Waking Up From History

The title comes from a song by the German band The Scorpions, "Right Here, Right Now."  The song gives their impressions about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism in Eastern Europe.  It is a reminder that big history just blows up and big things seem to come out of nowhere.

Yesterday I challenged my students, past and present, to journal or blog about this experience, because we are truly making history and their children and grandchildren would want to know what things were like in the "Great COVID-19 Pandemic" (see I just named it).  At 2:30 this morning my mind was rambling about thoughts on what all of this means so I decided it was time to start writing what was on my mind.  I am writing three separate posts.  One will be my thoughts on the unfinished business of how this school year ended.  One will be a message to the class of 2020.  That one will be both big picture and personal. 

This one is going to be an ongoing commentary.  It will be as much a meditation on what's going on as a recounting of events.  It will be disjointed and rambling because I plan on writing about what exactly comes to mind as I write.

Here is Post 1:

I have been watching the pandemic since the early cases in China.  I saw how the Chinese government was slow in reacting, not seeming to want to interfere with the Spring Festival travels.  Then it moved on to aggressive measures like locking down a city eleven million.  But they were too late, and I doubt we'll ever know what has really happened there.  It then moved to unexpected places like Northern Italy, and Spain.  It is truly now a global pandemic.

Most country's have now started taking aggressive actions, and yet the disease continues to spread.  America, because it is a republic, has 51 different responses.  Most are working hard and are taking unprecedented steps to slow the spread.  We regularly hear about "Flattening the curve," in other words take steps to keep people home.  It makes sense to me that we need to do what is necessary to avoid overloading our healthcare system.  Personally, I don't relish the idea of being treating in a hospital parking lot because we did not do what we could to slow down the rate of infection.  I feel like our state government has done an effective job of making decisions in a decisive manner.  Although I would have loved a bit more heads up on the first closing of schools announcement.  15 minutes before school got out on Friday was a shock to us all.

Virginia closed schools for two weeks at 2:54 p.m. on Friday March 13, 15 minutes before final dismissal.  I heard about it from a student who had gone to the bathroom and been told by a teacher.  I went out on the Web and confirmed that is was true.  To me the interesting thing was the range of emotions from the kids.  There were some who were at a complete loss about what they would do and what it meant and those who were excited about the idea of no school.  We had no time to prepare ourselves for what all this might mean,  We had been instructed to prepare a packet of materials to cover two weeks.

Teachers here worked in the building on Tuesday - Thursday of the following week.  Since we had no idea what was coming next, I spent much of my time looking at ways to deliver instruction electronically.  I have an advantage in that all of my class materials are on line so that part of delivery is no problem. Some of my kids are accessing the packets on line and turning in work by forwarding screen shots or pictures of the completed.  Clunky and rudimentary, but for now it will do.

Yesterday, Governor Northam announced that he was closing all schools for the remainder of the school year.  So are now in limbo.  We are waiting on directives from the Virginia Department of Education to be filtered through our administrators.  So for now, I continue to work at home, researching, checking student's work, and thinking.

Those reading this that know me know that I watch no CNN, MSNBC, or FOX for my information.  This is intentional, I am selective in where I get my information from.  I prefer to draw my own conclusions based on a broad sampling of sources.  As such, I am impressed by the steps taken by many states to stem the tide of the disease.  I am less than impressed by the waffling on the Federal level.  First it is not a big worry, only 15 cases and it will go away when the weather warms,  Out right lies about the availability of testing and needed supplies.  Now it seems the Federal responses are two fold, throw money at the economic impacts (if they can decide what they can agree on) and the economy is more important than the health impacts.  As one of those in the higher risk category, this worries me.  I am also concerned that Dr. Fauci, the greatest expert in our country on infectious diseases, now seems to have no seat at the table in figuring out our national strategy.