Cant sleep

 Having one of those anxious overthinking nights.

Started writing this on Facebook, I don’t even know why. 

Cant sleep, so here is one of the thoughts I’ve been pondering a lot lately - educators, parents and business owners (amongst others) might have some thoughts?   

Has the pandemic finally made it clear how the education system as an institution has completely lost a functional trajectory? an agreed upon societal mandate? 

We have used school for various functions and argued based on certain idealistic premises that it must continue as is, but it seems to me that many of these premises have gone out the window - and the pandemic has simply made it obvious. 

-Job preparation? For what jobs...

-Citizenship/civilian prep? For what society...

-critical thinking? Laughable 

-personal development? Ridiculous 

-socialization? Clearly not prioritized

It feels pretty clear at this point that we have fallen back on the actual function of the education system, which is a holding cell/baby sitting, and a way of dividing to reinforce the inequalities that already exist. Oh and also so that the rich can continue to make that money...   but ummmm solutions?

I know that we are sold on a divided nation. And it certainly feels that way. Maybe our failures have derived from agreeing to the pittance we agree upon, or the back and forth of competing ideals, or dreams and expectations without follow through. But I kind of wonder what people actually want from society. 

Arguably we could say this about all of our institutional pillars today. But maybe the solution finding starts with something like -what is your present day lived experience with (institution) and what functions would you like it to perform? 

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I’m seeing cracks everywhere at my work, and it is feeling like I am failing even though I know I am doing what I can and what I should. 

The last few weeks we have been trying to switch ove to a new electronic health record system and it is slow to figure out and slow to work, and we’ve spent too much time doing that, and now I feel like I’ve lost my grip on my clients. 

Staff members are leaving or considering leaving. Other staff aren’t trained or are overworked and drained. We need to hire at least 2 maybe 3 new people. 

Oh   The teaching side can’t get their shit together and no one is on the same page. Next week we go back to full day in person learning. It will be my first time seeing the “real day treatment” since my 2 days prior to covid. Everyone is freaking out. 

Students aren’t taking responsibility for their own stuff. 

Their parents don’t follow through. 

Society is falling apart, and we have to tell them to focus on what they can control. Not just because it’s the only thing that will keep them sane, but also because we don’t trust they can have an impact on anything else. 

Where are the adults?   The kids want someone to save them. They want a hero. 

There is no one coming to save us. We have to do it ourselves.