So, back to school 2020. It’s a doozey.
Let’s just start by stating the obvious, there’s no perfect answer. Not one.
Keeping your kids home to homeschool? Whew. That’s hard.
Keeping your kids home to participate in distance learning? Whew. That’s hard.
Sending your kids back to school amid all the unknowns? Whew. That’s hard.
It’s hard. It’s all hard. Because we’re living through a Global Pandemic. With implications we can’t fully comprehend. And as parents we’re not only trying to navigate through the social, financial and economic impacts of that ourselves… but we’re also making decisions for our children.
Decisions that will have a very real impact on their lives, and decisions that we’re trying to make without all the required information. Fun, right?
But I want to stop for a moment and share a little about what that means for us, in our family.
I want to acknowledge here that I have an enormous amount of privilege, and that I recognize that it impacts my decisions (I’m white, economically stable, live in a single-family home, and my kindergartener attends a great public school). I also have work that is flexible. I can work from home, and while I’ll take a financial hit, I can scale back my work to suit changing demands on our family, as I have for the past six months.
I also have a four-year-old who’s starting Senior Kindergarten.
And we’ve decided we’re sending him back to school.
There are a few key reasons we’re doing this:
- I believe in the public school system. I believe that our society wins when we fight for, and invest in public schools. And I believe that if privileged families all withdraw their children from the public school system, we force racialized and low income families to bear the brunt of the risk, and we weaken the public school system that makes our country great.
- The Community transmission rates in our school district remain low.
- We have no underlying health conditions.
Do I think this is the right decision for everyone? Nope.
Do I think we should all make a political statement with this decision? Absolutely not.
I think you need to look at the facts, follow your heart, and make the decision that you believe to be the best for your family. And you’re the only one who will truly know what that looks like.
But I DO think that regardless of your decision, we need to advocate for, and support the public school system.
Because the doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers and change-makers who will be battling on the front lines of the next Global Crisis are being educated today. And they may not all have the same privilege that you do.
