By Guy Chapman – Navarro County Gazette
“Welcome back from Spring Break!”
In any other context, this statement would be absurd this for time of year, but 2020 has rewritten all rules of normalcy.
For the Corsicana Independent School District, classes start again on Tuesday, September 8, nearly six months after COVID-19 shuttered the country. Navarro College has already resumed its classes as of August 24.
It’s going to be a very different year. Students will have the option to attend physical classes on alternate days, or continue to stay at home, learning through Zoom video conferencing. Masks and face shields are part of the dress code. We still can’t freely give hugs or handshakes, we still need to maintain our distance, and hand sanitizer is yet another school supply to consider.
At this point, it’s difficult to speculate if the graduating class of 2021 will walk across a stage to receive their diplomas, or will they also follow in the footsteps of their 2020 alumni predecessors. Teachers will have their own challenges in adapting their lesson plans, and there remains the specter of classrooms being suspended again if an outbreak occurs.
It’s going to be a challenging semester, but if there’s one thing our local teachers and students taught us this last school year, it’s we will make it through the 2020-2021 season as well.
The world is still navigating through uncharted territory with no resolution date in sight. If we stand strong together, we can get through this until relief is found. It’s feels easy, almost welcome to want to give up because the experience has been exhausting, but there is an eventual end destination, even if we still can’t yet see it.
To the teachers and students of this school year: Be patient. Be flexible.
We Can. We Will. We Must.
Things are going to constantly be in a state of change, and we have to simply accept that some things are not going to go to plan no matter how prepared we try to be. Some days are going to be fine. Some days are going to test us for things we can’t study for. It’s okay to be frustrated. It’s okay to regard this entire situation as strange.
But we will get through this. The teachers and students of 2020 have already proven that, and they were less “ready” than we are now.
As we continue to walk this unknown path, take comfort in the knowledge that our community will walk it together.
For the graduating class of 2021: If the time comes that your graduation becomes a virtual event as it was for 2020, it still counts. You have still earned your success, and you still have a future to look forward in changing the world as you want it to be.
