Milestones and Pitfalls

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here.

A milestone: my private school on the Upper East Side of NYC has gone for 6 teaching weeks without having to close because of the virus. Sure, some groups of students had had to stay home because a classmate or two had a household member who tested or could be positive, but the rest of the school had continued to function, and after the requisite weeks of quarantine, those students had rejoined in-person learning. As a teacher, I can't begin to tell you the immense difference between real and virtual learning. An informal poll will have to suffice. All my juniors, 16-17 years old, said that they would rather study in school than at home.

It is only possible for my school to reach such a milestone because we have such superior resources. We are rich not only in funding but also in personnel. Our teacher-to-student ratio is small. More importantly, our staff-to-student ratio is also small, much better than that in public schools. With many more staff, we can plan ahead and deal with contingencies more thoughtfully, we can nurse more personally, we can feed everyone more nutritiously, we can provide tech support more handily, we can clean the school more thoroughly, and we can communicate more effectively all that we are doing.

Public schools in the poorer school districts cannot do what we do. Not necessarily because their faculty or staff or students are inferior in quality, but primarily because they lack the resources necessary to open schools and stay open. This is a shame on the country. When politicians called for schools to reopen in September but refused to provide them with the resources to do so safely, they were guilty of endangering many lives. The pandemic has surfaced many forms of inequity in our societies, but arguably the most pernicious form has been in our schools, if we still consider the young to be our common future. While my students are zooming along in their learning, others are still trying to deal with Zoom, if they have Zoom at all.

This November, we must consider the educational platforms of election candidates at all levels, from the Presidency down to the town council. More important than student testing, teacher training, and school vouchers is the question of funding. Who among the candidates stands for a more equitable distribution of resources to schools? Who will not just level the playing field, but fill the pits in the field, impossible for schools and students to climb out of without a strong helping hand?

Jee Leong Koh
October 22, 2020

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