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'Teaching After Lockdown'
How things have changed. This expansion of everyone’s personal space bubble – so unnatural and awkward at first – is now ingrained in society. Those who come too close now are shot filthy looks at the very least, or are told in no uncertain terms to KEEP BACK.
Supervising high school students in the classroom during Phase One of return to school, I observe them sitting the mandated 1.5 metres apart, which is both reassuring and depressing. Only a couple of months ago they would have been crammed into the classroom, sharing each other’s pens, laptops, food… Now, that would be absurd – some would consider it a death wish. And yet, the safety of this forced separation will end in a few days as the government has directed schools to skip Phases Two and Three, and jump straight to Phase Four – the return of ALL students to school every weekday – a chilling prospect. It’s bad enough that every surface in the school already feels tainted despite the staggered re-entry of students. As of next week they will be crammed in again, and the mandatory 1.5 metre rule will be laughably flouted. Maniacal laughter, that is.
In my current class of ten students, only three wear masks, but it is actually the highest percentage within a classroom I have seen today. The masks are hard to come by. Of course, teachers are not permitted to wear them in the classroom. ‘How can you deliver lessons and give instructions, or maintain any authority when your face is covered?’ they say. We do not know. How do we maintain any sense of safety without them? How do we not succumb to an increasing sense of nihilism? There are no answers to these questions – only slogans.
How things have changed. This expansion of everyone’s personal space bubble – so unnatural and awkward at first – is now ingrained in society. Those who come too close now are shot filthy looks at the very least, or are told in no uncertain terms to KEEP BACK.
Supervising high school students in the classroom during Phase One of return to school, I observe them sitting the mandated 1.5 metres apart, which is both reassuring and depressing. Only a couple of months ago they would have been crammed into the classroom, sharing each other’s pens, laptops, food… Now, that would be absurd – some would consider it a death wish. And yet, the safety of this forced separation will end in a few days as the government has directed schools to skip Phases Two and Three, and jump straight to Phase Four – the return of ALL students to school every weekday – a chilling prospect. It’s bad enough that every surface in the school already feels tainted despite the staggered re-entry of students. As of next week they will be crammed in again, and the mandatory 1.5 metre rule will be laughably flouted. Maniacal laughter, that is.
In my current class of ten students, only three wear masks, but it is actually the highest percentage within a classroom I have seen today. The masks are hard to come by. Of course, teachers are not permitted to wear them in the classroom. ‘How can you deliver lessons and give instructions, or maintain any authority when your face is covered?’ they say. We do not know. How do we maintain any sense of safety without them? How do we not succumb to an increasing sense of nihilism? There are no answers to these questions – only slogans.