Humanizing Distance Learning

Since the advent of the COVID pandemic, unpredictability and uncertainty have been normalized in an unprecedented manner. However, in the midst of the chaos, some indisputable truths have emerged: (1) The structural inequities that have plagued our educational system (and society at large) for generations have been illuminated with hard-edged clarity. Learning loss" is but the tip of the iceberg. In schools, the call to supplant Bloom with Maslow underscores basic, human needs such as access to decent nutrition, health care, housing, safety, and emotional well-being. There is no doubt that children in low income households (the majority of our public school system), Black and brown children, English learners, and children with disabilities have been disproportionally harmed by the pandemic. (2) As a nation, we were ill-equipped to pivot to distance learning. The realities of the digital divide (another structural inequity that has been present for more than two decades), and our educators' limited capacity to plan and deliver instruction from a distance created tremendous barriers to access. Once again, our most marginalized students and families have been harmed the most. (3) The psychosocial needs of students which, throughout the NLBC era had been virtually ignored, surfaced with a new-found urgency. The pressures of job insecurity, unemployment, sick and dying household members, and domestic violence have given way to unprecedented levels of childhood trauma. (4) We learned that distance learning is not a viable substitute for face-to-face, especially for those children with the greatest levels of need. Teachers continue to rely on worksheets and/or other compliance tools, equating learning with work completion. Many also have over-relied on apps, including web-based, adaptive tools that program students with academic content , rather than taking a humanized approach to help them connect meaningfully with academic content"--