Back to School 2020: Iowa speech pathologist shares her story
Iowa’s population of 3.15 million spreads over 99 counties containing 367 different school districts.
This is September 2020, almost 6 months since the initial shutdown due to Covid-19. We are all living through a historic moment. Each of us experiences this pandemic through a unique lens and has unique stories to tell. By sharing my story, I hope I can benefit you in some way. I hope you enjoy my sage advice at the end. 😉
I live in a midsize, liberal college town in Iowa. It is not without fault, but it is a good place to raise a family and have a career. I live in one county, and work as a school speech-language pathologist in a neighboring county, in a rural community. This is, I guess, the tale of two counties.
In March of 2020, both counties reacted to Covid-19 by closing schools, restaurants, bars, and non-essential businesses. My husband quickly pivoted and started teaching piano virtually in our living room. We frantically set up an appointment with a new provider to get faster internet. We dove into uncharted waters and fumbled with this new reality. At that time I had a senior in college, a senior in high school, an 8th grader, and a 4th grader.
The Iowa department of education and school administrators did their best
I felt fortunate to have job security. During that time, I worked on special projects with fellow speech-language pathologists in my area agency and took professional development courses. Time was not wasted, by any means. I appreciated the flexibility to continue to work while dealing with the “new normal” at home. I read the instruction manual on my sewing machine and started sewing masks. During the closure, my own kids adjusted to the “new normal” by reading, listening to podcasts, taking walks around the block, and occasionally, cooking and baking, making up songs, dances, and skits. Everyone was terrified to just look at another person. Both of my seniors graduated but traditional graduation ceremonies were canceled. I tried to make my boys feel celebrated, but it was not what I envisioned for these huge milestones.
A highlight was when my husband played “Pomp and Circumstance” on the piano while my boys walked down the sidewalk!
Summer came and I continued to serve my Birth to Three families virtually, my husband continued to teach piano virtually from our living room.
We are a combined family, so the other parents (my ex, and my husband's ex) were either able to work virtually or get time off. The kids continued to listen to podcasts up the wazoo, and meet with a few friends outside and at a distance. We formed a “pod” with another family so the youngest had a friend to play with without masks or social distancing. Our family “pod” became quite large with four children, five households, and seven adults, so decisions to be in contact with anyone else needed to be considerate. Our family mostly stayed at home and in the yard with only some very carefully planned trips close by.
The governor allowed the bars to reopen
Living in a college town, the community knew this was an awful call.
The mayor stepped in and issued a mask mandate with grumbling from some and appreciation from most. Schools were developing “return to learn” plans. My kids' school district, in the county where I live, planned to start 100% online. Shortly after, the governor mandated that schools offer a face-to-face option. The school district applied for a waiver to continue with the original plan of starting school 100% online but was denied. The district then devised an AABB hybrid model. All the while, an all-online option was available for families to opt-in. My husband and his kids' mom decided to opt for all online, and together they were able to arrange their work schedules to share with the education at home. My now freshman in college decided to live at home rather than in the dorms. While this was also another milestone not achieved, I was relieved that he would not be putting himself into harm’s way (and we were saving on living expenses!).'
In the nearby county where I work, the school district was planning 100% face-to-face education, without a mask mandate. Teachers in the district voiced concern to the school board, and when no changes were made, two talented teachers resigned.
The waivers, the variations, the differences between the policies of the state and the towns and cities, and between school districts in different counties, all began to grow dizzying.
As the first day of school drew near, there were still so many unanswered questions: How do I safely see unmasked students face-to-face in a confined indoor space with no windows? My anxiety increased. The district provided PPE and other supplies, but the expectation was that our services were to proceed as “normal.” All spring and summer I was very careful to help keep my family safe. Now, I would be coming into contact with parents, kids, and school staff who may not be wearing masks or social distancing. I would be trying to teach kids while wearing a mask and face shield.
And what about my students? The 3-year-olds who come to me for services, how do I try to teach them when they are so little and their parents aren’t allowed past the office to walk them to my room or stay close for comfort and reassurance?
As I tweak and hack my traditional therapeutic approach, I have experienced small successes: holding therapy outside, or leading short “I spy” walks into the school building, as little ones learn to separate from their parents. I am adding new skills to my “bag o tricks” — sharing my iPad screen on zoom during teletherapy.
As university students started coming back into town, the Covid infection rate began increasing, just like the community knew it would. My kids’ schools postponed their start dates and applied for another waiver to give them permission to start 100% online, which was approved. Now at home, my school-age kids’ first day is today, the day after Labor Day. This past week was full of online orientations and virtual “meet and greets” with teachers. The kids are getting their workspace organized, a “zoom schedule” has been made, and conversations are going on about who gets dibs on what space. At least we have decent internet! The kids are wrapping their heads around what online school will be like. My freshman in college and my other son, a first-year master’s student, have started with mostly online classes with some face-to-face classes. They both are starting work and education endeavors that are novel to them, and making new relationships in a virtual-only medium. Oh, and the governor mandated that bars close in our town.
In the past month, in the county where I live, the 14-day positive rate increased from 10.74 to 24.34.* In the nearby county where I work, the positive rate increased from 5 to 14.80 in one location and 6.83 to 9.66 in another.*
While the numbers and the communities are quite different in their respective counties, I wonder how much politics guide the decision-making on the local and state level rather than science. I wonder how the people living in those communities are affected by these decisions. I wonder about families that have been devastated by a death from Covid, or whose lives are deeply impacted by a family member being high-risk. I wonder about workers in those communities who need their jobs and cannot risk jeopardizing them. I wonder about the hypocrisy of politicians who say they believe in local control but then strip it away when it serves them. I wonder if our political system can ever work for the poor and working class.
I wonder about people who have the privilege of resigning from their job because they feel unsafe, to keep their kids home for online school, or the opposite: to send their kids to school. I wonder about my own privilege. I wonder about my own personal satisfaction with my career, and parental ability to raise my children to survive our world’s uncertain future.
I wonder about the general education students and special education students who need their teachers to teach them. I wonder about the viability of the public education system and the long-term effects of our children’s education in our future world. I wonder about all the children around the world, and how their futures will be affected by this pandemic and the damage it has wrought.
In summary, we all share this experience of Covid and each experience is valid. I hope that by sharing my story, you got a glimpse into my life and my perspective and that it benefited you in some way. As I promised at the start of this story, I’ll end with a mantra that has helped me during this time: It can always get worse so cherish what you have and appreciate what you don’t have. This is a historic time, and I hope we all get through it to tell our story to future generations.
* Source: https://iowacovid19tracker.org
