieved and recovered, with the support of my family and some professional help. And my dad’s death was not my fault.
The current plan, with regular class sizes, with or without masks, invites the disease, death, and trauma that goes with it, as part and parcel of the “new norm.” Premier Pallister has even gone so far to suggest that these thoughts are merely fears, and not of real concern, and we should just face them down. Yet we have only to look at the rise in numbers where schools have been opened, and the ability to social distance assumed, like Israel and the US, to see the disastrous results. This is especially disconcerting given that our numbers in Manitoba have recently started increasing, and school is not even open yet.
My classroom contains a population of students whose families work in healthcare, trucking, other schools, and as other frontline workers, while many also live in multi-generational households with their grandparents. I can only imagine that the trauma would be exponentially increased if a child had to live with the responsibility of bringing the disease to the classroom infecting others, or became infected at school and brought it home to their grandparent or another family member.
In my 18 years in the classroom, I have supported students through many challenging life situations. Illness and death are part of life and living, and a part of learning, and each event is the opportunity to understand our capacity as humans, and to grow resilience, compassion, and gratitude. With inequity, abuse, addiction, cancer, and a number of other diseases, including those who live in the Dial-a-Life community, there is enough illness in our schools and communities. We do not need to welcome the experience of COVID-19 into our classrooms. There can be no doubt that death and illness, whether it is that of a family member, classmate, or teacher, are more traumatic than missing time in the classroom, especially when there are so many solutions available to support every child and their learning needs.
The solution is certainly not easy, but it is pretty simple. The government needs to support school divisions with the funds, including those to hire more teachers. Then school divisions need to support their teachers and families by trusting their schools with the funds and flexibility to meet the needs of staff and students. Then, schools can communicate with their families and communities, and will have the ability to support their needs.
Many families are able, and very comfortable with students learning at home. I know I am one of many teachers who, in March on a moment’s notice, created an engaging and relevant program, which promoted the continued growth and success of many of my learners. Let families who can learn from home work with teachers who prefer, or need to, to teach from home. This frees up the space for those who need to be in school to learn in small, safer groups and have their needs supported. In many cases, when working with smaller groups, the same learning can be achieved in less, but more concentrated time. We can also reach the academic, social, and all the other needs of our students much better as we continue to build strong relationships.
We have the opportunity to reinvent school and education to better reach the needs of all of our students, and as Stephen Harper recently said, “Courageous decisions require visionary leadership.” It is time to change the conversation and rethink learning, ending the idea the kids can be “behind,” as though there is an imaginary line for success, and it matters if a child learns to read at a specific age, reaches a goal at a specific time, or finishes their schooling at 17, 18 or 19 years old, and instead recognize that schools have a responsibility to support the health and well-being of each child. The government has the responsibility to act, beginning by trusting teachers, who spend years in university establishing, and then consistently refining and growing their practices, to do their jobs, and supporting them with the funds to do it. Include teachers, who actually spend their days in the classroom, in the planning process, seeking out their professional opinions for what is best for learners, just as you have deferred to Dr. Roussin’s expertise throughout the pandemic.
If the goal is status-quo, then investment in buildings, ventilation systems, and the staff required for small class sizes and safe breathing in classrooms. However, the government can go beyond the social construction of school established when kids were needed to tend the fields, and light was only available between sunup and sunset, with an investment in staff and trust in their abilities as professionals. At the same time, we will save lives, and bring back the original goal of the pandemic, which was flattening the curve and avoiding community spread, while we support people, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially, and academically, as we are all in this together.
I know this is a long letter, and realistically, I do not expect any politician to have the attention span required to read this far, but I will be happy to be wrong if these words have any impact. And, as I always tell my students, I know I have done my part and added my voice. I sincerely ask Premier Pallister, Minister Goertzen, Dr. Roussin, and other leaders in education to rethink your strategy and come up with a back to school plan that protects the lives of students and teachers, while still supporting learning. I urge you to consider the letter I will write when I let you know one of my students is ill, or a parent or family member has died, and the feeling you, as a human, would have to carry, knowing you could have acted and made a different decision that would have saved that life and the pain inflicted on that community. In this case, that death would be your fault.
Please continue to err on the side of caution, with the knowledge that mandating masks in 5-12 schools and classrooms is the least you can do, and make better decisions to safeguard the lives of Manitobans. Please do your jobs so we teachers can continue to teach.
Respectfully submitted,
Cari Satran, M.Ed., PBDE, B.Ed
