Many weeks ago I wrote a post about how plans have changed and would probably change even more as the crisis continued. We have reached a point now where many experts predict an extension to this new normal of social distancing. This means that we now have to start planning in this time period because no one can sustain living forever in the moment.
I have seen this play out most notably in my work, the public school system. I work in a large district, the largest in the state, responsible for over ten thousand jobs and tends of thousands of students. An organization of that size, especially one funded by taxpayer money, moves slowly even in times like this where information and recommendations change daily or remain vague enough to render them of no immediate utility. This district, all school districts, since it cares for children, also must make themselves available to receive and quickly address concerns brought by parents. This has led to several significant changes in district eLearning procedures over this quarter. For example SCDHEC guidelines changed which meant transitioning away from distributing paper packets. Additionally, a copious amount of parents complained or commented about the length of assigned work.
Now the district must turn a significant portion of their attention to the upcoming school year. With the high level of liability laid up on the district, the lack of a proven treatment (remedisvir does appear to decrease the length of the illness but only from an average of 14 days to an average of 11 days) and potential vaccines possible only as soon as 2021 (and even that unlikely), the CDC has issued tentative guidelines for schools with differences between guidelines for summer schools opening soon and the school year to start in the fall. These guidelines could fundamentally change the format of education and could stretch state and local budgets far past the breaking point if implemented. These guidelines conform with social distancing to keep the curve flattened and reduce potential exposure, especially since recent data suggests that the virus may trigger an inflammatory syndrome in children.
In a district this size, they cannot put off a decision until the two weeks prior to the start of the school year. They also cannot pick one plan now and devote all resources and energy to implementing said plan when the data changes as the research continues. Thus, the district has created at least three different options, so far. (I won’t go into the specifics of these plans.) The district has to consider a wide variety of factors like transportation, building space, legal requirements for educating students with additional needs, differing educational needs for the various levels in the school system, providing meals, supporting faculty, and the increased cost of all this in a time of imminent, significant budget shortfalls and the ensuing budget costs for the safety measures. This does not include considerations on the individual school level like how to handle class changes even if we reduce the amount of kids attending each day.
At the end of April, I learned about the variety of options while working on my school leadership internship hours up at the school. I did not know that the district planned to release this information to the public until mom talked about unfollowing a couple acquaintances on Facebook. I asked her what had tipped her over the edge. She described one individual’s response to the news and the complaint pile on in the comment section. This wedged itself into my brain and served as the inspiration for this post. Some in the public dismissed the plans as suggestions made at a meeting and thus lacking newsworthiness. Another criticized the potential mask wearing as absurd because special needs children would not wear them. After a teacher made a fairly neutral comment, another responded to her questioning teachers’ ability to be heard while wearing the mask. (I raise my voice quite a bit to project while teaching. We’ll be fine.) A fourth person criticized the district for bothering to think about this because information changes so rapidly.
We live in a unique environment right now, an environment unlike one that any of us have ever encountered. For those planners like myself, we don’t like it. We crave the ability to open our day planner and write out our commitments for the next three to six months. We want to write them in pen, full of assurance that we absolutely will go apple-picking on that Saturday in September. We will send our children back to school like we have always done on the date it usually starts. Having three possibilities scares us. These indeterminate possibilities challenge us to become more flexible than we thought possible for ourselves.
We don’t like hard things. We don’t want to feel uncomfortable. We crave the easiest thing. Right now that means that many turn to complaints. When we feel uncomfortable, it’s so much easier to just let others know how uncomfortable we feel and blame that thing making us uncomfortable than learning how to endure the discomfort. We don’t want to hear the reasons for our uncertain situation. We just want to gripe and moan about it with everyone in our circles who feels the same way, like a Facebook friend who complained about eLearning updates from the district and deleted my comment explaining the purpose of the general message.
All of the above, and more I’m sure, make planning during a pandemic quite difficult, not just for large organizations but also for individuals. Obviously, I can speak for only myself. Reflecting on all the inputs that complicate planning as well as observing how people have responded so far makes something clear to me that I knew only intellectually prior to this. In James 4:13-15, God admonishes us to treat our lives like the vapor it is and to say not “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” but say instead “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” This mindset will keep us humble and encourage us to attribute credit for everything to Him. I can and should make plans but must bear in mind their fragility and changeableness. That’s a tall order but one I want to strive for and not just during the pandemic.