Daniel McNeeley

School Evolution or Revolution?

How much do we need school?

This is a question that’s been on my Facebook feed a lot, as hundreds of people quarrel over the decision to cancel in-person teaching in Hawai’i and move to distance learning. It’s a massive decision that involves entire communities, and while there exists outright lies or misguided notions, legitimate questions have arisen about the ever-growing ideals that have shaped our education system.

As a young teacher, 26 at the time of this writing, I was beginning school when No Child Left Behind was first implemented. I was also in school when concepts like Whole Brain Teaching and Social Emotional Learning began to take hold - of course these ideas have been around for years always under different names - and now I am teaching as the concept of 1:1 educational technologies are implemented across the country. I only got my first smartphone, which in retrospect was not that smart, some time during my senior year of high school, but now the expectation is that students as young as 11 or 12 already have one even if they don’t have internet at home.

But this isn’t about equity of or access to resources, this is about the need for “whole-child learning.”

In quarter 3, a month before the Coronavirus pandemic, a student of mine had difficulty attending class, and even when he did, he was disengaged and the work he produced was not encouraging. One month later, we are all working from home and this student read through texts and answered questions and completed assignments early and consistently. Their final paper was excellent. (And yes, I checked for plagiarism. I know the jokes: if you say gullible out loud really slowly it’ll sound like “teacher” and all of that).

But why? Why did distance learning work so well for this student? For most students, their work ethic carried over to their virtual learning, even despite extra work at their “after school” jobs that were no longer after school. Some had extra responsibilities with family or even community work that kept them away from the computer at lengths of time. We all know the struggle of trying to complete too many tasks at once, now imagine being criticized for it constantly and at the wise and ripened age of 15.

But some students thrived. The extra freedom and independence was exactly what they needed. We often talk about needing to give students structure, but how do we balance that with self-governance and responsibility? Distance learning is giving teachers and educators across the world an opportunity to rethink their approaches in the classroom. Texts are being digitized and work is being submitted in a variety of demonstrable ways. Student choice, long touted as important in the structure of schools, is being given new life as we provide more options for students to consume then produce different knowledge and skills.

There is the danger of too much freedom and choice though, that students become overwhelmed. But this also applies to the teacher. Too many choices, too much information, too much change can be detrimental to teachers’ mental health. The superintendent has said that we are ready and that students are ready. While I do believe in our students and I believe in our teachers, to say “we” are ready is not accurate. “We” are not ready. What “we” are is still adapting. We are changing our curriculum, methods, grading, and tools. We are not ready. We not only need training on these things, we need time to sit with it.

I need to practice distance learning by myself, just like my student who adapted. I need to experiment and be given time to slowly implement a change. I agree that students need to be back in school - it broke my heart in the best way when a student told me “I can’t wait!” when I told her we would start tomorrow - but I also believe we need to be effective. If we go too fast or if we rush into this, just like how the virus would spread among our students, so too will the criticism of our new practices. Trust the process. Let us take our time as we learn the new normal and implement it gradually.

Do not tell me what to do (I am the “expert” after all) when your employer still lets you work from home. Do not tell me how students learn (I think I am still the “expert”) when your experience “teaching” is telling me that distance learning doesn’t work. Do not tell me to quit when there is a constant shortage of teachers. Do not tell me to “stop whining” when we are trying to help your children.

Farrington High School is doing the right thing by keeping students off campus and letting teachers introduce the new routines slowly. Change takes time, so give it the time it deserves.