Time for school

I am going to rouse them (Joel 3:7) 

What a lovely image. God is like a mother rousing her children to get them ready to go to school. She wakes them from a deep slumber, encourages them out of bed and gets them up and going. In Joel it has that extra sense of rescue. God is rousing them for a journey. And not any journey. They have been sold into slavery and he has bought them back. Now it is not the slave driver with his whip who barks them out of bed but their loving father gently interrupting their dreams and calling them home.

In about a week, many of our youngest children will be roused from their beds to get ready to go back to school. The government have become convinced that the time has come to call the children back to the classroom. The evidence is on their side. Where it has been tried, infection rates have not risen significantly. The limited data we have on child infection suggests that the youngest of our population do not just shrug the virus off easily, but generally avoid catching it all. However, what Michael Gove was forced to admit was that we cannot be completely sure. Of course we can't. A few teachers may catch it from their pupils. A few parents may catch it from their children. A few, a very few, if any, may become seriously ill or even die. It is unlikely that a child will follow that same route, as this chance is thankfully very small, but it is possible. And there's the problem. Chance does not give confidence.

Rightly schools are gearing up to the influx. Stickers on the floors to delineate social distancing. Tables set at the right spacing. Breaks staggered. Numbers low. One-way systems and hand-washing stations. All in place. Even then parents are staying away in their droves. It may be up to two thirds will vote with their feet, or cars, not to join in the return to school. On that first morning, only the supremely confident (or truly needy) will rouse their children and send them out to learn together again. Are the stay-at-homers wrong? It is not for anyone to say. How can you try to force a parent to take a risk with their own child. Many will have very strong reasons not to send them back. 

It is generations since going to school was dangerous. Not since polio and measles in the 1950s or flu, TB and pneumonia in the 1900s, has it been a risk to learn. We are not set up for such a mindset. At times we barely value learning above shopping, let alone above life itself. It may be though that we shall have to return to those times. If this virus is not eradicated, which seems possible, we are going to have to live with it. And if school needs to become higher up our system of significant value, I am not sure that will be a bad thing. 

At our most cynical we may think the government is reopening schools to provide childcare so people can get back to work, but no parent is likely to ever think of it like that. From now on an education will be a risk, and one we have to value highly if we are to receive it. The risk may be to us and not to our children, but maybe that makes it even more significant. Maybe if they know we value it enough to risk our lives for it, they may begin to value it too.

Marshwood church doubles as a school hall