Adolescence is enough of a struggle without artificial barriers they have no control over being thrown in the mix.
Every morning for months, the routine has been pretty much the same for the students under our roof: get dressed in T-shirts and shorts (leggings if it’s cooler), boot up district-issued laptops balanced precariously on mattresses or laps, then log in and turn on cameras to start the school day.
I was just a few months ahead of Nia and Layla myself. Last spring, the first case of the coronavirus in Texas became breaking news, and shortly thereafter, Darius helped me transport a monitor and laptop from the office to our house as we started settling in, one by one, to work from home. Since then, it’s gone from a surreal break from normalcy to, alas, our present and new normal.
While some have grudgingly adapted to this necessity, others have found themselves thriving in this freshly carved space. In a report on NPR’s All Things Considered, one African-American middle-schooler talks about thriving in the virtual classroom setting, freed from the mental and academic strains of attending classes in a space dominated by the biases of white classmates and teachers.
“There is emotional energy and a cognitive energy that goes along with navigating the spaces where you don’t feel welcome or comfortable,” developmental psychologist Valerie Adams-Bass told All Things Considered. “You’re always on alert, you’re always on, you’re always deflecting, so you would be exhausted at the end of the day on top of growing.”
The student, Josh, is doing much better away from the pressures on campus, according to his mother; the reactionary discipline tactics and the constant code-switching were taking a toll, and now, the remoteness of online learning forces teachers to focus on the quality of Josh’s homework rather than how he’s appearing to them in class.
“It’s like almost the noise is shut out and we can just get to the work,” Josh’s mom said.
The piece also included some disturbing statistics, including data from the Government Accountability Office that Black students are disproportionately suspended from school more often than white students.
The bottom line is this: With the advent of vaccines, online learning won’t remain a permanent option, and students will have to return to campus. But until more teachers are consciously working against their unconscious biases and receive training to counteract them, and until districts are pursuing more instructors resembling the cultures and backgrounds of the students they teach, those dilemmas will continue.
Nia doesn’t have the issues Josh did, but she does enjoy the freedoms that online school has provided. “I feel less pressure to do my hair a certain way, or act and talk differently to fit in,” she told me. “Also, everyone’s true colors have been revealed because of the quarantine.” Layla feels more freedoms as well, like not feeling compelled to curtail bathroom breaks or rushing through lunch.
2020 was a year that recalibrated our world as we knew it. Yes, vaccines are becoming more plentiful, but Gov. Greg Abbott’s insistence on lifting the mask mandate, as well as opening businesses to 100% capacity, doesn’t mean we as a community, county or state are out of the woods yet. Many children continue to struggle with internet access, special education hurdles and a safe space to learn in. Adolescence is enough of a struggle without artificial barriers they have no control over being thrown in the mix.
We’re all experiencing reckoning and uncertainty: Layla and Nia have yet to set foot in their classrooms, and I’ve yet to experience our new socially distanced work pods. But I do know that all of us deserve better health, less stress and relief from what plagues us, literally and figuratively. Awareness brings change and creates the best platform to start.
Source:https://www.dallasnews.com/
