Dean's Remarks

335 days ago, School of Education staff and faculty left their work spaces as APU campuses closed in response to an emerging health crisis called Covid-19. We cleared out refrigerators, turned off lamps, packed up textbooks, loaned laptops to those with desktop computers, and said our goodbyes. Priority was given to provide support and resources for faculty, develop remote work systems for staff, and send communications to students. Face-to-face classes moved to an online environment with only a weekend for faculty to prepare for this significant shift.

Frankly many of us thought this was a 3-4 week hiatus of working from home before the staff and leadership team would return to our offices as faculty finished out Spring 2 online. After 11 months, we are still awaiting county guidelines about return to college campuses. Our amazing team of full time and adjunct faculty, staff, and administrators continue robust work while home-life and work-life intermingle like never before. And, with the recent initial rollout of the vaccine, there is increased hopefulness -- for the slowing of the disease, the lessening of restrictions, economic recovery, and a chance to hug loved ones from whom we have remained distant for many months.

I don’t have a viewpoint that the goal is to “get back to normal”. This last year has allowed us to realize that past practices included some familiar routines that were not ideal. I like the idea of us anticipating a Re-Start -- a chance to tinker, fix, discard, and preserve -- as we Re-Start the work of the School of Education when we return to campuses.

As I imagine what it will be like when we move out of quarantine, I’m pondering three areas of questions for my own life:

• What practices and experiences while in quarantine should continue? How has this period helped me rebalance my life? What have I learned?

• What practices and experiences will I be glad to discontinue? What previous practices should not be resumed?

• How have I stewarded this remarkable experience, in terms of time, resources, and relationships? How will I describe this era 5, 10, and 20 years from now?

In 2016, the World Health Organization launched The Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health (2016-2030) which focused on three themes -- Survive, Thrive, and Transform. I think these themes are good guidelines for us to consider for our Re-Start:

• For many of us, 2020-2021 will include memories where SURVIVE was the primary goal. Balancing home-based schooling for children or caregiving for individuals with physical needs sapped our emotional and tangible resources. At the same time, boredom and isolation were very real for many. Juggling work from home in tight spaces, with too little privacy, loss of identity, and the sameness of workdays and weekends added its own level of fatigue. Balancing constant meals and dishes, the best way to acquire groceries, and mounds of laundry became our 3rd shift jobs. In a Re-Start, I anticipate these factors will remain important, but slip to a lesser focus as it becomes a bit easier to acquire goods and services as part of day-to-day functions.

• Some of us have moved to a level of THRIVE, at least in particular areas of life. Once new rhythms and patterns emerged, joy was rebirthed. Whether becoming one of the millions of people who began to bake bread, or garden, or take family walks together, endorphins bolstered our spirits and our energy levels. Within our School, there were some marriages and some births to celebrate. Others completed significant home projects ,and others have dug deeper into scripture and seen God’s Word in new ways.

• I look forward to how we can TRANSFORM -- both personally and as a School. Specifically, how we will reconceptualize our curriculum? What do emerging teachers, counselors, psychologists, and administrators need to be taught to better equip them for “unprecedented times” (a phrase I will be happy to retire!). On the personal front -- how might we use our personal influence and resources to change the future for others? How will we transform systems and communities and families through intentional change?

As I close, I acknowledge that integrated with this time of pandemic and remote work and learning have been other heavy life events of significant impact this last year --

• Some have lost loved ones to Covid or other illnesses while isolated from extended family and community. We grieve with you, pray for you, and are learning new ways to support when separated from each other.

• We have experienced one of the most divisive election cycles in US history. Polarization has led to deep divisions in families and communities across our nation. Looking to Jesus as our example of navigating the divide between powerful systems and the people they serve leads me back to study the Gospels in this season of Lent.

• This pandemic has highlighted that systemic disparities mean that one’s address (or lack of address), income level, and ethnicity can lead to very different educational experiences in the same community/city/state. As educators, we have seen this with food insecurity, technology and bandwidth availability, and even healthcare access in the midst of this pandemic. I’ll also acknowledge that these very statements can be polarizing. In the same week in January, I received a resignation letter from an adjunct because the culture of the School of Education is too “woke” and a complaint that we are not placing enough emphasis on diversity and access. I say this to acknowledge that I don’t have all the answers. But, we must have further dialogue about how to understand that no individual experience is universal and that, to serve well, we must understand the breadth of differences for which we are preparing our educator candidates who will work and lead in the K-12 system. I ask you to join with me in prayer for these conversations and the learning that lies ahead.

I close with these words from Thurgood Marshall, lead attorney in the case of Brown v. Board of Education and, later, a Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court -- "The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis." I ask myself -- how are we doing? What more can we do to exhibit compassion amidst this world (and local) health crisis? As Jesus said, as recorded in Mark 8:36, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" I invite you to join me in wrestling with how, as we Re-Start, we can be part of a transformation rooted in compassion amidst crisis, while caring for others (which is our soul work).