Yesterday I found myself walking around campus at lunchtime. Specifically, it was our elementary school lunch, and I was enjoying talking to students and getting their perspectives on how school back on campus was going for them. Our team has gone to incredible lengths to blend our efforts for normalcy with adherence to safety and health protocols. This includes the elementary team dividing students into 13 different play areas around the campus, as well as hiring coaches to structure and supervise games and play.
At the center of the main courtyard, right in the middle of the campus, two coaches had organized a large group of 1st graders into lines for relay races. Each kid, in succession, ran their way through a simple obstacle course. What had started as enthusiastic cheering had quickly built into absolute frenetic delight as the teams jumped and cheered and chanted and screamed to encourage their teammates. I think the noise and energy from these little 1st graders drowned out anything else happening, and I’m sure it was difficult for the nearby secondary classrooms to ignore the spectacle. The kids were completely and totally lost in the fun of the moment.
I had to pause a moment at the scene, myself a little overcome by such a beautiful moment. Oh how we’ve missed being together on campus! I’ve told my staff that young people are both remarkably resilient and simultaneously vulnerable. We have asked so much of them this past year. We’ve asked them to sit and concentrate and engage through a screen, without much of the physical and emotional interaction and play that is so critical to their development and well-being. They have been remarkable. They have done everything we have asked. It was the best we could do as educators and the best we could offer given the circumstances.
It’s clear that we are all still battling through a pandemic that doesn’t seem eager to slacken its grip on humanity. There are still obstacles and we likely will have to learn to live with certain protocols and restrictions for much longer than we had ever thought possible. But we are also finding ways to take back some of our humanity, and having students on campus for in-person learning certainly seems to qualify as a triumph for our community.