Penn Pandemic Diary Penn Pandemic Diary, Entry #17: The Essentiality of Teachers

Fortunate Kelechi Ekwuruke is a dual-degree master’s student in Education, Culture and Society and Nonprofit Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania and a Graduate Associate at Perry World House.

As an educator, I always felt that my job was a sort of hidden gem, one that was often undervalued socially and financially. It was basically an unspoken truth, even in my student-teaching preparation: this isn’t the type of job for those who want to make money. It was one that required an air of selflessness often with limited gratitude in return.

Nevertheless, millions opt for this line of service, despite the low wages and often unreasonable demands, year after year. Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with schools closed and students at home, educators seem to be getting a lot of attention and a new set of demands. Educators are still required to teach but in a new form.

Educators across the United States, with little to no training or time to prepare, must translate their entire curricula to online adaptable formats. Platforms like Blackboard, Canvas, Zoom, BlueJeans, Google Classroom and others have become the medium of instruction. While many are certainly grateful for the availability of these platforms to continue with education and learning instruction, it certainly has opened up a can of worms.

In one of my classes on Information, Communication and Technology in Education, my professor mentioned an Ed-tech innovator who a number of years ago stated that online learning would soon take over, leaving classroom gatherings a thing of the past. Self-learning was predicted to be the new norm, leaving the role of a traditional teacher/educator in the air. I am sure he did not anticipate a deadly virus would be the catalyst, but people simply preferring the comfort of their own home over the classroom. Some might say that’s the future, and it’s arriving far faster than even that bold prognosticator suggested.

Yet, I think this pandemic has shown us otherwise.

The pandemic and the sharp catapult towards Ed-tech solutions has revealed massive inequalities in education among students, districts, and educational institutions. In recent weeks, I’ve watched my mother, an educator in a community college in Brooklyn, try (without pay) to train her colleagues on the technology while her school worked to provide laptops for students who had no means to secure their own. Meanwhile, the school district of Philadelphia refused to participate in graded online instruction, a decision made because some students lack access to technology or a safe and presentable space to participate.

Online learning is not easy, and in most cases, not a translatable experience. Students are expressing their discontent with this new mode of learning, with college and graduate students demanding refunds from their universities. Parents have also taken to social media to detail the woes of homeschooling and their new-found admiration for teachers.

It is ironic the technology that was once thought to be the solution to making education more efficient and accessible has now become such a source of discontent and division. From elementary all the way to the graduate level, the pandemic has revealed a lot about what is actually involved and necessary in the process of teaching and learning. While technology certainly can be a viable asset to learning, the relationships and the classroom experience cultivated by teachers is central to the way we learn at all levels.

I just hope that when this is over, God willing, we start to truly understand that teachers are essential for our society and treat them with the respect they deserve.

To my mom, thank you for the work that you do for students and for the entire department, still managing to be a great mom through it all. They may not have seen you struggling with a severe cough, wheezing and weak but still pulling yourself together for Zoom calls—I did.

To all educators, you are seen. You are valued. Thank you.

The views expressed in the Penn Pandemic Diary are solely the author’s and not those of Penn or Perry World House.