Fielder’s Choice

I catch myself thinking, “What if distance learning would have been available in the 1970s?” I grew up in a rural area of Marion County, Ala., about 13 miles from school.

Most likely, and I’m just guessing, if high speed internet would have been available in the 1970s, it would not have been an option for me.

My father died when I was 10. My mother worked from around 7 a.m. To 4 p.m., and then came home and worked, too.

I was a good student. But would I have been focused enough on my education to do my schoolwork from home?

Probably so — and that’s because my mother would have held my feet to the fire. She was always pushing me to do my best, in my classes and in athletics. That’s the way I was taught at home.

These are unique times, some 45 years later in 2020, when it comes to education.

Recently, I’ve talked with superintendents of both the city and county schools. Both have praised their teachers. Teachers, long underpaid in the State of Mississippi, are stepping up to the plate bigtime, dealing with both in-classroom instruction and virtual learning.

My knowledge on all of that technology stuff is little, but I can tell you this, it has to be difficult and no doubt stressful — working to provide what the students need both face-to-face and virtually.

Through it all, the focus of administrators and teachers is on the children.

They’re seeking the best for the kids — education-wise and health-wise — during these COVID-19 times.

Last week, The South Reporter ran a front page story headlined, “Back to school.” The county schools are offering both a hybrid model and distance learning.

The city schools are all virtual right now, with the plan to start a hybrid model beginning September 8.

Irene Turnage, superintendent of education for the Holly Springs School District, said the biggest issue with the virtual learning is that some students have not logged in for classwork.

One of her comments particularly caught my attention.

“Where are the kids who have not logged in? We have to figure out where the rest of our babies are.” The administrators, the principals, the teachers — they care about the children, period. It goes much deeper than reading, writing and arithmetic.

The children, like Irene Turnage said, are “our babies” and where are they? There’s a genuine concern for the children’s education but there’s also a concern for their health, well-being and their future.

In many cases, in a small, rural community in particular, the roles of administrators and teachers go far beyond being just administrators and teachers.

Following the wave of school closures in March 2020 due to COVID-19, academic learning slowed for most children and stopped for some. Both superintendents report it’s better with the start of a school year.

But bottom line, education is much better in a face-to-face classroom setting. I hope and pray we can get back to the “school normal” soon.