715: Long-Awaited Asteroid Finally Hits Earth
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I remember years ago, a guy who ran the military, Secretary of Defense Donald Brumsfeld, said, "Kind of famously, they're the things we know, the things we don't know, and they're the things that we don't even know we don't know." That last kind of spooky category he called "the unknown unknowns." And I guess maybe talking about known unknowns and unknown unknowns might have been appropriate for the thing he was talking about, which was Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. But who knew that someday it was going to be a good way to describe the chaos swirling this year around two, if it should be the most pedestrian, predictable things the government does? Kind of goes in an election and starting the school year. Okay, let's save the election for another day. Can we talk right now about the demolition derby, multi-car pileup of known unknowns and unknown unknowns that is the opening of this school year, Matt teaches at a big high school in the suburbs of South Carolina, and all summer he's been doing what parents and teachers everywhere have been doing this year, wondering if there's going to be in-person instruction this fall, and watching state and local officials give out information that seemed incomplete and contradictory and confusing. And it was sort of like hot potato of responsibility, too. It was like everybody was kind of passing, you know, like, when you hear from your district, when you hear from the state superintendent, when we hear from our government, you know, Oh, they're all saying like somebody else is going to set the course and then you'll know. Yeah, it felt very deflective. May I guess when they got to the first day, the teachers reported back to school? No kids are yet. Just teachers. Matt says things still seemed very unclear. Thinking surely when we get in the building, we're going to get the answers. The answer is in the building where my bosses are, they're going to know. And over the course of the week, sort of having the veil lifted and realizing my bosses don't know anything more than I do about the start of school. Like my principal and I know the exact same amount of information. At that point, teachers received an email with a tentative plan, but the emphasis was very much on tentative. His principal noted, quote, "Things change daily." That plan was called the AB plan, and it was the hybrid plan that lots of schools are doing. Students will be divided into two groups, A and B, half would come to school for two days while the other half would stay home and join online using Zoom, then they'd switch. But if you want to see a high school spinning through the maelstrom of known unknowns and unknown unknowns, okay, here is what happened. That first day, the teachers came back. The first meeting that I go to is at 10, and it's a department meeting. So we have just 15 people spread out. And you all are sitting there socially distanced from each other wearing masks? Yep. There's a good atmosphere in the room. All things considered, we're happy to be there and happy to see each other. A very glass half full, whatever may come, sort of vibe in the room. And our department head, who's a teacher, has written up these two plans on the board. The eight AB day, sort of hybrid plan, and then an all virtual start.
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