COVID-19 A POWERFUL TEACHER

by Ruth A. Sheets

I am a teacher who appreciates the gifts of other teachers.  I am usually pleased to learn something new from a colleague that gives me a new skill, shows me a new technique, and makes me a better teacher and learner.  Well I have met a truly amazing teacher this year, COVID-19. 

I can’t exactly call COVID-19 a colleague, but this teacher has presented us with a lot of powerful learning opportunities.  It has actually taught its students, us, some of the most important lessons of our lifetime if we are willing to pay attention and take in the valuable information.  I can’t help but wonder, though, what kind of students we are. 

I suspect that as in any classroom, there is a range of learners, those who thirst for knowledge and will do whatever it takes to obtain that knowledge.  There are those who go along at their own pace and take in what they can use at the moment.  There are others who defy the entire process of learning, often because of a hidden disability or other factors that hamper their progress.  COVID-19 stands in our midst whether we want to be in its classroom or not, whether we wish to or are able to learn or not. 

So, what is COVID-19 teaching us:

- All airborne viruses are not the flu and some are worse than flu. 

- Problems that were present before COVID-19 entered our lives will be magnified by its presence.

- The people treated most badly before will suffer most under COVID-19 and those treated best.

- Its corollary is the communities treated most badly before will suffer most under COVID-19 and those treated best.

- Problems simmering beneath the surface, like racism and disenfranchisement will surface, sometimes in loud protests, sometimes in the push to blame and/or limit people’s rights.

- Unscrupulous leaders and their sycophants will use COVID-19 as the distractor they need to take away people’s rights and do a variety of harms to people, the land, water, and air.

- Those same unscrupulous leaders will claim they are the ones who know COVID-19 best and have learned the right lessons, have the plans.  They of course, are wrong, but people are distracted and may tend to believe them.

- covid-19 appreciates ignorance because it allows for the widest spread.

- As with other pandemics, the best way to function in current times is to wear a mask, keep your distance, and wash your hands.

- COVID-19 passes on its lessons whether leaders pay attention or not.

- Cheating and lying grow with the fear that not listening to COVID-19’s lessons brings.  Those who would cheat and lie without the presence of COVID-19 will do it even more in its presence.

- COVID-19 continues to teach no matter who is listening.  (This is the bad teaching approach that I will do my best to never follow)

- Online connections are really valuable for getting busy people, people with children involved beyond their own family.

- Zoom meetings can be appreciated by people other than those required to attend for business meetings.

- Education can go on even when COVID-19 is making life difficult.

- Voting is a participatory activity and there are  several ways to do it even when COVID-19 and its partners are trying to sabotage the process.

- Science is real and as Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson says, “Science doesn’t care if you believe in it or not.” 

- Viruses are so tiny they know nothing of human existence beyond that humans provide one of the ways they can replicate and disseminate.  

I suspect everyone in COVID-19’s class is learning all sorts of lessons.  Unfortunately only a few of the lessons will be allowed to lead to positive outcomes.  There are always those among us who would use any tragedy for their own purposes to further their own nearly always selfish aims.

It does not have to be that way.  If enough of us pay attention to the upsides of COVID-19’s presence, we can move our society into a new place where we can honestly and seriously deal with the challenges we face.

- We can acknowledge and address the shortcomings of the “free market” which of course is not free and continues to benefit the haves over everyone else. 

- We can look at racism and how so many of us actively and passively participate in maintaining it at high levels while confidently stating “I’m not a racist.” 

- We can look at misogyny and all the ways both men and women perpetuate it, then put measures in place to stop people from benefiting from it. 

- We can look at global warming with the urgency it demands.  Calling it “climate change” only made people feel less  worried and motivated to act.  It is global warming through deforestation and encroachment that have released deadly viruses like COVID-19 and other pathogens among us.

- We can examine the ways we must actively prepare for natural and human made disasters and provide necessary plans and demands.

This election will show us a lot about what COVID-19 has taught us and how much we have chosen to learn from this unfeeling, but powerful teacher.