By Amanda Krebs-Campbell
There can be a silver lining in the time of corona regarding the education of our young. Because we live in a forested, mountainous green state with lakes, reservoirs and ponds throughout, we are gifted with the ideal learning environment. I strongly agree with Corinthia Richards' approach for safer schools and how schools should organize for the coming year (The Valley Reporter, July 16, 2020, Opinion.) I see, as she does, in this new normal period potentially we can be hugely creative in providing the healthiest academic and physical environment possible in the best interests of our children. Corinthia ends her opinion with the comment: "...so often in life we overthink things and can't see the forest for the trees." Opportunity has presented itself for a never-to be forgotten year of education for our children if we will use it to our advantage.
For this reason, I think it wrong to make huge, expensive and timely efforts to modify what could easily become, in this new world, an outdated traditional classroom environment. This is the most obvious time that our young, primary through middle school, could benefit immensely from a gap year, a year of invention and creativity, thus learning necessary skills from the surrounding environment (that can include the learning and wisdom of older mentors).
Regarding hybrid thinking at the moment -- the one- or two-day school. This could be as dangerous as a full week. Exposing our children in a classroom setting, no matter how well wiped down the classroom or school bus, is exposing them to danger. The Burlington Hometown cited: "Children infected with COVID-19 can show no symptoms, resulting in an asymptomatic spread of the disease… Nearly half of Vermont children who tested positive had no symptoms. In the Winooski breakout, 75 percent were asymptomatic" (Hometown, Burlington, July 17, 2020). The Hometown also printed a list of PPE requirements that must be met before the 75 percent respondents would feel comfortable sending their children back to school (Hometown July 24, 2020). Not only can all these preparations and rules cause great stress on teachers but also on our children. And lastly, many parents have restrained, since early years, the use of computers by their children due to the effect on a child's brain waves (with a one-to-two in-class system, the rest of the week is spent on distance learning, an anathema for parents.
Without repeating Corinthia Richards, I agree with her ideas to access the natural environment (Lake Champlain, one example) for the teaching of science, mathematics, history, archology, etc. -- subjects normally taught from text books. There could be opportunities for students to work on a farm, meet and talk with experts in conservation and preservation of the land, trips to lakes and mountains would offer not only history of Vermont, but the science of pollution, inundations, just to name a very few of the advantages of an outdoor classroom.
How achieved: Small cells/groups of children, alternating every month (?) in areas of learning. No matter what the learning experience, the outside approach lends itself for plenty of physical exercise. All will take strict planning but there is no reason why parents and educators cannot come together and design the outdoor classroom, for all weather conditions. (go back to earlier times when children bundled up and went out in rain, snow, cold; this is not the time to coddle our children, but allow them to strengthen the creative and inventive areas of the brain.
In a world where our leaders are confused, where there is anger and civil strife at home, in our country, in the world, where nothing is normal, and where too many children are suffering the fears of their parents, the greatest gift we can give our young now is an out-of-the-box approach to learning; and turn to our environment for a gap year they will never forget.
Thank you, Corinthia!
Amanda Krebs-Campbell lives in Waitsfield.
