After the Black Death . . . What?

It was a little over a year ago that I wrote “The Black Death and an Educational Renaissance” about how the Black Death serves as an analogue to the Coronavirus. In that article I argued that the Black Death initiated a series of societal changes that eventually led to the Renaissance. I particularly noted how education took on a more prominent role broadly in society. Despite a general decline in population, universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris saw an increase in enrollment.

In light of potential parallels between the transformative effects of the Black Death and Coronavirus, I put forward several ways in which we might see shifts in society today. First, we ought to be prepared for society to change in dramatic ways. Second, we should anticipate new interest in spiritual matters. And third, we should expect that our educational renewal movement with its emphasis on truth derived from the great books of Western society will be a guiding light in a post-pandemic world.

After a year of schooling during the pandemic, we may now be seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Although I am an optimistic person by nature, my disposition toward the end of the pandemic is, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Yet, if we are nearing the end of hybrid learning, mask wearing, health screening and vaccinations, perhaps now is a good time to take stock of insights gained during a crazy year. Here I offer three insights from doing school for a year during the Covid pandemic. Then I suggest three ways we can be prepared for what I’m predicting will be an educational Renaissance.

Technology Cannot Replace Good Education

There were already many online educational platforms before the pandemic. When schools went completely remote in Spring 2020, new technologies sprang into place to enable online, remote learning. Programs like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams allowed teachers to meet with students, set up breakout rooms, and share content away from brick-and-mortar schoolhouses. My school has a reputation for being low tech; really low tech. And yet we pivoted on a dime, devoting three days to teacher training to show them how to use Zoom effectively to lead their classes. When we returned to classes in the fall, our school offered hybrid learning. Families could choose to remain remote. Every classroom was set up to have students join via Microsoft Teams, through which assignments could be distributed to in-person and remote students.

The use of technology to meet the needs of education during the pandemic did much to provide a holistic appraisal of the value of a technology-based overhaul to education. What we learned is that education has largely operated as it ever has. The application of different technologies really didn’t revolutionize education at all. Instead, it tended to reveal disparities in different kinds of schools. Inner city and rural schools were impacted by a lack of devices in homes, especially those with multiple children, or a lack of internet connectivity. Technology did little to address the educational needs of low-income families. Even though one could sign up for a free Zoom account, one still needs a device and quality internet access to participate in remote schooling.

Technology has a tendency to expose good and bad teaching. I have heard many classical Christian schools gaining more widespread reputations for quality education while public schools have been slated for a lack of quality. One reason for this is that parents can sit beside their children during remote learning. Increased access means increased scrutiny. An influx of new admissions at classical schools is due to a growing dissatisfaction with what’s on offer at conventional schools.

Instead of a revolution, we are primed to experience a renewal. Parents, students, and teachers alike are ready for a return to “normal” schooling. For those of us in the classical Christian schooling movement, that means a return from this influx of devices and screen time. In our educational renewal movement, we need to emphasize all the more our distinctives of value-rich education, personal formation and physical presence. Reading actual books and discussing them in the classroom is so important, and the marketplace is primed to find value in what we offer like never before.

Physical Presence is Essential for a Good Education

The experiment in remote learning during Covid has also shown that being physically present in a classroom is so important for holistic learning. One of the challenges of remote learning has been the disconnectedness of students. When a child joins a 45-minute class with the video feed ending when class is done, the child can’t participate in non-instructional time like a snack break or recess. These moments are equally part of the educational environment, providing training in relational and emotional skills. Even during instructional time, remote students seem to have greater difficulty participating in discussion and debate. Technology provides access to the classroom, but it also stands in the way of full participation. For one, it is impossible to see an entire class on one screen. Audio is frequently a problem, making it so that key points in discussion are lost. It is so much harder to stay motivated and attentive when accessing a learning environment through a laptop screen.

Theologically, we know that being physically present with one another is better than being in isolation from one another. The author of Hebrews calls us believers to not forsake meeting together (Heb. 10:25). While this pertains to Christians gathering for worship and scriptural instruction, it points to the benefits we share when we enjoy fellowship with one another. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in his book Life Together:

“It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, pg. 20

We are not meant to be alone. I think this is true in an educational sense as well. I don’t mean to say that the individual doesn’t bear a certain amount of responsibility. But when we have groups of students in classrooms, the sum is greater than the parts. This is not only true in group activities, but there is a sense of accountability and mutual care that is gained when learning amongst others even when doing individual work. Teachers are able to be present with students to “lend strength” in their weakness to instill habits of virtues.

