In a time when this country is struggling to find topics on which we can achieve broad consensus, the question of whether in-class learning is important stands as an outlier. Parents, teachers, students, and pediatricians all agree that having children learn in a social, face-to-face environment is critical to their education and mental health. Because school has become a de facto daycare source for many families, employers have joined in the chorus supporting a return to in-class education.
Dr. William G. Wilkoff
Of course, beyond that basic point of agreement the myriad of questions relating to when and how that return to the educational norm can be achieved we divide into groups with almost as many answers as there are questions. Part of the problem stems from the national leadership vacuum that fed the confusion. In this void the topic of school reopening has become politicized.
On Jan. 5, 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics released an updated interim COVID-19 Guidance for Safe Schools at services.aap.org. It is a thorough and well thought out document that should function as a roadmap for communities and pediatricians who serve as official and unofficial advisers to their local school departments. At the very outset it reminds us that “school transmission mirrors but does not drive community transmission.”
Unfortunately, timing is everything and while the document’s salient points received some media attention it was mostly buried by the tsunami of press coverage in the wake of the storming of the Capitol the next day and the postinauguration reshuffling of the federal government. Even if it had been released on one of those seldom seen quiet news days, I fear the document’s message encouraging the return to in-class learning would have still not received the attention it deserved.
The lack of a high-visibility celebrity spokesperson and a system of short-tenure presidencies puts the AAP at a disadvantage when it comes to getting its message across to a national audience. The advocacy role filters down to those of us in our own communities who must convince school boards that not only is in-class learning critical but there are safe ways to do it.
In some communities the timing of return to in-class learning may pit pediatricians against teachers. Usually, these two groups share an enthusiastic advocacy for children. However, facing what has up to this point been a poorly defined health risk, teachers are understandably resistant to return to the classroom although they acknowledge its importance.
Armed with the AAP’s guidance document, pediatricians should encourage school boards and state and local health departments to look closely at the epidemiologic evidence and consider creative ways to prioritize teachers for what currently are limited and erratic vaccine supplies. Strategies might include offering vaccines to teachers based strictly on their age and/or health status. However, teachers and in-class education are so critical to the educational process and the national economy that an open offer to all teachers makes more sense.
While some states have already prioritized teachers for vaccines, the AAP must continue to speak loudly that in-class education is critical and urge all states to do what is necessary to make teachers feel safe to return to the classroom.
Dr. Wilkoff practiced primary care pediatrics in Brunswick, Maine, for nearly 40 years. He has authored several books on behavioral pediatrics, including “How to Say No to Your Toddler.” Other than a Littman stethoscope he accepted as a first-year medical student in 1966, Dr. Wilkoff reports having nothing to disclose. Email him at pdnews@mdedge.com.