Schools run on routine. To be fair, some routine is entirely necessary in life; without it, human beings fall apart pretty quickly. I know I certainly do. But routine can also become a burden, especially in learning. We know that we should be trying out new models and tools that are demonstrably better yet we feel like our hands are tied by “the way things have always been done”. But every once in a while, fate hands you a golden opportunity to break this mould.
The PanAm Games are arriving in Lima on July 26th, 2019 and will be here until Aug 11th. This event will bring some 7000 athletes to Lima, along with all of their support staff, administrators and media. Local business will shift gears to accommodate these honorary Limeños as moves are made to cash in one a once-in-a-lifetime sporting event. In short, Lima is going to be completely turned upside down for 2 weeks to accommodate the games.
In anticipation of this massive event, local governments are scrambling to get their ducks in a row. The worst outcome would be for Peru’s systemic disorganization to be laid bare on the world stage; everyone wants this event to go well; to show that Peru is turning a page. One of the ideas being batted around is to close all schools for the duration of the games. This would have the effect of lifting tens of thousands of vehicles, busses and pedestrians off of the main routes while the games are here. And here is where our opportunity lies!
This could be the perfect chance to shake up our educational models as a school. To try real distance and blended approaches to learning. To gather feedback about how learning is impacted by the absence of the physical school. Will kids do worse, or better if they learn at home? How will teacher workloads and ability to shape learning be affected by this change classroom structure? Perhaps most importantly, how will morale, drive and motivation change throughout all of our community’s stakeholders as we no longer have to grapple with the gridlock and stress of commuting through Lima every morning?
Perhaps it will be a failure. Perhaps we will find out that kids in fact do not learn outside of our school walls. Maybe we will see that shifting to online teaching will be too much of a change for some teachers to bare. Perhaps these 2 weeks will become a complete wash in the educational lives of students at our school.
Or...
We may see the exact opposite. We may see kids learning much more as they are in their home environments and are unshackled from the burden of their daily routines. We may see teacher creativity and engagement go way up with their newfound borderless classrooms. We may see that everyone likes school more when the bells and walls are suddenly stripped away. We may learn that the business of teaching and learning is more efficient, more effective and more meaningful when the age-old structures of ‘school’ are gone.
Whichever way the cookie crumbles, we should still take this chance. Schools should follow the lead of the local businesses who are formulating plans to cash in on this once-in-a-lifetime event and start thinking of how we can capitalize on this golden opportunity ourselves. After all, we may not get another one again.
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