Back to School: How Will the Year Begin?

Mom and teacher Elizabeth Estrada ponders how she can share the hope her students need to thrive in difficult times.

For me as a public-school teacher and a mom, this year is very different from any other. I am to start the year in about three weeks and still don’t know how the year will begin. Will we be in the classroom? Virtually?

I also suffer from severe allergies and have asthma, so in-person instruction does give me some anxiety. As I ponder all of this and many other unknowns, one thing is for sure: the littles will come either way.

For them, the excitement about friends and school is still there. They have possibly grown accustomed to this “new normal.” They don’t have the fears and they adjust so much better than we do as adults to situations.

I think that the key factor is that they trust the adults in the way that I should trust Our Lord. He wants us to be like little children. Therefore, I too need to be like these little ones and trust that whatever is asked of me as a teacher, He will guide me and be with me through this "new normal."

Regardless of what is decided, little children and their families need to be supported through this time and given some sense of consistency and stability. So much is uncertain these days, so maybe I can provide, in my small way with Our Lord’s help, the hope they need to thrive in these times.

I remember watching “The Jetsons” as a kid and thinking that it would be so cool to speak with others via the television set, and now it may not be the television set but it’s the computer. Maybe I need to look at this “new normal” through that same lens: as a child.

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