The Continuing Adventures of Pandemic Schooling

I haven't done a school check in blog for awhile, so today feels like a good day for a new one.

We are into the second semester now here in Saint Louis. I assume most places are for that matter. Things have been smoother than I think most of us could have hoped for. I am probably jinxing it, but we haven't gotten an email from my son's school with a new case in well over a month. And my daughter's preschool, still no positive cases all year. Things have been good at school too. My kids have both told me, on separate occasions, that the only real difference is having to wear a mask all day, and they couldn't care less about that. I applaud both schools my kids go to for teaching them the importance of masks and hand washing and why they need to be more conscious of their hygiene. I am a clean freak as it is, but it is nice to have other people, people outside my home, telling them how important cleanliness truly is.

My kids have adapted well to any other changes too, even outside the universal masking at county schools. They have lunch with their class, that is it. No mingling with other classes, no additional students or teachers, just their teacher and their classmates. My son got on board with this fairly easily. My daughter has half days, so lunch is at home with me. My son has a full day, so he does have this new experience, but as I said, he is cool with it. It helps that he is in class with some kids he has been friends with since kindergarten. He already has these built in relationships. But I think no matter who was in his class, he would find someone to hang with. He is very sociable and easy to get along with. He is very good at making friends. Recess is also like lunch. Their class goes out each day to a different area of the playground, and they play. Some days they get the playground, some days they get the blacktop, that includes ga ga ball, basketball and tether ball and other days they get the big field. It rotates every single day. Again, my son has had no problems adapting to this change. He gets to still do all the things he likes doing at recess, and he gets to hang with his buddies. There have been zero problems. My daughter has recess too, but her class is so small, and they go out so early, they get the full playground to themselves, which is very nice for a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. And both kids have little four people pods they sit in within their classroom. It has been nice because they rotate the people every few weeks. My son is loving his pod right now because he has his three best friends with him. This has caused some issues within the class, but only because all four of them talk non stop. My daughter loves the pod stuff because she gets to kind of run things. She is one of the older kids in her class, so the younger kids look up to her for advice, and to know what to do. She likes to be in charge, and the pod is perfect for her.

The only change that has come in the second semester has been a switch to making every Friday, at least for the next two months, virtual. Every parent knew this was coming. We all saw the writing on the wall. There was far too much travel and meeting with people outside of personal bubbles over the holiday break. Then COVID case numbers started to soar. We just figured it was a matter of time. Today is the second virtual Friday of the quarter, and it has been okay. It is kind of a throw away day, but work does get done. For example, they only have one Zoom, and it is in the morning. I'm not too terribly pleased with this. My son is the type who's mind will wander. I kind of have to stay on him to get his other work done after his 30 minute meeting. It is a bit reminiscent of last year when we had to suddenly shift to virtual, and no one had any idea how to pull it off. The beginning of the school year was much better when we went fully virtual for nine weeks, but they had a whole summer to prepare. The idea to shift now seemed like an inevitable one, but I also feel like there could have been a little bit better of a game plan. One Zoom in the morning is not enough. But all in all, we are all figuring this out and adapting.

This is as weird a school year as I hope we will ever have. I don't think many people have wanted their kids school year to be part time, or fully virtual, but here we are. I am lucky and grateful that we have been able to send both of my kids back this year, and if that means we have to spend one day virtual, so be it. My hat is off to the school district. They have done everything better than I could have expected. It is a weird and wild year, but we are getting through it together.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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