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Editiorial: Taking a break from pandemic


Most area schools will be celebrating spring break this week, but it seems odd to be taking a “break” from classes that have been conducted largely though remote learning. It would be more appropriate to call it a pandemic break, which students and especially their parents would welcome. Truth be told, many parents probably wish that their students took spring break by actually attending school.

As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to fall, a complete return to classroom learning grows more probable. Maybe not this school year but certainly by the fall, when we should have achieved herd immunity. How different it will feel to load up kids in the morning and not let them back into the house until afternoon.

Mothers, especially those who are single or whose husbands work out of town, have borne the brunt of this last year’s learning on the go.

They have struggled to implement the technology required of virtual learning, especially when there was no broadband service.

Making sure their students were actually in a position to learn and then supervising that difficult process is a full-time job by itself. Add to that the cooking, shopping, washing and nurturing that is the normal routine and mothers are faced with a monumental challenge. Being unable to work has doubled the anxiety.

Teachers, many of whom are also mothers, have been equally taxed by the pandemic.

They have had to instruct in-person classes while also accommodating those students who have been learning at home.

In many cases it has meant double work as they deliver lessons before the class and then play catchup with their synchronous learners. In short, anyone who thinks teachers have gotten off easy because of fewer kids in class is not in touch with the actual process.

Spring break this year looks like so much of the last 12 months. We can call things by their usual name, but almost nothing resembles its former self.