by Cygne Sauvage
The internationally known British magazine The Economist featured an entertaining yet informative article on the substantial number of office executives who have embarked on baking during lockdown citing this as positively impacting the economy.
This is indeed a worldwide phenomenon as my household could attest to it. The blueberry muffin we snacked on yesterday afternoon were the creation of soft and lotion-maintained hands of a friend, a displaced CEO of a fledgling fashion magazine. This morning we had for breakfast the cheese-filled bread sold online by a furloughed manager of a spa. Kneading the dough must be a stress dissipating activity that likewise delivers the home’s supplemental financial returns for it to be the popular choice for career shifts during the long, still ongoing period of quarantine. A big number of new practitioners in this line of work were once executive and operations officers of business firms rendered both illiquid and insolvent by the pandemic.
However, there is a downside to this trend in the increase of kitchen habitues experimenting on novel concoctions of flour and sugar, particularly on the health of the general population. A dangerous outcome lurking behind and which should not occur during this global health scare is rise in the number of people with excess glucose levels which is among a number of favorable factors for obesity, one of the identified perilous co-morbidities of severe coronavirus infection.
Maybe there could be alternative economically viable endeavors which could harness not their newly discovered skills in manipulating the dough and calibrating ovens, rather their university conferred degrees or chosen professional discipline, that would be beneficial even beyond the household micro level. As they say, all possibilities must be explored in the face of tight situations.
When I was of the age just mastering my reading and writing proficiency there was an aunt who intermittently appeared in our household and always imposed her unsolicited assistance whenever she chanced upon me struggling with my school assignments. From then on up to post dinner time she would engage in her repeatedly echoed litany of stories about her experience as a teacher during the war. I learned from other members of her generation in my clan that she had just obtained a primary school diploma, a difficult feat then, but was already qualified as a mentor for grade one students during that time. This was due to a dearth of tutors. Schools were closed but the education of the children were not halted. The locals managed to hold clandestine classes under the trees or in makeshift shacks within the vicinity of the pupils’ residences to minimize their movement and exposure to the risks attendant to the armed conflict.
The ongoing pandemic can be likened to a war where there are expected potential social, cultural and economic casualties, one of which is continuing education. On the other hand, it must not be sidelined.
At the forefront of raging debates on school opening for grade schoolers is whether to conduct classes purely on remote learning mode or face to face interaction or a combination. Many argue the readiness of the students in this age group for a computer-based online learning methodology, is doubtful. Public school teachers vehemently opposed physical presence in the classroom but at the same time at a loss as to how they would cope with the technology of the new norm of teaching. Privately employed mentors with hesitation would face the risk of personal appearance. That the former would still be paid by the government regardless classes were held or not, while the latter could have their employment terminated if their school opted not to proceed with the academic year explains this big difference in their positions. Most private schools could not afford the huge financial outlay called for by remote learning. Offsetting the cost through tuition fee increase would not be attractive during this challenging time.
Education policy makers should learn from the community approach to learning implemented during the war. Perhaps decongesting schools through holding of small cells of classes within the perimeter of pupils’ households would be a viable interim arrangement. Nationalizing private schools not on par with the cost and requirements of the new norm of learning should likewise be considered, And what would fill the huge gaps in the needed number of mentors these strategies would entail? They could pull out those professional bankers, managers and technology savants from the kitchen.
The government must deeply ponder several approaches and strategies tao address this dilemma. Otherwise the future of this country would be in the hands of obese zombies who can’t properly read nor write words unless with array of animated colors and eardrum shattering sounds of a laptop screen. Worse, they could only eat baked chips.
The Well-Read Company 