It may seem hard to believe, but this month marks two full years since the COVID–19 pandemic first disrupted public education — and life as we know it — across the United States.
When our District administrators and I made the decision to temporarily close all school facilities for two weeks in March of 2020, I don’t think any of us could have predicted that we would still be adapting to new pandemic-related issues 24 months later. I also don’t think we expected to learn so many important lessons about adaptability, resilience, and the importance of not taking our “normal” lives for granted.
One important lesson that has stayed with me is about the value of priorities: When you focus on why, it becomes much easier to figure out how.
For example, many times over the past few years, our District has had to reschedule or adapt events, starting with our virtual prom and our outdoor high school graduation ceremony in 2020. For us, the why was obvious: these events still had to happen so the Class of 2020 could enjoy the memories and experiences that every student deserves to treasure for life. Once we agreed on the why, it simply became a question of how to make it happen.
Likewise, when students in our District faced the serious challenge of food insecurity while our cafeterias were inaccessible, our food service department worked diligently to create alternate meal pickup locations for our community. Again, the why was obvious: as educators, we are responsible for protecting the health and well-being of all the students we serve, despite any operational challenges. With that in mind, our staff and volunteers stepped up to solve the how.
This lesson of focusing on why is rooted in making decisions based on clear values, rather than on what may be easiest or most convenient.
In 2020, canceling graduation and suspending meal distribution would have been the easy and convenient choices for our District. But they would not have aligned with why our District exists.
When challenges arise, and they always will, they don’t change why, they only change how.
This reflection doesn’t just work at the District level.
It also applies to every level of decision-making from the communal to the personal.
As we pass the two-year mark of this pandemic, and begin to see the hardships we’ve endured in the rear-view mirror, I hope we will all still continue to remain focused on the why that guides our values and our choices each day. Just as important, I hope we will always retain the courage and strength we’ve gained by focusing on the how.