The Best Bad Decision
In-person school not risk-free, but correct decision based on what we know to be true right now...
(photo credit: Business Insider)
Great fiction thrillers often contain equal thematic characteristics.
Terrific plot. Memorable characters. An inevitable yet surprising conclusion. The formula for making compelling storytelling is the tension from page to page.
Rescue a child from a burning building or keep the villain from escaping? Jump off an airplane with no parachute or crash into a mountain?
These are progressive complications that build towards a dilemmatic peak, forcing the protagonist to often make the best bad decision.
Before 2020, a viral global pandemic had been the subject of fiction. But for the past five months the contagion is real and making almost all of us feel at times like a frazzled character in a thriller novel.
The calendar is the catalyst for school districts making decisions about the 2020-21 year. Monday night (July 27) one school made the best of a bad situation.
The Board of Education rejected a recommendation by the Lake Forest School District 115 administration (which encompasses Lake Forest High School) to hold remote learning for the first semester. All seven board members said at the Monday meeting that some form of in person learning is the best option for LFHS students to start the school year. How the hybrid educational model is to be executed will be determined in the coming days, weeks and months (the concept of fluidity is making a comeback in education and business).
What makes this decision so notable is it stems the tide of momentum in Lake County high schools towards remote learning. Administration officials at Stevenson, Libertyville, Mundelein, Warren, to cite examples of neighboring public schools choosing remote learning, have access to the same data. It went through the same process—massive surveying of teachers and parents, consulting with medical professionals—and recommended remote learning. And its respective boards of education rubber-stamped the administrative endorsement. Lake Forest did not.
One could argue each geographic area is unique, with its own challenges and virtues. What works for folks in Gurnee or Lincolnshire or Libertyville is not applicable to Winnetka or Hinsdale (New Trier and Hinsdale school boards previously voted for hybrid learning) or Lake Forest.
For those invested in the Lake Forest school system, they got what they wanted. Their kids will be on campus this fall. But for those not in Lake Forest, there is a compelling reason to applaud this decision.
It is a vote for life, not death.
On Twitter and social media platforms, the ‘saving lives’ narrative is front and center. We can’t reopen schools because we have to ‘save lives.’ We can’t play sports because we must ‘save lives.’ We can’t sit down in a restaurant or watch live music because ‘saving lives’ is more important. This fable is being framed as an ‘either’ ‘or.’ There is no middle ground; stay home/save lives. Leave the house/vanquish the population. It is effective because we like absolutes in our culture. Emotion-driven decision making is much easier than data-driven critical thinking.
Virtual board of education meetings might as well be conducted on Twitter. What is swaying otherwise very intelligent, civic-minded individuals are the grim tales. Someone had a spouse get sick in their prime of life. A teacher has a elderly family member who’s health is compromised by the coronavirus. Teachers unsure if they can meet all the demands of their students in a compromised educational environment. These are real stories, some very sad and in the case of teachers, very relevant. But they plant fear of the unknown in the minds of officials, deceptively undermining how decisions should be made.
The only question leaders should be asking themselves is this—what do we know to be true right now?
We know remote learning last semester was a disaster. We know our kids are not dying from the virus. We know social distancing guidelines are unclear and changing constantly. We know parents and students want to be on campus. Teachers are aware of the challenges replicating in-person conditions remotely. They prefer physical attendance.
So let’s get on with it.
For those schools choosing some form of in-person learning, much planning is to be done. It will be a significant undertaking to open schools safely. But I don’t know a single parent that hasn’t said, ‘how can I help?’ Trust the collective ingenuity of community stakeholders to figure it out.
Circumstances in the coming days, weeks and months may force Lake Forest to change course. A downgrade to Phase 3 would scuttle in-person plans altogether. And if school opens, expect positive tests. Expect disruptions. Who the heck knows? It doesn’t matter. We are not going ‘crush’ the virus like it’s a troop platoon. We must co-exist with corona and be nimble.
That means taking unwavering action on what we know to be true right now. In 2020 and with the coronavirus, that means making the best bad decision.