LETTER: The news is not all bad when it comes to distance learning for Clark County students

According to The Review Journal’s Sunday editorial (“Assessing the damage from school closures”) the Nation’s Report Card is a means of providing hard data on what “worked and what didn’t.” The report card exposes problems presented by the pandemic, which has pushed education into the midst of a paradigm shift.

Think of what has occurred in the past 10 months: Teachers have had to learn new teaching methods and become overnight experts in a new way to educate, communicate and teach their charges; students have had to adapt to a whole new way of learning. They must be independent and take more responsibility to step up and take advantage of what is now the classroom experience. Radical change has a role in the damage factor, but did it just cause damage or is there a positive residual?

Teachers and students have become more tech savvy and have developed flexibility and problem-solving skills in dealing with new software, teaching/learning methods while coping with a hit-and-miss internet. Adapting to sudden changes and problem-solving are necessary skills for the 21st century workforce that have been nudged to the forefront by the pandemic-caused school closures. They are bonuses, not damages.

The nation is now aware of deficits in technology integration with regard to education, which is a plus. Before dealing with a problem, first it must be recognized.

So, when we look at “what worked and what didn’t,” let’s not ignore the fact that this 10 months has pushed education into a huge paradigm shift. The path was unmarked and seemed impossible to navigate, but there are benefits and learning is taking place in ways that could not have been imagined a year ago.