A Back-to-School Year Like Never Before

Over the coming weeks, millions of young Americans will return to school. It’s always an exciting, important and sometimes stressful time for both students and parents, but this is a particularly unique and important academic year.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions and delays in education. Unfortunately, the lesson of the day has too often featured school closures, virtual learning, social distancing and canceled activities. A recent report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed a study that found students made little or no progress while learning from home. Compounding the problem, learning loss or delay was most pronounced among students from disadvantaged homes. Experts are also concerned about the loss of visible facial queues on our youngest students as they’re learning to speak, read and communicate.

We can’t afford to let our kids fall further behind. As we begin a new school year, we must continue to invest in education, support our students and teachers, and celebrate the value of education.

My mother, who was an elementary school teacher, instilled in me a great respect for the benefits of a good education. She taught me that an education is something no one can ever take away from you. Education gives us knowledge and skills that can make us more successful workers, more-informed citizens and more open thinkers. It expands our horizons, increases our opportunities and puts us on the path to individual freedom and financial security.

I am so grateful to all the wonderful teachers and professors who helped me grow throughout my life. Many of them could have chosen a career that paid a higher salary, but they answered a special calling that provides greater rewards to so many people.

In 1965, when I was still a student, another teacher took historic steps to bolster education in America.

Long before he became president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson’s first job was teaching in an incredibly poor South Texas town. That experience became one of the driving lessons of his life, and it helped forge the path to his signing of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This Act provided funding to primary and secondary education, including professional development, instructional materials, educational programs and parental involvement. The legislation also emphasized equal access to education, aiming to shorten the achievement gaps between students.

Just a few months later, President Johnson signed the Higher Education Act, which strengthened our colleges and universities, created scholarships, gave low-interest loans to students, and established a National Teacher Corps.

During the signing ceremony inside a packed gymnasium at his alma mater, Southwest Texas State Teachers College, Johnson recalled his experiences as a teacher and he spoke eloquently about education as the key to a better future:

"For the individual, education is the path to achievement and fulfillment; for the Nation, it is a path to a society that is not only free but civilized; and for the world, it is the path to peace -- for it is education that places reason over force."

There are challenging discussions to be had about students returning to school in the midst of the ongoing global pandemic. It won’t be easy to balance potentially competing demands for the essential safety and security of students, faculty and staff; parental choice and personal freedoms; and the proven benefits of personal interaction between students and teachers.  

But it is my fervent hope that we can have this dialogue in a fact-based, civil and respectful way, without the anger, name-calling and grandstanding that seem to overwhelm too much of our public discourse these days.

Remember, our children don’t just learn from books and classwork – they also learn by watching how adults around them think, communicate and behave.