On March 30, all Minnesota public schools started "distance learning," a way to keep education going for our nearly 900,000 schoolchildren since schools were closed by Gov. Tim Walz on March 18 in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Six words of advice as this new educational model rolls out: Be kind. Be patient. Be understanding.
When it became clear that schools might need to close to mitigate the spread of the virus, the governor gave schools two weeks to transform the model of education that's been used for centuries. Rather than teach students face-to-face in school settings, teachers had to develop plans to teach all Minnesota schoolchildren remotely, with no in-person contact. The same rules applied for small rural districts and large urban districts, with equity as a primary goal.
This is a massive change, and these are no ordinary times. We can expect feelings of loss, discomfort and anxiety. In the words of a psychologist, all change makes all people anxious all the time.
As our commissioner of education said, educators are creative. Educators are focused on the health and well-being of their students. And so our incredible Minnesota educators — more than 70,000 of them across the state — created distance learning plans for their school districts … in less than two weeks.
Can you think of any other major transformation that took place in that short a time?
Most schools will rely heavily on the internet for sharing their lesson plans and providing contact between teachers and students. Many created learning packets that they distributed to families and are asking teachers to call students for individual support due to lack of internet access. All are doing their very best job under incredibly stressful and difficult circumstances.
At the same time, schools were asked to immediately set up child care for emergency and health care workers, and ensure that all students could still have access to breakfast and lunch each day. Both of which they did.
