Mercedes Schneider teaches high school English in Louisiana. Here is her report on life after Hurricane Ida:
Hurricane Ida hit four days ago. I’m able to post this using my phone, which I can recharge by plugging into 200 feet of extension cord coming from my neighbors’ house. (They installed a generator that runs on natural gas just two weeks ago.) it’s 85 degrees in my house, but as a result of that generous extension cord offer, I have the luxury of an oscillating fan. My mother is staying with me, as are her five chicks hatched a few weeks ago. They are in a cage in my living room, with a light compliments of said extension cord.
School is “closed until further notice.” I found out from a woman kind enough to look up the school website on her phone, which was functional since the tower of her carrier made it through the storm. We were both waiting in line to enter the hardware store the day after Ida. Like most people, she was there to buy a generator. I needed batteries for numerous devices now of primary importance post-Ida’s-wrath-on-everything-electrical.
When COVID hit, it seemed that much of American ed, our district included, viewed online learning delivered via laptop as the solution, not only during a pandemic, but also as the solution for dodging any ills that might close school. However, remote education is heavily dependent upon infrastructure that can be destroyed in a moment by the likes of Ida— electricity is the biggie, with the (not really) wireless a near second.
Miles and miles of mangled poles, towers, and wires.
And no one is talking “learning loss.” But there sure is a lot of creative problem solving happening and loads of neighborly kindness.
Living through difficult situations is its own education. Seems like that ought to go without saying.
On Fri, Sep 3, 2021 at 17:01 Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” Mercedes Schneider teaches high school English in > Louisiana. Here is her report on life after Hurricane Ida: Hurricane Ida > hit four days ago. I’m able to post this using my phone, which I can > recharge by plugging into 200 feet of extension cord coming” >
I’m also in Louisiana, affected by Ida, and lack of internet to support any learning. Over the last year, many parents were forced to learn how to ‘quasi’ home school, so as some semblance of normalcy sets in, I think “some” attempts at instruction will begin, however it is not sufficient and our children are falling further and further behind. The school system, nationally needs a “plan”, a guide that can be followed on how to mainstream our children back into their rightful education levels, and this includes post high-school for our 11th and 12th graders who were graduated during the pandemic, and outreach to ensure that they are given sufficient education to make them whole. The cascading effects that the pandemic and now Ida have had on education are incalculable, they will have negative consequences on our children’s futures at the individual, community and national level as a whole. All of these should be taken into account now, and short, intermediate and long-term plans to mitigate the negative consequences should be discussed now. I grew up in New York City, and I remember a major snow storm that closed the schools, we were home for what I remember to be weeks. With no social media to coordinate, just corded telephones that were attached to the kitchen wall, parents, teachers and paraprofessionals managed to coordinate drop off locations in parents and teachers apartments, where classroom instruction continued throughout the district. I remember my mother was teaching myself, and about 8 others in our small apartment. We lived in the NYC housing projects, these are large, almost small cities unto themselves, so there was no driving to get anyplace, that may have assisted – but instruction never missed a beat – I was in elementary school at the time, I’m going to guestimate around the year 1970, and our remote learning was executed with immediacy and precision. If history is a teacher, our moving forward contingency plans for remote learning should include – pencil, paper, and no internet.
I live about two and half hours from New Orleans. We are working in our community to help people in Louisiana. Restaurants are sending ready made meals to Louisiana. We are collecting food, water, clothing, masks and other necessities to those in need. A local trucking company is donating its trucks to make deliveries. It is an unwritten understanding on the Gulf Coast that when disaster hits, the surrounding areas help those in need, and there are no politics involved. Everyone knows all coastal communities are at risk, and we could very easily be in Louisiana’s shoes with the next storm.
It’s silly that, in these times of climate change and recurring natural disasters, that we continue to string power lines up in the sky on wooden poles. Utility companies need to focus more on serving their customers, and not their investors; and start using some better technologies to deliver current.
It’s a shame in New Orleans. There aren’t any more public schools to privatize following hurricanes and floods. What’s the point of worrying about learning loss if you can’t use test scores to attack public school teachers and turn their schools into private businesses? How about we just make a law requiring that every time there’s a natural disaster, the poor must hand over a bigger portion to the rich.
All sarcasm aside, though, stay strong, everyone in Ida’s aftermath. I wish my State of California could trade you electricity for some of that rain.
“How about we just make a law requiring that every time there’s a natural disaster, the poor must hand over a bigger portion to the rich.”
Sad, but so true.
Glad to hear you are safe, and finding some kindness within that disaster.
This is one of the (many) ed reform echo chamber groups- Bellweather Education Partners.
This purports to be some kind of “research” on public education but instead it’s just blatantly biased lobbying for privatizing public schools:
“Two important changes have taken root among these families. First, there has been a fundamental transformation of what families prioritize for their kids’ physical, mental, emotional, and academic development. Second, for the first time in modern history, nearly every family in America had to consider different educational settings for their children.
Families’ preferences for their children’s education in the fall of 2020 looked very different from their preferences in any previous year. Some have been able to find new options to meet their needs, some have disengaged from the system entirely, and others will have to grapple with unresponsive systems and limited choices this fall. ”
It’s filled with these ridiculous declarations of the ed reform agenda presented as what “families” want or think, and it’s backed up by nothing.
Do public schools actually rely on this junk? Why? It’s marketing the very narrow and wholly ideological ed reform agenda. Someone pays for this?
Public schools should break free from the ed reform echo chamber. We could find and develop our own talent if we need consultants. This “movement” is an echo chamber and it’s utterly ideologically driven.
Click to access The%20Overlooked%20-%20Bellwether%20Education%20Partners%20FINAL%20-%20August%2031%202021%20CORRECTED.pdf
Media / Information literacy programs are vital…. and they need to be robust, well developed and well taught.
Spin, echo chambers, PR, marketing, propaganda as well as bald-faced lies are impacting so much of how people view and experience life in our country….. and how important political decisions are being made. Knowing how to tune out or in to who and what…… what to ignore and how to evaluate information…
If we can teach students how to do this…. and at the same time put more laws into place to regulate social media companies and news organizations…
We wouldn’t have to worry as much about the Bell Weather groups of the world.
“Many families are frustrated with the educational options offered by their children’s current school and lack meaningful access to high-quality alternative choices. This frustration can manifest in different forms and is difficult to quantify, but a large subset of The Muted can be defined as those who want access to high-quality remote instruction
but will not have access to that option in the 2021-22 school year.”
It can manifest “in different forms” and it difficult to “quantify” but we’re in the business of pushing school privatiation so we’ll just go ahead and annouce that “families” want the exact same thing we want, which is more privatization.
Pure sales and marketing and every single ed reform echo chamber lobbying group or org or university department recites the same line. Lockstep.
There’s no criticism or analysis of any of the work the echo chamber pumps out because one section of the echo chamber must never, ever criticize another. There’s no review, because there are no dissenters.
Here’s some real data from public school districts. People are returning to public schools, in person. The virtual learning promotion and marketing by ed reformers is a flop:
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2021/9/2/22654905/virtual-school-option-standalone-interest-dips
All the ed reform predictions that people would abandon public schools and flock to privatized ed reform options? Just more marketing.
The privatization agenda suffuses everything this “movement” does. They are so committed to the ideological goal of eradicating public schools they can no longer see anythng else.
Good to hear that you are safe and hope you get power back soon.