As we return to normal classroom life, we must be mindful of how powerful the atmosphere of learning is. Being together, while important, is not the chief end of education. Charlotte Mason explores how several different stimuli detract from the most powerful of the desires we should cultivate: the love of knowledge. She writes:

“It will be said with truth that most children delight in school; they delight in the stimulus of school life, in the social stir of companionship; they are emulous, eager for reward and praise; they enjoy the thousand lawful interests of school life, including the attractive personality of such and such a teacher; but it seems doubtful whether the love of knowledge, in itself and for itself; is usually a powerful motive with the young scholar. The matter is important, because, of all the joyous motives of school life, the love of knowledge is the only abiding one; the only one which determines the scale, so to speak, upon which the person will hereafter live.”

Charlotte Mason, School Education, pg. 245-246

When the disruption of our school atmospheres, either through remote learning or social distancing, comes to an end, we can create a false delight in school through an emphasis on school furniture, recess or just being physically together. The true value of life together is not actually the stimulation of being with other people. Instead, it is to enjoy the love of knowledge with others. Schools that have no love of knowledge suffered tremendously during remote learning. Why attend classes? Why turn the camera on? Why participate? The stimulus of the classroom was gone, and there was no true love of knowledge to sustain the children. But when we have cultivated a true love of knowledge, we can truly sustain the life of the mind remotely, during social distancing, and most especially when we return to normal classrooms.

Masks, My Friends, Seem to Work

How is it that masks have become so politicized? I myself have no interest in addressing the politics that have cropped up around mask wearing. It really is a shame the extent to which everything has become political (by which we no longer mean matters concerning policies of state, but whether a person toes a given party line). Yes, I am bringing up masks, but I merely do so to make a simple observation. Masks, my friends, seem to work.

I don’t know the science of the matter. I only know anecdotally that in our school that enacted a policy of mask wearing throughout the school year, we had very few students absent due to the flu or colds. Attendance was outstanding this year. I myself didn’t get sick at all, that is until mask requirements started to go away late this spring. In looking for an explanation for this, it occurred to me that mask wearing actually helped us to mitigate the transmission of just about everything that interrupts the flow of the school year.

Now, I honestly don’t know what to do with this information. It could be that we enjoyed a wild year with mask wearing and just so happened to reduce the number of cold and flu symptoms. Perhaps masks will become so hated that we will never again enjoy the absence of the cold and flu. Alternatively, our society might become slightly more comfortable with masks as has happened in other cultures. Voluntary mask wearing seems to be a way to show kindness to others to stop or slow the transmission of disease. Again, I’m not sure what to think about all that we’ve learned about masks, but I imagine in the aftermath of Covid, discussions about masks won’t entirely go away.

Being Ready for the Renaissance

As I listen to friends and family, the impact of Covid on schools has been dramatic. Conventional schooling did not show itself to be nearly as adept as expected. If anything, remote learning revealed all the more the shortcomings of progressive education. More and more parents are questioning the “normal” school options. The uptick of interest at my school might be an outlier, but I sense that the classical Christian school movement will get a closer look from parents who have become dissatisfied with the education on offer during Covid. What can we do to be ready?

First, we need to double down on our identity as an educational alternative. The temptation, particularly for small schools desperately trying to grow, is to look and sound like the big schools with all the bells and whistles. It is not the programs that make for a quality education. It is a love of knowledge based on great ideas drawn from great books. That’s what our educational renewal movement is based on. That’s what we need to stick to.

Second, we need to take our message to the market. For the longest time I was skeptical about marketing. Having taught Logic, I thought of marketing as synonymous with advertising, which is rife with logical fallacies employed to mislead and manipulate customers. What I learned, though, about marketing is that the marketplace – your area of influence – needs to learn accurate information about who you are. What are your values? What is the distinctive approach to education you offer? How does your school benefit students and families? I realized that marketing in these terms was simply teaching. Now my classroom was not the four walls inside the school, it is the entire western suburbs of Chicago. I could help someone truly understand what we offer at our school. So, come up with a simple marketing plan. Post pictures of students in classrooms on social media. Write blog articles. Invite people to small-group coffees in the neighborhoods where your current families live. The more you educate your market about what makes you distinctive, the more you will attract families who are missionally aligned with you.

Finally, we need to be clear on our boundaries. As more and more families turn from conventional education, the more we need to clarify the policies that are non-negotiable. This requires effective board structures and workflows. Schools are best served by delineated standards for admissions and community culture. If your school is weak on policy, now is the time to start writing policy. If your school has good policy, set a schedule for reviewing policy, ensuring that faculty and staff are aligning practices with policy.

I think the future is bright for classical Christian education. Even though our educational renewal movement has been around over a quarter century, it really feels like we are primed to experience a new influx of interest. Let’s keep this educational Renaissance spreading!