Edward Lorenz published his first paper on chaos behavior in 1972. Loosely, he said chaos occurs when the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future, then unpredicted and unexpected stuff happens. His paper was titled “Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?”
Education in the time of COVID 19 offers us the opportunity to understand a bit of chaos theory and allow butterflies to flit.
Crisis sometimes begets chaos and sometimes it opens the door to what has been in the offing. Our Governor has mandated that all K-12 public schools be closed at the end of day last Wednesday. Believing that local conditions required differently, our school board directed that our K-12 school would be closed beginning the Monday in advance of the Governor.
More than a decade ago, our school board began a one digital device program per student program. High school students were given laptops for their 24/7 use. Middle school students were given Chromebooks for in school use that quickly morphed to 24/7 use. Elementary students had IPads for daily use at school.
Two years ago our school board began discussion of e- or remote learning as a response to school closures due to weather or other emergencies. Discussion with teachers and parents waggled on the effectiveness of virtual learning and the capacity of school families to manage learning at home. All the controversies of Internet availability and daytime home supervision were played out. Several months ago, our school held an “in school” e-day. Normal class activities were suspended and children did “lessons” as if they were at home. Some were asynchronous online assignments. Others were pre-prepared lessons using tablets and laptops. And, some were traditional learning packets. A month ago our school held a “stay at home” e-day. Lessons resembled the in-school e-day. Afterward, administrators surveyed parents and talked with teachers about the day.
Then, COVID 19 arrived. This week our school staff, students and parents entered the world of remote schooling opportunity like every other school community in the state. However, instead of jumping into the deep end of the pool, our school waded into familiar waters. At the end of the day on Friday, every student took a school-provided digital device home along with their school books and supplies. On Monday and Tuesday, teachers and instructional aides prepared and disseminated lessons for several day’s learning at a time. ELA and math and social studies and Spanish are sequential and feel like daily lessons. Tech ed, science, art, music, and PE are chunked into a week’s lessons. All assignments have a due date plus one week as a provision for tech problems, necessary remote assistance on a lesson, and the possibility of illness. Teachers and aides prep each day from 8 am to 10 am and are available online between 10 am and 4 am. Administrators and counselors make daily contacts, voice and digital, with children with special needs. Special educators and aides provide IEP-based assistance to children with their remote lessons. The school food service will make sacked meals that will be bussed to local fire stations for families to pick up as needed.
As we put these remote school operations into motion, we have created a new normal that will hold until future notice. Normal now is schooling that is not normal.
The butterflies are loose. Random acts are causing unpredicted and random effects. We are learning new things about schooling everyday when the approximate future does not approximately determine the future. Now is the time to consider what school should, can and will be like when the COVID 19 epidemic no longer plagues us.
What rules and regulations regarding schooling should no longer hold because we have evidence to their contrary? To what extent are we able to release education from mandated days and hours of instruction when school days become possible again? If children can learn a curriculum by not attending school daily, what level of school attendance is required? If non-education businesses and enterprises can work from home or not at school, can educators? What are the non-educational services that families and community rely upon – the must haves – versus the services that we learned to do without? If school is not in session, can we re-allocate dollars required for daily school to other school district services?
We cannot yet measure the effectiveness of remote learning? One can imagine that student proficiencies in ELA and math that were at less than 50% may be still be less than 50%. But, what if they are not? Perhaps, we will reassess our thinking about and need for standardized proficiencies.
Students at home with a passion for learning will pursue their passion. They will practice their flutes and cellos. They will draw and paint. They will read and think. They will cook and bake and sew and create. New fashions will be forthcoming. They will be online and their programming and gaming and communicating will stretch their today far beyond what they have done in the past. Perhaps we will observe real break out performances otherwise not possible.
Teachers will refine the language and presentation of initial instruction using synchronous and asynchronous pedagogy. They will need to be more precise in their initial instruction and to respond to questions with more clarity. Consider the quantity of wait time in a regular classroom. Remember the hours of off-task time. Can we be more efficient with remote learning?
Just like a butterfly in flight, one question about “what will school be like when this crisis is ended” creates or bounces off another question. The possible answers abound and create more and more potentiality that the future will not look at all like what was before.
I hope that educators everywhere will use the COVID 19 months to consider where our better educational butterflies want to go so that our re-emergence from crisis into non-crisis will not take us unwittingly back to yesterday.