Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era –Part XXVII
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
Educational and church institutions are centered around buildings, but we are poor stewards of their use. Because of the nine-month school calendar, most educational buildings sit idle for three months. Church buildings with gorgeous sanctuaries and multiple Sunday school room are utilized for only several hours on Sunday. How can we use our buildings better in this Covid-19 era? Let’s blog brainstormed ideas for our educational buildings today and our church facilities tomorrow.
How can we meet social distancing and smaller class size regulation and still offer person-to-person and virtual instruction? Here’s an idea: adopt a 45/15 year round school calendar where a student goes “to school” for 9 weeks, then have three weeks off. Students wouldn’t lose retention caused by a three-month break. Also families could vacation in a cabin in the fall, ski in the winter, visit Disney World in early spring, and hit the beach in the summer. Prime vacations could be year around. Only 2/3 of the student body would be on campus at any time, reducing the number of students. Instead of 24-30 students in a class, you would have 16-20. If you have ½ day person-to-person and ½ day virtual, you could reduce class size in half to 8-10, perfect or social distancing and personalized and group instruction. Converting large instructional areas into virtual labs with individual booths with Wi-Fi accessibility, you could have professional monitors instead of parents facilitate and tutor. Also at this time small group gym, health, family consumer and science, music and art classes could be offered.
In a 45/15 plan, teachers have options on how many days a year they would teach. They could boost their earning power the more day they work. As we discussed in an earlier blog, educators wear many hats as: academic instructors, monitors, facilitators, guidance counselor, and pathway coaches.
In this computer age, monitoring a student’s personal progress from kindergarten to graduation is possible. A database could track mastered skills for each student. Grades 1-12 would become archaic. Mastering a minimum levels of required skills would prepare you for occupation employment or life skills (like handling your financing, parenting newborns and infants, interpersonal & communication skills, etc.) Mastering higher level skills could be coordinated with local Junior Colleges, 4-year degree Colleges, or Universities. Age does not dictate skill levels, mastering skill levels do. Education would take place on campus, at home, or through directed internships with local businesses. It would be community based. Continual education depends on each student’ academic needs. It would open up a new world of self-discovery and self-achievement.
Old school mindset looks at schools only locally. Virtual education ha world-wide implications. The federal government need to develop virtual academic courses and standards to be consistent globally. A student anywhere in the world with Wi-Fi connection can get the same virtual, equal education. Researching in your small school library is archaic. Search engines find information at the click of a keyboard. Students need to learn how to find information and how to judge its validity, how to distinguish truth from propaganda, how to check out the source. The world has changed. The challenges increased, but the scope of how to teach is changing.
The stereotype image of teachers standing in front of their room with a chalkboard or whiteboard, lecturing to students sitting in rows is history. With social distancing, teacher will “roam” around their room, monitoring individual progress, and connect with student through different teaching styles.