During the last 10 months, a collective humanity has been in a constant state of adapting to life during the pandemic. There has been a tremendous amount of uncertainty, loss, and isolation and I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge these months as such.
Speaking as an educator, and joining our colleagues around the world, Pinewood teachers have experienced the uncertainty of swiftly and fundamentally redesigning learning for the virtual environment, adapted to the loss of their physical classrooms, studios, labs, and other learning spaces/materials, and dealt with maintaining all professional responsibilities within the various forms of isolation that the pandemic has introduced. No doubt, different forms of uncertainly, loss, and isolation have been and are being experienced by our families, too.
However, and at the risk of spreading toxic positivity, I do believe that humans have an intrinsic ability to find silver linings among the darkest of clouds. In this respect, one of the most important silver linings during the pandemic has been the opportunity for parents to watch their children in the act of learning with their classmates – to see the processes that largely takes place at school in more familiar times.