Seen and heard

 A new and unfamiliar school year is barreling toward us with some sorcery that seems like slow motion.

Maybe that's because it feels like we are stuck in the first reel of a B movie, sitting in our seats quietly, waiting for the edges burn and curl away from the projector.

As administrators push back start dates to allow for more planning, parents have received pages and pages of new procedures, followed by several preliminary schedules, and an equal number of clarifying revisions to the whole electronic handbook of confusing new rules. 

I'm not ashamed to say as I scroll through the midway point on the 14th page of The Plan on my pocket computer that my eyes start to glaze, and beads of perspiration dot my brow.

We are not prepared. And like so many things we haven't experienced before, we will never be ready enough.

I don't think I'd be far off in saying that this Herculean plan of reinventing in-person classes seems as though it has been cobbled together by people who are really good ... at other things. 

You know, like how you put a slide rule in the hands of an English teacher, and he might use it to diagram a sentence. More likely would be taking Ed from marketing and putting him in charge of special effects makeup.

Maybe get the scientists in on this one?

And as they follow the guidance put forward by the current leadership, Many of us have to wonder just how much trust is too much?

I'm mean ... I'm not sure any of my elected officials majored in epidemiology before they minored in Roberts' Rules of Order. And that school boards might have a doctor or two on their reopening committees isn't as reassuring now that we've seen Dr. Ben Carson "work" outside of his celebrated field of neurosurgery.

Also, less than reassuring is the recent report of dozens quarantined after an in-person administrative meeting in a Saratoga County school district, where school officials said they followed "restaurant guidelines."

This doesn't bode well since education's guidelines seem to bear some similarity to restaurants, especially where it offers teachers the discretionary choice of several "mask breaks" during indoor classes.

But I have to have faith that reopening guidance is based on more than smoke and mirrors or television ratings. I have to believe that we are still capable of having each other's best interests at heart.

Still, I have to remind myself that education is an essential need. And that our children need to be seen and heard, not just screened and notified.

I do have faith in face coverings. I have faith that those are working, and will prevent rampant infection. I have faith in teachers and other parents to be doing the best they can at any given moment. I believe that being outside and apart now will enable us to be together later.

I have to believe that just over this horizon … there may be just another horizon. That's life right now. The only way we'll eventually get to our destination is if we help each other over these humps now.