Have you ever been in a situation where you had no idea how to do something and you were just “flying by the seat of your pants?”  Enter COVID-19.

I’ve heard this phrase my entire life, and I didn’t really put it into perspective until this past week.  Little did I know, the phrase originated during the early days of aviation before navigation aids and radio were readily available.  You literally were flying on your instinct, initiative, and perspective.  Talk about being brave and/or crazy.

Last week I shared with our teachers the idea of steering a rocket after launch.  The mental model of a rocket in flight, receiving feedback, and adjusting course just made the most sense to me with the onslaught of decisions that were being made in our country and state.  If you spend all your time aiming the rocket from the ground, you will never launch.  The suspending of shool provided the impetus to go forward 100% with online learning…

But first…Parents.  I grew up with the great fortune of going to my grandma Meredith and grandpa Pat’s home for daycare on most days.  Mr. Rodgers and Bob Ross were two great people to watch on television and brought me into their world.  They had a conversation with me as a kid.  They shared stories.  They taught lessons.  Bob painted those “happy little trees…”  I legitimately remember the couch, the carpet, the tv, and the room where it was just me and them.  Throw in Sesame Street on a few days and I was in heaven.  What I’m getting at is that my parents had someone to lean on that was always home and only just 5 blocks away.

While teachers were frantically coming up with plans for online learning, many parents were doing the same thing at home.  Only they weren’t planning lessons.  They were trying to see where their kids would go for daycare.  They were trying to figure out what the day would look like for their kids.  They were wondering how in the heck they would help teach their kids.  In a nutshell, they were flying by the seat of their pants.  I know, because I am one.  Our kids are 7, 5, and 2 and shall I say it, “full of energy?”

We have had two full days of online learning and I have nothing but great things to say of the teachers that are trying new and creative ways to connect to kids, mine especially.  Jessica and I split duty between all subjects.  She does 90% of the work and I teach 10% (PE and Shop).  I’m not joking.  For those teachers that have kids of their own, we understand what you are going through. Here are the boys below last Thursday when we had soccer practice (hey, we had already bought shoes for the season).

Everyone at school has been doing an amazing job being problem solvers.  Lunches are being served, backpacks are being delivered, and students are getting their first taste of what education has become for some colleges.  The shift that we could all see happening years ago with the advent of Chromebooks and computers has come upon us like a, no pun intended, “bat out of hell…”

I know that as the days go by we will all get better, learn, and adjust.  Feedback is the driving force for improvement.  We may not like it, but like the great Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”