“Work” has become a changed paradigm with the Corona Virus pandemic. We can no longer imagine a workstation or workplace which resembles our past experiences. Almost all experts agree that things will not return to what we may have called “normal” before the virus hit last year. So, as we finish our “work” step in Zig Zigler’s See You at the Top focus, I want to make some observations of my own. Am I an expert? No. However, as a professional educator in my fifty-sixth year of teaching, I think I can make some valid observations.
Dressing for work or for a job interview is now pretty much a thing of the past. It is now popular to dress “half-way” or from the neck-up to present a “computer view” only. I think this will have a lasting effect upon dressing in general. For me, this is rather sad. I love to see the special dress or suit etc. which signify “something special.” It seems that the t-shirt informality which has been with us for quite some time is now just part of the whole attitude of fashion. I have noted the new popular fad of using sequins which change colors when rubbed for dressing up clothing. However, I have also noticed that my most hyperactive children are the main ones wearing these creations as well as the shoes which light up with every move. Thus, attention is not on classwork, but upon the tactual pleasure of making both of these fads light up the room or grab the attention of others.
There is no such thing as an inside voice and an outside voice. Children seem to have to scream for attention all the time. Some say their parents are too busy on the internet or playing video games, and they have to get their attention. Whatever the problem there, it is very hard to have a normal conversation a great percentage of the time. One parent told me they use noise-reduction headphones to keep the noise down for them. I also wonder if the need for parents to work from home has caused a stronger squelching of sounds from the kids and thus caused the children to really “let loose” upon entering the vast expanse of new places outside the home office!
“Entertain me because I’m bored,” is the desire and spoken request of many students these days. Oh yes, it’s been there for some years. However, it is now apparent that attention spans are about five minutes to ten minutes long. We used to expect fidgeting to occur about twenty minutes into a lesson. Today, we barely get started on a lesson when the fidgeting starts. Students are likewise less attentive with technology and manipulatives. There just seems to be an unquenchable thirst for entertainment which children express loudly and repeatedly.
With the necessity of zoom and online virtual classes, communication seems to be marked by short, irratic bits and pieces of information. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent flow of language and communication. This carries over to thinking skills. I won’t even touch upon the subject of “inventive spelling,” emoji use in writing, and the great disregard for standard language conventions.
Yes, I realize change must take place. Yet, I am not sure the new changes brought about by this pandemic are for the better. I can be sure of one thing. There is now a great teacher shortage. I hear and witness more and more excellent teachers throwing in the towel…too tired of fighting for some semblance of continuity in learning.
Today, more than ever, I see people placing their hopes in a lottery prize or a title won in some TV contest which will bring them “success.” I wonder how Zig Zigler would see his steps to the top if he were alive today. My other great mentor, Walter Williams, economic professor from George Mason University, recently died. He, too, was sounding the clarion call to battle some of these changes within the education of our young people. With the loss of some of these great minds and advocates for educational validity now gone, I wonder more than ever before: what does tomorrow hold for mankind? My immediate response is more and more time spent in prayer for this great nation I love and for the children who are the hope for the future.
- Kay