The pandemic has apocalyptically uncovered the raw nerve of the collective pain we regularly live with as Americans. And it has violently revealed the ways in which citizens in this country are expected to internalize and subsequently take responsibility for the toxic stress of our societal abandonment. In America, even our pain itself has been privatized.
What we do with and for our kids is often the clearest explication of what we actually believe about the world.
Lately, in my industry at least, this looks like teachers (or the ones privileged enough to still choose) weighing whether or not to leave the profession or expose themselves or vulnerable loved ones to an early grave in order to provide a poorly funded public service to families and children they love. It looks like parents (or the ones privileged enough to still choose) weighing their abilities to provide virtual home school opportunities for their children while also working, or exposing their children, teachers, themselves, family members and the community at large to COVID-19. Additionally, the bifurcation of our choices about staying home or going back to school fail to account for the underlying reality awaiting our students were they all to return to an academic environment my friend Jim refers to as “Chernobyl-light.”
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