We are coming to the end of our fourth week of online distance learning and our second week of school based supervision online learning.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the efforts of our staff in the last two months to plan and implement online programmes of work for our students. This has been a huge shift in pedagogy for most of our staff but they have accomplished this in an extremely short time. To support this change the teachers have been participating in weekly professional development to continually develop their skills in this space.

I would also like to acknowledge the work our students are putting into their studies while at home. It was always going to be a challenge to remain motivated once out of the school environment to maintain the same momentum in their learning. Each student is experiencing their own unique challenges at the moment. These challenges range from access to a devices or sharing with a sibling, trying to use the Google suite functions the teachers are using to deliver their programmes without the type and quantity of guidance they would get at school, working in a shared environment with the distraction of family members, change of routine and structure that you would find in a school environment.

Lastly, but certainly not least to our parents/caregivers. A large number of our parents are working from home while having to supervise their kids. The added pressure of trying to be a teacher aide while working from home is certainly a challenge. I know from my own personal experience that trying to conduct Zoom meetings or Google Meets, phone calls, developing resources, strategic planning, etc while my three daughters are running around and wanting attention can be extremely difficult and frustrating while productivity certainly takes a hit. Be kind to yourselves, you are doing a great job given the circumstances and we will come out the other side better for it with the lessons learnt and the resilience developed.

Today the Government will be outlining what Alert Level 2 will look like in New Zealand. Our school will be planning what this will look like in our context and communicating this to families as soon as we can. If the government decides that we are going to Alert Level 2 on Monday, the earliest EOHS will be open for instruction under these guidelines will be Thursday the 14th of May. We have a number of challenges to overcome to transport students to school via buses, physical distancing (in class and during break times), staffing, and getting the students back into school routines while catching up for lost time.

At this point I think it is important to have perspective on what we are facing at this time in history. At the time I am writing this article there are 3,806,147 cases across the world with 263,428 deaths. In New Zealand we have 1488 confirmed cases with 21 deaths. While this is absolutely tragic, particularly for those directly affected personally, this pales in comparison to other events in history.

Imagine you were born in 1900. Many would think that that was a pretty simple time of life. Then on your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war, including many of your friends who volunteered to defend freedom in Europe.

Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million. On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 38. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. If you were lucky, you had a job that paid $300 a year, a dollar a day.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet, but don’t try to catch your breath. If you lived in London, England or most of continental Europe, bombing of your neighborhood, or invasion of your country by foreign soldiers along with their tank and artillery was a daily event. Thousands of Canadian young men joined the army to defend liberty with their lives. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.

At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. On your 62nd birthday there is the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could have ended. Sensible leaders prevented that from happening.

In 2020, we have the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands have died; it feels pretty dangerous; and it is. Now think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you think they survived all of the above? When you were a kid in 1965, you didn’t think your 65-year-old grandparents understood how hard school was, and how mean that kid in your class was. Yet they survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art. Refined as time goes on, and very enlightening. So, let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, we are all in this together. Let’s help each other out, and we will get through all of this. 

Nga mihi nui

Marcus Cooper