‘A NEW NORMAL’
The pandemic marked the largest disruption
of education on record, with more than
a billion students shut out of schools by
midsummer—“a general catastrophe,” U.N.
Secretary-General António Guterres warned, “that
could waste untold human potential.” In July, at
Wesley Elementary School in Middletown, Conn.,
Gillian Laub got a sobering glimpse into what
sending kids back to school could look like. “I felt
anxious about the long-term effects of this year on
children,” she says, “and I was in awe of the teachers
creating a safe learning space for them again.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY GILLIAN LAUB FOR TIME