The calculus, though, is more complex than a binary choice of learning vs. health, or equity vs. safety, says Gloria Ladson-Billings, an emerita professor with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
And “getting back to normal” is the wrong goal.“Normal is the place where the problem was for a number of kids,” says Ladson-Billings, who is president of the National Academy of Education. The pandemic has uncovered longstanding “social and economic inequities. A specific group of kids were not doing well in school as it was. I think going back to that is not a remedy.”