In my classroom, I ask students to refrain from responding 'I don't know.' I reply that 'surely there is something you know or a question you can ask rather than giving me such a generic maxim.' Those three words just seemed like such an easy way out--a cavalier response. Recently, I find myself repeating the very phrase that I've banned in my classroom because truly right now, I don't know. I don't know if things will get better or worse tomorrow. I don't know if the food in my freezer, spilling off my countertops and jammed in my refrigerator will be enough. I don't know if I will see my son play varsity volleyball or send him off to prom or attend his high school graduation. I don't know what to advise my daughter who is a college sophomore about paying for her empty college apartment since the school has gone online for this semester and she'll have to pay for it without a campus job. I don't know if this pandemic will impact my husband's real estate business and thus a huge chunk of our livelihood. I don't know how and where to place myself emotionally in the midst of information chaos and concern for folk. I don't know if my profession can return to business as usual when students return to our classrooms. I don't know why it took a pandemic to illuminate concern for children who rely on school for a good meal and safety, and I don't know that we will address this concern after the pandemic is over and 'normalcy' is restored because we tend to erase that which is uncomfortable. I just don't know, and the uncertainty of the above is only bearable because the don't know's shape my do knows.
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AuthorDocumenting my evolution by filling in space and matter one word at a time. Archives
March 2023
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