My letter was published in the Letters section of the Irish Times on 26th August 2020
School need society's help
Sir,
Roadmaps, pods and bubbles. Lead Worker Representative (LWR), Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE), frameworks, protocols and toolkits. These are the new acronyms and
jargon being publicly debated for a safe return to school in Ireland in less than a week’s
time.
As a recently-retired principal of a DEIS primary school (‘disadvantaged’), my question is
where is the mention of our children and our school staff? Pods and bubbles are actually no
more than groups of children and classes of children. The fact that we are naming them as a
pod or a bubble does not magically bestow on them some new protective superpower. The
LWR is a staff member, either a teacher or an SNA (Special Needs Assistant) who has taken
on extra responsibility at this time. The media needs to desist from commodifying and de-
humanising our schools.
Parents, teachers, principals, SNAs, school secretaries, caretakers and volunteers on Boards
of Management all over the country are all doing their utmost to ensure a safe return for
our children and, more importantly, to ensure that our schools will remain open. Our
teachers, principals and SNAs, who are among the best in the world, will continue to keep
our schools child-centred. They will stay focused on their mission to realise the wonderful
potential and creativity that exists in each child in front of them.
But schools need society’s help. Who exactly will ensure that some of our vulnerable
children who are born into systemic and inter-generational poverty and neglect will arrive at
school in a freshly-laundered uniform with a perfectly santitised lunchbox at a suitably
staggered opening time to join a little pod?
The school’s responsibility begins at the school door and I have no doubt that schools will
rise to the challenge. But the challenges to society are far greater. Let’s focus on our
children and let’s do better.
Yours,
Kathryn Crowley