Faced with the question of how schools can continue to serve their students in the age of COVID-19, I’m experiencing a deep, overwhelming feeling of not-knowing. When I look at these images from the past school year, I see children engaging with all their senses side by side with their peers. The magic is in the hands-on, in-person experience that they share around the table. It’s messy. It’s filled with laughter. We break bread with our neighbors and our community grows stronger. But what now? Should we just give up? Hit the pause button and come back in 2022?
We don’t know what next year will look like but it’s pretty clear it can’t look like what has come before. I realize that “knowing” has always been a fallacy and that our work may actually have replicated the very systems and structures we aim to dismantle. Instead of leading with my ideas and my agenda, I pledge to spend these next months connecting with students and families in our community whose voices rarely get heard. What does it mean to tell the truth when teaching social studies? What can The Breakfast Project do to better support Indigenous, Black, and Brown students at our school? How can we best show up for our community during this time? Where are our resources needed the most and how can we distribute them most equitably? The answers may look nothing like what I thought I knew. The work involved will be uncomfortable, but we must do it. We are committed to doing it.
I hope the summer brings you what you need, and we look forward to being back with you again soon. May you stay safe and be fed.