School Is Not Childcare
It’s really hard to know what’s going on right now. Instead of getting facts about Covid-19, I’m being bombarded with political arguments, disagreements, debates about mask-wearing, and conspiracy theories. I literally don’t know if I’m going to die from flu-like symptoms or if I’m being scammed by one of the biggest misunderstandings of all timei. I’m choosing to believe it’s somewhere in the middle and that the lives of the most vulnerable are still at stake.
Just a few months ago school let out, businesses shut down, people stayed at home, and the world felt quiet. For a bit, we were all on the same page. We were worried, cautious, and open to caring about the safety of people we didn’t know. It felt like most of us knew someone who was at risk for contracting Coronavirus, and for the sake of that person, we wanted to do the best thing.
Those days are gone. I’m having trouble understanding how we got from “healthy at home” to “we need to keep businesses open and send kids back to school asap” now that the number of cases of people contracting the illness is actually rising. Have I missed something?
School is not child care. I mean it is, right? Because that’s what we’ve turned it into culturally. We rely on school so that parents can work at least one (sometimes two or more) jobs so that they can try to make ends meet. Much of the time, however, ends do not meet and we have hungry and homeless children living in this wonderful advanced country. But that’s for another post.
Did I miss the memo that public schools were started as a way to get both parents back to work? Is that how we founded this whole education thing? A quick google search tells me it was founded so that every child regardless of race or income would have the right to education. I’m asking because it seems like we’re heavily relying on the school system for everything from feeding our kids breakfast and lunch to keeping them occupied so that parents can go to work.
My frustration with how the public treats public school has been rising to the surface since my own two children started attending. I’ve always resisted the idea that all children must attend school for the exact same amount of time. I’ve found it astonishing that my kindergartener was getting the same exact amount of outdoor play and lunchtime as 12-year-olds. It is convenient. I wouldn’t want to be driving around all day picking up my kids at different times just because their educational needs were different. Why don’t we follow standards for a more age-appropriate timeline? Why isn’t there more time for physical activity? Why don’t we focus more on social and emotional wellness? Why don’t we go outside more often? Why aren’t there more arts and more play? There is so much research-based evidence that blatantly states what is good for children and many of our school practices go in direct opposition to this research. Why?
It’s now becoming clear. We rely on school systems for way more than educating our children.
It’s hard to care deeply about the salary and wellness of teachers, the emotional/physical/educational well being of students, the richness and diversity of the curriculum, the arts, the school-wide behavioral support plan, and racial equality and justice practices in our school systems when we’ll settle for less so that we can just go to work.
Parents can’t work if their kids don’t have a place to go during the day. I understand that deeply. I have struggled these past few months and have looked back on how blessed I felt that I finally had school-aged children who could be gone for most of the day while I had meetings and endless other work tasks. But that’s not what school is meant to be.
This pandemic is shining light on another broken system.
Why is it exactly that we are desperate for the kids to go back to school? Is it because we care about their safety? This has been a big one on my list. I’ve been so worried about kids who are hungry, who are left home alone, who are in danger, and who need someone special like a teacher to check in on them and make sure that they are safe. But what does that really have to do with education? Is that really the role of the school system? I know so many teachers who take it upon themselves to care for these kids because that is the type of person they are. But, I’m highly doubting that they took a class in “stabilizing community needs” in college as part of their training. That is the job of the community, the government, and the people.
Is it because we care deeply about education? I’ve stressed about this so much as I wonder if my daughter, who was just learning to read, has lost all of her skills since leaving school in March. But with the rush to get kids back in school will she really be learning how to read? Or will she be learning to adjust her mask properly and stand six feet apart? How could a teacher possibly teach reading if he/she is trying to keep her students from contracting a deadly disease that the student could take home and pass along to an elderly grandmother, a mother with cancer, a sister with a rare autoimmune disorder, or innocent mailman who didn’t know he was immune-compromised. Or are we planning to hire trained assistants who can be in the classroom just to focus on cleaning, sanitizing, and mask-adjustments?
Is it because our kids need socialization? I’m wondering if in addition to the cleaning assistant if we can also hire a classroom social worker. Maybe that person could be responsible for teaching the children WTF is going on in relation to our world because I’m pretty sure that when they arrive at school and see that everyone is wearing masks and they are no longer allowed to leave the classroom or be close to their friends they may start to feel anxious.
But I’m thinking with the space requirements and the six feet apart thing there won’t be enough room for the educator, the cleaning staff, and the social worker. And, even if there was enough space we probably wouldn’t have money in the budget anyway given the fact that we have completely murdered school funding. We could ask parents to pay but many are living paycheck to paycheck and don’t have any extra to give outside of the wrapping paper fundraiser, especially now that so many have lost their jobs due to not having childcare since the pandemic. So, we will probably just ask teachers to do it. They’ll say yes because they care about their students, their families, and they are overall amazing humans who are obviously responsible for making life happen.
Is it because the economy is crashing and we need everyone at work? This is what seems is the most pressing according to news articles, social media posts, and in general. It feels like the entire economic system is broken if schools are not in session.
I have been guilty of using our school as childcare. I want my kids back at school just as badly as you do. I’m a terrible homeschool parent and an even worse stay at home mom and I have all the resources at my fingertips. I can’t imagine how hard this is for parents with no help, no internet, no stability, and without access to basic needs (which is A LOT of parents). But, in a time when I am rethinking everything about our American systems and how and why we do things, I’m adding this to the list. We have got to find a way to make work, education, income, (and a whole bunch of other important things like anti-racism, healthcare, etc) work for us better. Why are we relying on kids to get back to school so that the economy will do better when many of our teachers are broke and our classrooms don’t have enough hand sanitizer because of budget cuts?!?!?!? Can we agree this is terribly messed up?
I am not encouraging everyone to quit their jobs and homeschool. Instead, I am suggesting that we challenge this idea of school as childcare and start thinking more about what both educators and children need to be successful. Then, we can reshape our work and our values around that vs the other way around. It won’t be the easy way. In fact, it would be quite complicated. But, in the end, it would be the healthier, more valuable way and that is far more rewarding….for all of us. I don’t have any answers here but I’m pretty sure that if we left the decision up to teachers they would have this massive problem fixed in no time.
Originally published at https://www.spaliveaf.com on July 14, 2020.
