Kids and corona

Yesterday while walking my dog, Sam, I kept my distance from the two teenage lads I see regularly at this time as they head to school. One shouted over a hello and asked if I was ok. I said yes and added that I was still virus free as far as I knew. “Not dead yet then?” he sniggered back before carrying on with his pal to towards school.

I quite enjoyed the exchange. Normally it’s just a hello as they pass by, which I feel quite privileged to receive. Teenagers are usually quite standoffish – and understandably so – with adults they pass while out and about. Yesterday I kept my distance as I am now in social isolation after a mate of mine who I went out for a beer with last Friday has developed many of the coronavirus symptoms.

What this exchange made me think about though was, who is asking kids what they feel about this situation? Kids are very much in this mix, more so than most as they congregate daily in large gatherings. I know only too well how easy it is for bugs to spread in a school. After teaching for 35 years with 15 years as a head of three schools, I have seen a lot of bugs run riot through the populations of the schools I have worked in. Most teachers know that if they move schools they arrive in their new place where ‘bugs’ they have never met before are lurking. I moved between several schools in my career, around the UK, and each time, within a couple of weeks I caught a bug. Nothing serious enough to stop me going in, just a bug that made me feel lousy.

So, what must kids be thinking? Are they looking at their school leaders and wondering why the school is open? Are they non-plussed as the headlines are all about the young being less likely to die from this virus? What are their parents telling them?

I asked (via Skype) several children of friends and they were pretty forthright, telling me that our national leadership is letting them down, not thinking of them at all. I am not entirely sure that this is true, but that is how they feel. And if they feel that, how must the school staff feel?

I also spoke to an ex colleague of mine in school leadership. He told me that yesterday he fielded repeated phone calls and face to face questioning that went like this…

“Why is the school still open?”

“Why are you allowing kids who have been on school trips into school.”

“I hope you’re not thinking of shutting the school…you’re not are you?”

“How many kids are in the school with coronavirus?”

He said he answered 12 lines of questioning like this, many with quite aggressive responses when he pointed out the school was acting on the guidelines schools were being sent. Other staff were taking similar calls. This, I assume, is going on country wide.

What I learned as a head teacher is that when you make a decision to close a school, which I had to do on several occasions, you are always wrong in some people’s eyes. But that is leadership. On snow days, where I got to the tipping point of not being able to staff the school so that lessons and meals would not be feasible, then I closed, when we had a flood due to a burst pipe, I closed the school and when we had a gas leak, I closed the school. However, in all cases, I had complaints. I also had the opposite on some snowy days. “Why haven’t you closed the school?” You cannot please everyone and of course armchair leadership is easy. Just as a football supporter. They always know better that the team’s manager.

What I also learned however, was that the more I communicated with people about why I was closing the school, the fewer issues I had with complaints. It’s not rocket science, but we are a communicative species. We like to know what’s what. And this is what the kids I have spoken to were getting at. They feel no one from our national leadership is talking publically about them. Or talking to them.

Head teachers are shackled. I am quite pleased not to be among their ranks right now. Until they are told they must close by Boris, they have to stand alone on whatever decision they make. Some brave heads might close. I hear some are doing so already. But the government’s stance on this is a bit like how it bullied schools to become academies; through fear and pressure. The advice to people not to visit bars, restaurants and theatres etc. is similar. If the government says they have to close, then they take the blame and this affects voters. If they say schools must close, the same. And all parents are voters. So they will leave it to the last minute.

It may cost lives. It will cost livelihoods I am sure. Not through schools, as they can pay staff sent home, but the businesses who will fail and people who will lose jobs because of the dithering and lack of proper decisive action to support them.

All of these people are current voters. If I was Boris (armchair leadership coming up here) I would do everything I could to make all of them feel supported. I’d formally close the places where people gather so they have proper guidance and can plan and involve their insurers, I’d look at how I could support the individuals and small businesses who are not in secure positions for their livelihood. And I would not ignore the kids. They are the next generation of voters and if you cheese them off, the grudge they hold might go a long way.

Take it from me, I grew up in the north east and witnessed the destruction and devastation during the Thatcher years. I have never forgiven her. Kids may feel the same about Boris if he ignores them.