The Greater Madison Writing Project launched What We Can Become – an online yearlong institute – in the summer of 2020. The COVID 19 pandemic had shut down our schools and brought our education systems’ structural inequities into a new light. That difficult time was compounded by extreme political polarization ahead of the 2020 election and the murder of George Floyd and corresponding calls for racial justice. Deeply dedicated to not “returning to normal”, educators craved a space to sort through what they had learned and to plan for a better future.
Little did we know that “returning to normal” wasn’t going to be possible for many schools and students during the 2020-21 school year. Whether dealing with masks and social distancing or virtual learning and isolation, not much of the past year looked or felt “normal” to anyone.
As we near what is hopefully the end of the pandemic, however, we face renewed energy to wipe away the work and learning of the most challenging year of our lives. While some of these returns are welcomed, we must maintain a dedication to culturally sustaining, student-centered, partnership-focused learning experiences that create a more humane, responsive, and equitable education for all students, educators and communities.