Back to School

Many US educational institutions, from preschools to universities, are opening this fall in the midst of a global pandemic that threatens much more than our health.

Written byBob Grant

| 3 min read

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My wife and I, like parents across the US and beyond, are grappling with a very difficult situation at the moment: the start of another school year for our children amidst rampant COVID-19 spread in our state and country. Our local school district has decided that its more than 18,000 students will start the 2020–21 school year with a “remote for all” educational model. Kids from 3 to 18 years old, including our preschooler and two elementary school students, will log in to virtual classrooms to meet with teachers, interact with classmates, and follow a curriculum that had to be reenvisioned in the face of the disruption and forced flexibility wrought by the ongoing pandemic.

We followed along intently via livestreamed meetings as our district school board hashed out the details of the coming academic year, hoping that evidence-based thinking and appropriately proportioned risk avoidance would ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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