VOICES: Will we ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ our children when schools reopen?

I never thought I would have to choose between the safety of my family, the education of my children and the growth of my business.

Unfortunately, for me and many others, that day has come.

COVID-19 has compromised our way of living, rocked job stability, and infringed on how we educate our most precious commodity, our youth.

Is the possibility of more death, overloading our hospital system and creating “super spreaders” worth educating our youth under duress? COVID-19 has taken the lives of real people: teachers, doctors, nurses, essential workers, mothers, fathers, loved ones and friends.

Administrators, teachers and school staff are under immense pressure to create plans that are supposed to guarantee the safety of students and teachers, include hybrid learning options for parents, and accommodate all students’ learning needs. In addition, the administrators and staff are responsible for fostering learning while tabling their social and emotional health and personal well-being.

Teachers and principals are humans who breathe, feel and worry about how all this is going to get done in an effective, amicable and efficient manner.

As parents, are we prepared to receive phone calls that a school has gone into lock down because someone did not report they tested positive?

Are we prepared to support alternative school schedules that allow for temperature checks? Will we support contact tracing in schools to identify and reduce the spread of COVID-19?

Are we comfortable accepting the possibility of a teacher or staff member losing their life while serving on the front lines by teaching during the pandemic? Is this the new norm we are willing to create as we seek to educate our children?

School districts across the country have moved to an online-only school schedule for the fall. Los Angeles and San Diego, California, schools; Richmond, Virginia, schools; and many colleges such as Harvard, California State University campuses and Hampton University will offer remote learning to students.

Not everyone has the option to stay home and more importantly not every parent or caregiver has the capacity or fortitude to teach preschool children to login to a computer or to monitor high school kids virtual attendance.

Our resiliency is being tested today. Whether we pass or fail will be decided by our ability to be flexible, empathetic and knowledgeable. COVID-19 is a life lesson that transcends age and one that cannot be taught within the confines of the traditional school curriculum.

We must value life beyond the classroom.

We can do this by being willing to pause, understanding that a pause is not the end.

It is simply a temporary solution that could allow us to eventually resume our normalcy that we previously took for granted.

If pausing returning to school with 100 percent face-to-face interaction can save lives, we already have the answer to the question.

Phillitia Charlton is a Dayton native, writer, consultant, wife, mother and graduate of a historically Black university. She is the co-founder and CEO of Charlton Charlton & Associates and the creator of The Death of a Lie Empowerment Program.