As the weeks have mysteriously rolled by since we started working from home let me ask you, “How are you doing”’ Be honest, be vulnerable, and lay it all out there.

Does anyone else feel guilty, grateful, or quietly lucky that there are parts of this thing that you like? Like a guilty pleasure. We shouldn’t be enjoying any of this should we?

Here’s the deal. Working in education is like being on a runaway stagecoach! Or for a more modern analogy it is the scene from Return of the Jedi where Han Solo is flying our heroes through an asteroid field!

Dodging and weaving every and anything that comes at you at warp speed. “Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!”

When I use to be “at” school and chat with my husband, Jay, by phone on the commute home we’d compare our days. Some days the asteroid field was the only way I could accurately describe how I felt and the zillion things I did that day that all seemed equally critical.

Am I the only one who does NOT miss the rat race? Granted I miss my kiddos and colleagues a lot! But, I could get use to the “soft” opening every day.

Start each morning with coffee, meditation, exercise, and an actual breakfast. Make the bed, take the dog out, and still have time to set up my second cup of Joe next to my school laptop for our 8:30am ZOOM staff meeting. Is it bad that I LOVE this part of the work day? It seems so, I don’t know humane and sane?

How many of you are still eating lunch in 15 minutes in front of your emails? NOT me. I am making a healthy lunch, sitting down to catch up on the news or watch something relaxing on TV, Oh, yeah and lunch can stretch from 15-30 minutes! Is it a bad thing, to digest?

There is also something meaningful about putting your family first. Making sure I am caught up with school work by the time Jay comes home so we can focus on each other. These days mental and physical health for ourselves and our families SHOULD be number 1.

We are learning how fragile life is. We are being forced to put our priories in order. If we don’t the consequence could be life itself.

I don’t say this out of panic but out of a profound sense of gratitude. If we take the time to try new ways of shaping how we teach, connect with family, and take care of ourselves we can take advantage of this astounding situation.

Distance learning is hopefully not permanent. Trust me sports, music, drama, and art classes are just a few programs that don’t work this way.

And the kids need each other desperately. Humans are social creatures. Isolation was used to torture people back in the day. Connecting is more important than ever.

How can we combine the wisdom we are gaining with traditional education?

Will society demand schools offer: agriculture, home economics, auto shop, personal finance, wood shop, and all those life skills classes that would have helped our kids be more prepared for today?

My mom is a great cook, seamstress, and former 1st grade teacher. Dad was always building fences, gates, barns, and tending to the farm animals as a retired college professor. Fortunately, my parents insisted my brother and I participate in many of these endeavors But, these life skills were reinforced at school so we could survive and thrive as adults.

What a wonderful partnership between families and schools.

We are gardening, raising chickens, baking homemade bread, canning, drying, and sewing. Some of us are learning how to repair our own appliances, cut hair, and changing the oil in our cars. These are some of the lovely humanistic activities we have re-engaged with for our own enjoyment, safety and survival.

Personally, I want to keep doing these satisfying activities. It unites families, builds confidence, and reminds us of our duty to not become complacent.

I don’t want to go back to “normal.” I want to go back better than before. Smarter, kinder, more grateful for everyday people and things.

Let’s remember what was “good” or enlightening as we move into our future.

Let’s do it for all the people who have died, their grieving families, medical professionals, and front line essential workers. And if that isn’t enough of a reason we owe it to our kids and the next generation.