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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
⬤ THE EDUCATION ISSUE
9.13.20
Left: Trent Davis Bailey for The New York Timesrooms to create opportunities for students to
work together collaboratively, so that they are
connected, not isolated, during this period.
Given the failures of the federal govern-
ment around the pandemic, we knew in
the spring that schools were still going to
be doing either distance learning or hybrid
learning. And yet, we didn’t as a country make
the investment in devices, internet access
and professional development for teachers
to facilitate high-quality learning for their
students remotely.
Hannah-Jones: We are an extremely wealthy
country. It is a national shame that three kids
are sharing a single device or that we are tell-
ing children, You have to go to your school
parking lot in order to access Wi-Fi for your
education, because we won’t provide inter-
net service for you. According to the National
Center for Education Statistics, almost eight
million kids don’t have internet access at
home through a computer. One-third of their
families say they can’t aff ord it.
We are a country that can aff ord to educate
our children in this circumstance, but we are
making decisions that we are not going to.I hope every person who reads this feels a
deep sense of personal shame about what is
happening. Some of this could not be pre-
vented, but a lot of it could.
Bazelon: Pedro, are there best practices for
remote learning?
Noguera: I’ve been promoting Edutopia. They
have great resources online for teachers and
parents on how to make engaging lessons,
how to do science projects at home, how to
build relationships online. It’s better than
the professional development I’ve seen most
districts doing, and it’s available for free. Wealso have a whole population of home-school-
ers out there who have fi gured out ways to
provide high-quality learning for kids while
they’re at home. That’s a resource we should
tap into.
King: The federal Department of Education
should be lifting up those best practices. In the
absence of federal leadership, states should
be doing that. There are a few examples of
promising things people are doing across the
country. Phoenix Union High School District
in Arizona had an Every Student, Every Day
campaign last spring, where an adult with
the school district — a principal, teacher or
someone from the central offi ce — was in
touch with every kid every day to check up
on them. A San Antonio school district that’s
starting remote is off ering workshops for par-
ents on how the distance learning is going
to work and how families can support their
kids’ learning. In the Baltimore city school
district, they’ve had some teachers redefi ning
their roles. A teacher who is really good at
presenting content to students online does
that, and then other teachers on the team pro-
vide direct support, by tutoring, coaching andSpencer Cobbs, 13
Eighth grader, Mountain Brook Junior
High School, Birmingham, Ala.Lunch is probably the thing that is the
most diff erent. We go to the lunchroom
and sit in assigned desks facing all the
same way. We eat our food alone, for the
most part. My friend is next to me though,
so that is nice. It sounds awful, but it’s
actually not that bad. I kind of like to eat
my lunch in peace!Cowell Elementary School, Denver
Teachers are working from home, but Aiden Coty and nearly 40 other
students attend a morning program with adult supervision, laptops and
internet for participating in online classes.