Covid-19 Kids - What If ?

My good Quaker friend, Wendy Metcalfe, passed on this wonderful note to me in a recent email. Slightly too big for a simple post so I've put it here.

Its brilliant and exemplifies a realisting, optimistic and positive attitude to the context of education of children in these "unusual times".

Words from a School Principal in South Africa. [I] can’t find out his name but am looking.

So, without any further ado here it is (I am afraid that Wendy and I do not yet know who the author was) :

COVID-19 Kids – what if? When people say kids are going to be ‘behind’ I say,

behind what? Not each other - they’re all in the same boat. Only ‘behind’ the age

expectations of a curriculum that currently has limited context due to these

extraordinary circumstances. In front on so many other more important fronts, I say.

What if instead of “behind” this group of kids is advanced because of this.

What if they have more empathy, they enjoy family connection, they can be more

creative and entertain themselves, they love to read, they love to express

themselves in writing.

What if they enjoy the simple things, like their own backyard and sitting near a

window in the quiet?

What if they notice the birds and the dates the different flowers emerge, and the

calming renewal of a gentle rain shower?

What if this generation is the one to learn to cook, organize their space, do their

laundry, and keep a well-run home?

What if they learn to stretch a rand (￡) and to live with less?

What if they learn to plan shopping trips and meals at home?

What if they learn the value of eating together as a family and finding the good to

share in the small delights of the everyday?

What if they are the ones to place great value on our teachers and educational

professionals, librarians, public servants and the previously invisible essential

support workers like truck drivers, grocers, cashiers, custodians, logistics, and health

care workers and their supporting staff, just to name a few of the millions taking

care of us right now while we are sheltered in place?

What if among these children, a great leader emerges who had the benefit of a

slower pace and a simpler life, who has a fine sense of empathy and care and

concern for fellow humans.

What if he or she truly learns what really matters in all this?