The Loss of Socialization

Note: I have no degree. I have no research. I have only my own experience as a teacher, principal, and parent.

The ultimate lead effect of downstream effects will be a generation able to work remotely, but a generation able to work apart.

I fully recognize the gaps inherent of schools districts struggling to ensure participation and engagement with learning goals. Many school districts. may be seeking the lowest common dominator. This leads to a greater discrepancy between the wealthy and the have-nots. [citation needed]. [also common sense needed.]

So... if we assume that the leaner indicators of our society will be able to learn and connect through 1/2 of March, April, May, part of June, and then a resurgence of COVID-19 in the fall, what can we expect?

1. We can expect that gap to widen. School districts unable to handle the onset of remote learning in the spring may equally be unable to hand off devices, ensure participation, and plan effective instruction for the fall semester. This will inevtiably lean to a wider gap - one that expands on a possible summer slide to ensure that students in advantaged schools/districts enlarge their lead on those not in there. This is marketing opportunity for Catholic schools that have their act together.

2 Digital skills will be paramount. We will see a continual growth in the need to assume flexibility, inventiveness, and a common sense approach to learning via technology. Again, top-down approaches will suffer as innovators surge ahead and laggards struggle to adapt to a long-term reality. [If one coronavirus can cause world-wide shutdowns, why not others?]

3. The Catholic sense of humanity will be essential to the future. "Catholic" is not underlined on purpose - as many other recognize this. In a future accelerated by the growth and mutation rate of short-lived organisms like Coronavirus; we need to ensure that we do not lose the sense of humanity which enriches the finest of our Catholic schools. If we cave into the idea of an upper and lower class, we cave to the idea of gnosticism and despair for the human race as a total.

The big loss in this spring of Corona is the loss our youngest students feel in socialization. With our advanced urbanization, germ theory, and socialization; our youngest lose what made them most able to thrive: interaction apart from the confines of adult society. This is what we have lost - the carefree nature of games, rule creation, adherence to an ad hoc society, and more.

As a child, I loved to visit Tom Sawyer Island in Walt Disney World. Why?

It balance freedom and a lack of supervision with the safe confines of a global safety net. COVID-19 strips our children of that necessity. Interaction with others brings with it the threat of death for themselves and others.

A future conception of school must ensure that such freedom is recognized. Cherished. And Encoded.

Otherwise, we lose more than 20% in GDP or 15% in employment or whatever else metric we acclaim. We lose our humanity.