It is a classic “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

My own three children are in three different buildings in the same school district (one elementary school, one middle school, one high school; all in a different district from where I work). Technically, their teachers have been directed by district admin not to send homework yet.

My elementary schooler’s teacher has done so anyway, with the clear communication that it is optional. She has sent suggested math pages from the workbook, along with video guides. She has also video recorded herself reading aloud to kids. My son is in a Spanish-immersion program, so he is also charged with continuing his online practice program. I’m okay with all of this.

My middle school son was asked by his science teacher to finish up a project about natural disasters that they started before the shutdown. His math teacher has sent e-packets of worksheets. There hasn’t been a clear statement of “optionality” for these. We haven’t heard from his other teachers. I’m okay with all of this.

My high schooler? Radio silence from teachers. I’m okay this, too.

Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau has stated that the largest school district in Washington will not transition to online learning in the immediate future. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles (LAUSD) school system is investing $100 million in making sure kids without online access are provided tech and internet during the shutdown. From one side, Superintendent Juneau is being praised for her pragmatic view of the access divide among Seattle students. The other side is quick to drag her publicly. (I’m not hiding my bias well, am I?)

If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a teacher, it is that every student is different. Each brings different strengths and needs. The student is a fractal of the system: each classroom, each building, each district, each region… different strengths and needs. If LAUSD has the capacity to invest $100 million, awesome. My own district is handling it different from Seattle, but we are smaller, have different resources, and have a vastly different population both economically and geographically. We are also handling it differently from LAUSD ($100 million is just a nugget shy of our entire operating budget for the year).

As with everything else in education, there are as many right answers to the problem as there are people ready to tell us the right answer to the problem.

As with everything else in education, there are as many right answers to the problem as there are people ready to tell us the right answer to the problem.

No plan will be without flaws. I also believe that no plan will guarantee every student will continue to learn; we have a hard enough time achieving that high bar even when the kids are in the same room as us. I don’t want us to be satisfied with a plan that is “good enough,” but I also don’t want us to be immobilized by perseverating on problems and obstacles.

For my own students, I’m doing the best I can so far. My colleagues and I are keeping track on a shared Google spreadsheet our weekly contacts with kids so we know who might be falling through the cracks. Through district support, we’ve managed to create opportunities where all but one of my own students has access to technology and internet (thanks in no small part to our existing 1-to-1 tech status and to the district’s plan to park buses with wifi hotspots in key neighborhoods). This week, I’ve been posting “review” videos and other ungraded enrichment on Google classroom, since logging into Google Classroom while at school was something students were accustomed to already. After Spring Break, we dig into our last literary unit together. For some kids, this means me sending them hardcopies and packets (even if they have internet access) and for others, it means daily check-ins on Classroom or on the phone.

Are there flaws in my plan? Absolutely. Is it guaranteed to ensure equitable learning? I’m trying, just like I do in my physical classroom where my efforts toward equity are a constant work-in-progress.

What teachers and school leaders don’t need right now are armchair quarterbacks. Like every other system, we’ve been thrust into uncharted territory in the last few weeks, and in my opinion, no matter what path a school or district has taken, it is the right path toward the right goal.

Now more than ever, educators ought to tune out the noise from the sidelines. We have to be willing to tolerate the inherent contradiction: There is no one right way to do this, AND whatever way we choose will be the right one.

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