The Secret Teacher: This is not the time to limit ourselves to online traditional school

Schools don’t have a monopoly on teaching and learning. We are surrounded by learning opportunities, some permanently available, others a more temporary and recent innovation. During these times of such significant restriction when so much is not possible we must grab with both hands learning opportunities old and new.

Radio is an underrated and omnipresent teacher. Like a school it is a source of knowledge on many different subjects: business, history, music, sport, current affairs, etc. Whether we tune in either locally, nationally or internationally, radio is a deep well from which we can draw knowledge.

Music offers learning and insights far beyond those of the theory and practice of music itself. Prolific songwriters and singers represent another category of undercelebrated teachers. Lives from the past are made vivid in many genres: the Negro spiritual from times of slavery, working songs from the industrial past and shanties from the days of sail.

While every passing year increases the time gap between the present and major historical events, songs can keep the light shining on lived experiences. Such songs can even bring comfort to descendants, for instance They Never Came Home (Stardust Song), which remembers the nightclub fire tragedy that claimed 48 lives on St Valentine's Day 1981. Through this Christy Moore stands with the Stardust families, teaching us much about justice and courage. Similarly, in current affairs, we learn from Catherine Corless as she speaks for mother and baby home campaigners. These are just two of the many individuals who lead by example in demonstrating the difference one individual can make in ensuring that significant history is told.

Taoiseach wants European languages to be taught across all primary schools

---

I’m thinking of studying in a UK university. What post-Brexit fees will I face?

---

Special needs schools: Families ‘deeply upset’ at reopening stand-off

---

Talks resume between unions and officials over reopening special schools

---

Lived experience

Before we must leave it to others to tell, our lived experience is for us to share. At 93, Edith Eger is still sharing her story as a Holocaust survivor. Her books provide a permanent record of what only she can recount for so long. The passing of time inevitably means that at a certain point all those who are alive to tell their personal account of a major event pass away. With each death a wealth of oral history dies too, so we must recognise how much these individuals have to teach us and ensure that we hear them if we can. Eventually their stories only remain through the timelessness of the books and songs.

Experiences such as the Northern Lights or the sunrise at Newgrange have been on offer virtually

In the future an oral history of this pandemic will be heard, and the specific chapter that it will fall to our young people to tell may prove significant. We must therefore ensure that our students are given all possible opportunities to nurture and enhance their voice and use it for the common good. Perhaps that voice will pledge public loyalty to a cause they believe in. We may even talk of their commitment and steadfast determination to it. In their turn, today’s students will then demonstrate the power of the individual human voice, and in lending theirs to a collective effort they will strengthen the effort considerably.

The worlds of geography and art are available differently now. Experiences such as the Northern Lights or the sunrise at Newgrange have been on offer virtually. While it may seem “novel” and “weird” at first, why not see it as “novel but cool” to experience one of these, or similar events, at home? Many museums and galleries internationally are offering a virtual experience, for example the Guggenheim Museum. These are places that we may never go to in person but which we can visit some version of now. Trying such experiences and not enjoying them is at least an informed rejection, but not taking advantage of their existence at all would be a shame and a missed opportunity. So many households are struggling with the pressure of the enforced and unrelenting physical proximity of all its members – could this not be helpfully reframed into an opportunity for an “inhouse family outing”?

Learning opportunities

These ideas only scratch the surface of the external teaching and learning opportunities on offer, but they certainly serve as evidence that this is not the time to limit ourselves exclusively to online traditional school.

Despite it being our second foray, school online is not without its glitches. The first was so genuinely traumatic that I think many of us blocked out the skills acquired when we blocked out the trauma. Or perhaps we embraced the well-earned Christmas and New Year break so heartily that we retained too few of the essentials of running a classroom under lockdown. Whatever the reason, the pain was real for many schools on January 11th, and by and large we slipped down to beginners level and refresher courses to get back moving again.

With enough cajoling they were soon vying with each other to crack the codes and decipher the language

Improvements to the technology meant that there were simultaneous groans (from students) and whoops of joy (from teachers) upon discovering that it is harder for students to mute the teacher and boot each other out of classes. Truly fantastic interactions occur if teachers are brave enough to experiment with the technology while live and online in class with students.

Feeling daring, I even opted for a role-reversal scenario. This saw me play an older tech-poor person while they worked as a team to train me up. I flattered them into teaching me all they know. With enough cajoling they were soon vying with each other to crack the codes and decipher the language. Before long they had told me everything I needed to know to ensure that I could limit their power over me.

I too am availing of all the learning opportunities on offer!