Let me take you back. It's March 13, 2020. You are sitting at your desk when you hear that they are locking the doors for two weeks to "flatten the curve." You are nervous but excited for a break from the heathens as you step into the torture of testing season. ACT testing is next Tuesday. What a pity you won't get to proctor that. You head home to pet the cats, mow the grass, and catch up on some grading and Netflix.

Boom.

Just like that.

Six month summer is upon us.

Come August, enter one to one technology in most school districts in the nation. A frenzy of administrators, school board personnel, technology coordinators, and teachers all trying to throw Chromebooks and hotspots at parents and kids so we can have school again.

It works. Kind of. Okay, let's be honest. It was a mess. Kids didn't learn anything. Teachers barely slept. Everyone was exhausted and confused and frustrated. The good news is that the technology gap is closed. Right? Right?!

Nope.

Wrong.

Just like giving each fan a crate to stand on doesn't make watching the game easy for all of them, tossing a computer and internet at students doesn't mean that they can use them effectively.

"Illustrating Equality VS Equity" by Interaction Institute for Social Change is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Equity is more than equality. Equity is giving each person what they need to succeed, without regard for what others are receiving. Unfortunately, it is a hard idea to really overcome in public schools. Public school teachers are already overstretched and underfunded; they are not really in any position to have more on their plate--myself included.

The reality is that this digital inequity is not something I can tackle in addition to teaching my content (which is then tested and my (anything other than standard) kids' ability to take a standardized test determines my pay and worth as an educator--but that's another post).

While there is no easy solution to the inequities that today's students face, there are possible solutions. Those solutions do not lie on the backs of educators, but instead of the backs of the communities in which we serve. Instead of the burden lying solely on my already overburdened shoulders, this is a place that I can act as a liaison with community resources for parents, guardians, and adults in my students' lives.

The solution, to me, is clear as crystal: P U B L I C L I B R A R I E S

If the best way to close fluency gaps in reading in young children is to have them read at home.

Then clearly the best way to close the gap in digital fluency is to start at home.

The fact is that I cannot possibly support the technological education of 70+ families. I just simply can't while working 55 hours a week and devoting much of my spare energy to my school kids. However, a public library can offer classes for families of young children to help bridge the gap between home and school. Once families become more involved in the library programs, so do the kids. But again, the benefits of public library programs are a story for another post.

Simple things like classes for grandparents who are raising school age children. Classes to teach adult learners how to effectively use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and the Google Suite. Classes that offer paths to even be certified in some of the areas (like their students will one day be). These classes mean adults that help students with homework will be more versed in how to navigate the systems on which their kids do work. They mean less parents who can't check grades to monitor student progress. They mean more parents who can email you questions and actually reply to those emails well (and in turn teach their students how to do the same).

Digital literacy works the same as more traditional literacy. The more literate people you are around, the better you will become. Listening to people with a larger vocabulary increases your own. Watching someone use technology differently from you helps you to learn new ways to use technology. The behavior young people see modeled is the behavior that they will then begin to exhibit.

I'm not saying that public libraries can fix the technological education gap we see today. I'm not claiming that all guardians of children will cooperate and take advantage of free classes.

But, what is there to lose? What is the risk in trying?

Public libraries are the unsung, underappreciated, underutilized backbone of society in the US, but again, that is a story for another post.

"DSC_0009" by Tracie Hall is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0