Many teachers are very anxious about teaching this fall. Some, feeling bullied into risking their lives, are pushing back — not without reason. More than one-quarter of public school teachers are over 50 (thus at high risk for COVID-19) and even many younger teachers have underlying conditions that put them at risk (Goldstein & Shapiro, 2020). Some have prepared their wills and others have boosted their life insurance.
Their concern is understandable. Experts still haven’t settled on the best way to ensure workers’ health and safety. Scientists still haven’t established precisely how the virus affects children or how risky it is that children will transmit the virus to others. Nor is it comforting to know that just before they opened for face-to-face instruction, many schools were still debating how students should social distance, who should wear what kinds of protective equipment, and how buses will be sanitized. Routines are being disrupted. Classrooms that teachers have spent years making productive and welcoming are being gutted to spread desks apart. How to teach online, and whether it worked last year for all students — and whether it will work better this year — is anyone’s guess. Preliminary data suggest, sadly, it didn’t and won’t (Dorn et al., 2020).
Of course, teachers are worried. But should their students know how worried they are?
The best approach is likely to be somewhere between the extremes of full transparency and strict secrecy. Kids already worry — depending on their age — about being away from their parents, about their social lives at school and their social lives online, about tests, about whether they’ll get into a “good” college, and more. COVID-19 is yet another worry. At special risk are the 7.1% of children ages 3 to 17 — approximately 4.4 million children — who, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have anxiety syndromes (Ghandour et al., 2019).
Knowing that many of our students are most likely dealing with some degree of worry, what we adults can do is help them to manage their anxiety, while making sure not to force them to manage ours as well (Fagell, 2020).
Don’t avoid discussing how COVID-19 has changed the “normal” school day. Dismissing students’ emotions (or worse, labeling their feelings “right” or “wrong”) may only increase their anxiety (Gomstyn, n.d.). If we shield students from knowledge about real threats, that won’t help them grow up. But if we discuss COVID-19 and its effects openly, making sure to distinguish between what is known and what remains uncertain, we can help them learn to make healthy decisions and take acceptable risks.
Throughout the year, ask your students how they are doing and what they think about what is going on. Emphasize all the positive ways they can take care of themselves, their families, and their friends — hand washing, wearing a face mask, and physically distancing.
Take age and circumstances into account. With younger children, focus on the basic facts. Then help them express their feelings, perhaps with a feeling signal chart (Spiegel, 2017). With older students, consider using news articles as discussion points. For students learning remotely, encouraging parents to structure their child’s day will help reduce anxiety. To the degree possible, teachers should incorporate socially distant outdoor activities for exercise and for socializing with classmates and friends to reduce anxiety; those teaching online might encourage parents to do similarly.
There is no one best or foolproof way to teach through COVID any more than there was ever one best or foolproof way to teach in general.
Monitor and manage your own anxiety. Stay informed, but don’t binge on COVID-related media. New data, discussions, and debates are erupting hourly — it can be overwhelming. We don’t know what will happen next, so it’s healthy to focus on what you can do properly today. Many cherished classroom routines and traditions will be disrupted — so make the most of those you can maintain at least to some extent. And do what you can to take care of yourself.
Don’t strive to be perfect. There is no one best or foolproof way to teach through COVID any more than there was ever one best or foolproof way to teach in general.
Teachers have a profound role this fall. They do not take the place of family members, but for many children, teachers are among the adults they get to know best outside their family world — which has been even smaller for a while due to the lockdowns and limitations. So it’s important that teachers consider the example they set as they introduce students to the broader world. Eventually, this pandemic in its current form will be over, but how we grown-ups manage our anxiety in the meantime will make an imprint on a generation of children.
References
Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J., and Viruleg, E. (2020, June 1). COVID-19 and student learning in the United States: The hurt could last a lifetime. New York, NY: McKinsey.
Fagell, P.L. (2020, June 30). Teacher worried students will absorb parents’ (and her own) negativity. Phi Delta Kappan.
Ghandour, R.M., Sherman, L.J., Vladutiu, C.J., Ali, M.M., Lynch, S.E., Bitsko, R H., & Blumberg, S.J. (2019). Prevalence and treatment of depression, anxiety, and conduct problems in U.S. children. The Journal of Pediatrics, 206, 256–267.e3.
Goldstein, D. & Shapiro, E. (2020, July 11, 2020). Schools reopening: Teachers fearful, angry over pressure to return. The New York Times.
Gomstyn, A. (n.d.). Kids and anxiety: What’s normal and when to seek help. Hartford, CT: AETNA.
Spiegel, E.J. (2017). Managing stress for at-risk students. Phi Delta Kappan, 98 (6), 42-46.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Todd L. Pittinsky
Todd L. Pittinsky is a professor at Stony Brook University and a senior distinguished fellow of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center on Long Island in New York. He is the author, with Barbara Kellerman, of Leaders Who Lust.
