Education in times of pandemic: let's not propose to children the path of Anne Frank

Gustavo Iaies

08/27/2020 - 19:26

• Clarín.com
• Opinion

Anna Frank was born in June 1929 in Germany. At the age of 13, the advance of the Nazis led her to hide , along with her family, in a basement in Amsterdam.

His parents gave him a diary for his birthday and that was his window to life away from horror. He told stories, stories, imagined, created, and that text allowed him to build another life.

The truth is that while horror walked the streets, Anna wrote fantastic stories in the basements, where she hid.

Is it the exit? Do we propose to our boys that they stay locked up and forget what happens outside ? Do we invite you to forget about school and the horror of the pandemic?

It does not seem the best way as a society, nor as a proposal to them; It seems to me that we adults should do something.

Shall we sit and wait for the vaccine? Are we awaiting any other treatment? It does not seem that it is a good message to the children, it seems that "adults should act as adults" and propose a way out , at least showing the effort.

With the coronavirus, remote teaching was imposed. Even when? Photo Juano Tesone

The City proposes to go and find those who have more difficulties, the directors of the schools seem willing to look for an institutional protocol for their students, but someone has put themselves in an evaluator and says no , that it does not meet their criteria.

We suggest that you continue to write the diary of Anna Frank or we go through attempts at a positive path, a search, a test of better paths.

There are models of reintegration in the school, separating grades by day, dividing them into halves, reducing the hours, all of them with the mask and washing their hands all the time. The important thing is to recover their teachers and colleagues and recover a path to improve life in society.

I am convinced that students can take care of themselves, that their teachers and principals will be able to contain them and give them guidelines. I am convinced that the school can and that we should try.

The kids can, the teachers too, we can all help them find a reasonable way out. 

The author of this column is director of the School of Educational Management - ESEADE.

LP