It’s the question parents have been asking their children since the dawn of time: “How was school today?” Now, however, as kids head back to in-person school during the era of COVID-19, we all really want answers to that question. How is it? How are they handling it? Does it feel a lot different? We asked our Enrichery students how their first week back went, and here’s what they had to say. (Hint: they mostly talked about masks.)
“It’s fun, but I don’t like wearing the masks.”
“I cannot breathe in the masks.”
“It was better than online school, but kind of hard to understand the teacher with the mask on. You get to see all your friends and it’s easier to learn that way.”
“It was fun seeing your friends and less confusing than online school.”
“It was kind of strange because you didn’t really see everyone’s faces, you just saw their masks.”
“They just made you wear masks and it was basically just regular school.”
I can’t lie – I laughed a little bit when I received these responses. No in-depth talk about how they’re feeling emotionally, or what they’re thinking about the future; nothing about having a difficult time adjusting or having any anxiety about the virus. Mostly just brief comments about seeing friends, wearing masks, and preferring it to e-learning.
But then I realized that is also what’s so incredible about our students and students across the country (and world). They’re so amazingly resilient. At a time when so much has changed and we’re all still grappling with a new normal, these students are… well, just excited to socialize and adjusting to a little fabric on their faces.
On that same note – keep checking in with your kids (and we will, too!). Sometimes, it’s easier to complain about surface-level things than opening up about the very real but also very complicated stressors of the current moment. In the mean time, we’d say if things seem like “basically just regular school” right now, it’s a win.
