Remote Learning

There are these truths that I find myself repeating over and over to students and parents of remote learners which I thought might be worth gathering and trying to organize.  One thing this pandemic has taught me to do is to value my own contribution to this world in a way that is counterintuitive to many white women like me.  We are often not poised to feel confident in our thoughts but these axioms do not seem harmful, and others have found them useful to consider.

Remote Learning is probably here in some form or another to stay.

First thing first we must face the facts.  Remote learning is a new reality.  It may currently be your only option, and that may be temporary, but biding your time and ignoring Meet after Zoom, after text, after email, after phone calls from teachers, from teacher’s aids, from school staff and from school administration is only going to further delay your own evolution.  Students procrastinating their studies, parents procrastinating their parenting need heed these facts.  Vaccines maybe on their way but they won’t be for everybody, and their protection may not even last.  And even if there are enough of us to achieve a kind of herd immunity, the kids cannot yet be vaccinated.  And even if next year they can, or numbers go low enough it is possible, even likely that a new set of circumstances could put us right back in this position.  Especially, if enough of us refuse to evolve past our fears.

Face your fears.  This one keeps coming up for me.  Fear of speaking.  Fear of turning a camera on.  Fear of the accidental unmute.  Fear of having often a written recording of even the most mundane interactions.  Fear of the pause.  Fear of remote status.  Fear of losing remote status.  Everywhere you look there is fear both ways.  Life is and has always been full of fear.  Our kids were facing an epidemic of anxieties before any threat of of any coronavirus.  They know the reigns will be theirs soon, consciously or not.  What tools were we giving them?  What direction were we headed?

See the bigger picture.  The complacency we felt before was not real.  Society was falling, not flying.   But hope is not a choice.  It’s a necessity.  Things could not have continued the way they were going.  We would not have survived.  The environment must be paid attention.  Oppression based on social location is unjust.  An unjust society breaches the social contract and will not endure.  Sustainability of power is key - in your world, in your family, in your relationships, in yourself.  Everyone needed to stop and think about what they were doing.  Humanity was put in a time out.

So embrace the chaos.  Chaos is nature’s way of righting wrongs.  It’s natural.  Don’t be consumed by the storm.  Be your own storm.  Take this time to dig deep inside yourself, and your family dynamics.  Put yourself in therapy (we could all use a little therapy).  You can do it via Zoom!  Journal!  Journal until your hand gets tired.  You’re living through a global pandemic.  This is the stuff history is made of.  Read.  Explore.  Experiment.  Grow.  If we’re going to make it we’ll value the way we did.  And why not?  You busy?  You got someplace else to be?

Have patience.  This is a biggie.  Everything - every little thing requires patience.  All too often in life we are reacting as opposed to acting.  Adults do what they believe they need to do as opposed to what they want.  Students are punished as opposed to understood and supported.  Technology can be frustrating but in each frustration there is opportunity to learn and grow.  Ironically the world won’t crumble if your wifi drops.  We’ve all come light years from where we started.  Students on government aid are now issued school laptops.  Access to the web has almost become a right.  When that access is glitched, attention is paid.  We are becoming more and more energetically connected.

So take your time.  Learn to value the coincidences.  Listen to the lessons your life is teaching you.  What are you doing?  What is it you are trying to learn in school?  Why?  What are you working towards?  Teachers are not babysitters.  They are resources.  You are your own resource, including your questions.  Subjects are all languages whether it’s English or Spanish, Mandorin, mathematics, science or coding.  You progress with your peers not just to see their faces, or to navigate the consuming nuances of social interactions and be safe until your guardians return.  You are there to progress yourself.  You must actively learn to connect and communicate.  If not, that’s sus.

Value connection.  After all this time this one may be the easiest.  It’ll feel weird and it’ll take careful thought and consideration, but sooner or later, we’ll be together again.  And this time it’s going to feel different.  This time, we’re going to talk about what we’re really feeling.  We’ll be armed with more evolved vocabulary and we’ll value the pause.  We had no choice.  We all went through this together and it changed our trajectory.  I’m really looking forward to it.  We’ll stop thoughtlessly shaking hands with strangers, and finally we’ll all embrace as friends.