October Principal Update
By Principal John Burkholder
There was a full moon this past spring during our last week of school leading up to the closing of all MMSD schools on Friday, March 13. The closing was of course in response to growing concerns around an increasingly intrusive pandemic. Full moons and dates with the number 13 that fall on Fridays are somewhat regular occurrences, but those with a bit more of an eye to the superstitious observe these events with added celebration or caution as they seem rare enough to take note.
"Once in a blue moon" is a phrase sometimes used to describe things that happen only rarely. In truth, once in a blue moon is in reference to a special full moon and takes place about every two or three years, so really not that rare. Interestingly enough, we have a blue moon at the end of this month on Halloween. A full moon on Halloween is not completely unheard of, happening every 18 or 19 years or so, which is somewhat rare, but not wholly off the charts. The last time we had a true seasonal blue moon on Halloween was 1944, 76 years ago. I will put Halloween seasonal blue moons in the category of things that are truly rare, if not magical. Pandemics of the type and severity that we are currently experiencing are thankfully far rarer than once in a blue moon, and in fact more rare than seasonal blue moons falling on Halloween.
While we all remember vividly the closing of schools in March, most don’t recall that with its announcement, MMSD also indicated that it planned to reopen on April 6. Full blown mask wearing pandemics are rare events, and rare events challenge most of us as we lack the experience to plan for them effectively. In addition, our natural inclination is a strong wish to return to what we know as quickly as possible. Throughout spring, as a staff we worked on a plan to return to in person schooling in September, but as we moved into July, it became apparent that we needed a plan for distance learning. We all worked hard to create our plan, and overall it is going well. Nevertheless, moving to completely distance learning for us brick and mortar educators is also a truly rare event, and much of our planning was simply our best guess at the time. As we head into our second month of school we are working together as a staff to make adjustments to our distance learning plan, seeking to ensure that we are striking a balance between live Zoom instruction, and time for students to engage in learning tasks on their own. These changes are currently coming into play, and over time you may find that your child is spending less time in Zoom overall each day.
There is a statistical phenomenon called Regression to the Mean. It is an idea that sums up how rare or unusual events are likely to be followed by more typical ones. As I plan ahead on the calendar, it will be with both hope and an understanding that this pandemic will eventually come to pass, and that we will regress to the mean of brick and mortar schooling. Students will be back to their seats in classrooms, participate actively in playground fun, and come to a place closer to the mean with regard to time spent on computers. When exactly this will be, I don’t know, and I will surely communicate with all of you as soon as I know something. Some people say that if you make a wish on a blue moon, it will come true. I know what I’ll be wishing for come Halloween.
