Back to School Choices

Back to school choices usually revolve around backpacks, school supplies and new clothes. This year millions of parents will first have to answer Online or In Classroom?  
 
Even though it is a simple question where there are only two options, this question spawns dozens of follow-up questions:

• Do we have the bandwidth to support online learning and working from home?
• What classes will be offered, and will the quality be the same as before?
• What will happen if they wear a mask all day?
• Will they learn at the same pace?
• How will they get their questions answered?
• Where will they eat lunch?
• Will they be distracted?
• What about the social aspects of being in school?
• How will extra-curricular activities like sports teams and clubs be handled?
• Will my child be safe?

 
It’s a lot to think about and a lot to consider. As parents, we may have thought through some of these decisions before when choosing a public school versus a private, charter or home-schooling option. But this feels different. This time it’s not only about the learning environment for our children, it is about their health and safety as well.
 
Parents are taking to social media, asking other local parents “what are you going to do?” I only listed ten questions above, but there are so many others.
 
You may be tempted to enter the “what if…” spiral. I wrote a blog years ago on how looking at “what if” scenarios can lead to Analysis Paralysis, where you have so much data it’s difficult to decide what to do next. I wouldn’t be surprised if many parents fall into that trap while trying to make this decision as well.
 
It’s hard to know what the “right” thing to do is. We’ve heard “these are unprecedented times” over and over. No one has ever been through anything like this before, so how would we know what is “right”. And by calling something “right” that implies there is something “wrong” -is that true?
 
Things are uncertain and when we are faced with uncertainty, it’s easy to let fear take over. Thoughts like – how will this impact them long term? What will this do to their chance of getting into college? What if they don’t understand this fundamental concept and struggle through the rest of their school life? These are all fearful thoughts and we must recognize them as such. We cannot slip into the fear of “what if” as it will only create more angst for ourselves and for our students.
 
The opposite of fear is love. What if we focus on loving our children through this process, instead of being worried with fear? We have the power to create an environment for our children where we embrace this experiment and set aside the expectations. We can choose the path we think is right today and if it doesn’t work out, we can make adjustments. Our reaction will influence how this school year will impact our children. How powerful would it be if we embraced the unknown, set aside our fear and focused on loving our children through it all?
 
Heart-FULLy Yours,    
Kacey

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash
Don’t miss a post – sign up to receive the blog in your inbox every week.  Scroll to the top of the page and you’ll see a box to enter your email in the upper right side of the page.