The Back to School Update

 Well by now most of you have your kids back in some form of school. For some of us, we’re just calling it Zool at this point 😛.  And while some kids are coping with this new and very different way to get back to learning, others are struggling. 

One amazing thing I’ve heard from parents whose kids have gone back in person is how absolutely resilient kids are - being able to be in masks for an entire day and really not even complaining about it. So much of what I’ve been hearing has reminded me of the old story with the person who complained about their house being too small and crowded. The advice they get is to bring in the animals from their farm one by one.  Once they have an overly filled house and are really at the end of their patience, they’re told to take them out - one by one. After the last one leaves, they marvel how big their house really is. Sometimes, I feel like corona has taught us just how amazing normal really was. The simple privilege of going to school in person is something we clearly can’t take for granted. 

In a lot of ways we’ve been bringing up a privileged generation. We assume they deserve everything. We give them technology to make everything accessible at all times and it fosters a culture of ME.  If this pandemic has taught all of us anything- maybe it’s more about US and patience. That it’s not all a given. It can remind us to reset our priorities and think about what message we really want to be sending and how the things were doing reflect that message.

For those of us who haven’t gotten to that stage - you have my sympathy!  I can’t say I see an upside to Zoom school aside from liking seeing my kids more often. Educationally I think they benefit from in person learning far more. I’m incredibly impressed with my second grade daughters setup - the school has done a great job understanding the need for smaller groups, more movement breaks and everything else which I am appreciative of and she’s tolerating it better than her older sibs. 

As we head towards the Jewish new year - I pray for a year filled with good health, safety and some semblance of in person life once again. 

Wishing you all the best in the months ahead.