COVID lurks – a discontented winter?

Remember the panic as we planned to start the 2022 academic year? Who’s vaccinated and who’s not? What do we do with those who aren’t? Who won’t? Who’s an essential worker? And what do I do as a teacher, who’s supposed to be at school, but who has children who are supposed to be at home? After such panic, 2023 has seemed relatively benign…or is it?

We seemed to have accepted the impact of #covid19 as part of the “new normal”, whatever we think that might mean. In the same way that annual colds and flus are just part of life in schools, now so is COVID…or is it?

Before we get to some hard data, check your understanding. How many new cases of COVID do you think were reported last week? Last month? Is the trend going up or coming down? And how many people are still dying? As another winter starts, it’s worth reminding ourselves that the challenges of COVID, and its impacts on schools, remain. Let’s also not forget there are plenty of other colds and flus flying around, taking their toll on valiant and committed teachers and support staff.

In Australia last week, there were 38,618 reported cases of COVID (as at June 2, 2023), or a daily average of 5,517. Yet there’s barely a word about this anymore in the media. We seem to have absorbed it effortlessly into the ebbs and flows of life. Only a month ago, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (#WHO), Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, declared simultaneously that while COVID was no longer a global health emergency, there remain thousands who are living “with the debilitating effects…[of] long COVID”. And you likely have some of them working and studying in your schools, or maybe even suffer these effects yourself.

We’ve become accustomed to hearing about the mental health impacts of COVID on both students and teachers, and yet it seems there’s barely a whisper about the impact of long COVID, and repeat bouts of its short variety, despite growing medical evidence of its reality and severity. Some schools have again found themselves having to shift into remote learning!

As we head into the back end of another term or academic year (in the northern hemisphere), it’s possible we could be confusing the mountain of symptoms concurrent with assessment and reporting season for symptoms of long COVID – brain fog, malaise, fatigue. Yes, the intensity of this period is always acute, but perhaps there are some of you who are finding it even more challenging than in the past. Three years of #lockdowns, remote learning, and multimode teaching (not to forget many communities who also faced bushfires and floods) might have left little fuel in the tank, too.

Either way, the physical, cognitive, and psychological demands of these current and next few weeks are enormous. During these times, looking out for each other, caring for each other, and extending kindness and grace to each other are critical. In Patrick Lencioni’s (2007) fable, Three signs of a miserable job, he identifies anonymity as a major contributor to disengagement and dissatisfaction. One test of this is whether anyone would notice if you were not at work for two days in a row; clearly in schools, the person doing the class covers and other teachers allocated to class(es) would, but what about your closest colleagues??And, importantly, do I notice when my colleagues are not around for a few days?

Finally, there are some challenges for leaders during this time. Just how necessary is that meeting? Might the time be more valued by your colleagues if it was given over to completing some of the demands of the season? Or letting staff go home earlier than they expected? How can you show appreciation to the staff in ways that they will see its authenticity, empathy, and benefit (HINT: while a cupcake might sound like a good idea, the word around is that this has lost a lot of the currency it might once have enjoyed, if indeed it ever had it)?

In this first week of winter (in the southern hemisphere), some might be tempted to invoke Shakespeare’s tyrannical Richard III and his memorable “winter of discontent”. The opening line of the eponymous text is often taken as emerging from the despair of civil war into a warming summer peace which will follow. Perhaps we are finally coming out of the winter of our COVID discontent! Yet, recently, Shakespearean scholar Harvey Wiltshire reminded us that Richard III, rather than intent on peace and summery happiness, is “determined to prove a villain/And hate the idle pleasures of these days” (ll. 30-31). He wreaks havoc and turmoil across the nation and extends the bloody civil war. Does the phrase, then, portend more chaos and grief to come, not at the hands of a madman, but at the still yet untamed and still morphing virus?

Let’s hope it does not. May we support each other through these challenging times, no less so than those who fought to overcome tyranny within Shakespeare’s rosy wars, and let’s join with each other in peace.

Further reading

Lencioni, P. (2007). The three signs of a miserable job. John Wylie and Sons.

Shakespeare, W. (1597/1998). The Tragedy of Richard the Third. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1503/1503-h/1503-h.htm