School begins, with even more openness

The past three (or really, two-and-a half) school years have surely been the most challenging in any educator’s, parent’s or student’s memories.  COVID-19 restrictions meant that there were times children in Region One schools could not take part in face-to-face learning, but rather only be remote. And for those families who had challenges with technology or simple access to the internet at their homes, the situation could seem impossible to manage.

And of course there was, and continues to be, the possibility of students and educators contracting the illness, which has changed year to year according to the strains of COVID-19 that have been prevalent at any given time. While parents and children learn how to cope with childhood sickness, no one really wants to deal with COVID-19 if they can avoid it.

Now, with a school year beginning with an openness that hasn’t exactly been the norm since 2020 (see the front page story this week), there will still be a need to be aware of challenges for both students and educators. This is the year when those students who need extra help with their grade level proficiency must find it.

But it should also be the year when teachers are given extra support in their quest to bring knowledge and the joy of learning to their students. During the pandemic, teachers have been among the most stressed of all professions. Many have left education and gone on to less emotionally demanding work, which can nonetheless often offer better compensation.

What work, though, is more important than educating and caring for our youngest citizens? They are the future of our society, and should have every opportunity to learn during their formative years. The pandemic has affected the natural flow of their education for the past three school years.

Another point of high importance: It’s been harder and harder to find school bus drivers, who are also at risk if COVID-19 is present among the students. This could mean the need to restructure how we get our children to and from the school buildings where they need to be to have the full educational experience year to year.

There are no guarantees with a public health crisis like the one we’ve all been living through the past few years. How do we continue to manage it all? There are preventive protocols, which recently changed from the CDC. The tools used most since 2020 included mask-wearing, distancing and sanitizing hands and surfaces in public places like schools. Vaccination made for a safer environment for all who came in contact with others. This year, masks will not be required from the beginning of the school year for Region One students. But like the past few years, if there are outbreaks, any and all of these tools can be used again.

Let’s all hope that the variations of the pandemic have now begun to run their course, and that the strains that remain can be managed by annual vaccines/boosters.

Region One schools begin Aug. 29. Here’s to a good year at all grade levels, one that will help students and educators get over some of the effects of the pandemic.

Latest News

Kevin Kelly’s After Hours

Kevin Kelly

Photo by Christopher Delarosa
“I was exposed to that cutthroat, ‘Yes, chef’ culture. It’s not for me. I don’t want anyone apologizing for who they are or what they love.”— Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly doesn’t call himself a chef; he prefers “cook.” His business, After Hours, based in Great Barrington, operates as what Kelly calls “a restaurant without a home,” a pop-up dining concept that prioritizes collaboration over competition, flexibility over permanence, and accessibility over exclusivity.

Kelly grew up in Great Barrington and has roots in the Southern Berkshires that go back ten generations. He began working in restaurants at age 14. “I started at Allium and was hooked right off the bat,” he said. He worked across the region from Cantina 229 in New Marlborough to The Old Inn on the Green at Jacob’s Pillow before heading to Babson College in Boston to study business. After a few years in Boston kitchens, he returned home to open a restaurant. But the math didn’t work. “The traditional model just didn’t feel financially sustainable,” he said. “So, I took a step back and asked, ‘If that doesn’t work, then what does?’”

Keep ReadingShow less
Books & Blooms’ tenth anniversary

Dee Salomon on what makes a garden a garden.

hoto by Ngoc Minh Ngo for Architectural Digest

On June 20 and 21, the Cornwall Library will celebrate its 10th anniversary of Books & Blooms, the two-day celebration of gardens, art, and the rural beauty of Cornwall. This beloved annual benefit features a talk, reception, art exhibit, and self-guided tours of four extraordinary local gardens.

The first Library sponsored garden tour was in June 2010 and featured a talk by Page Dickey, an avid gardener and author. This year’s Books & Blooms will coincide with Ellen Moon’s exhibit “Thinking About Gardens,” a collection of watercolors capturing the quiet spirit of Cornwall’s private gardens. Moon, a weekly storyteller to the first grade at Cornwall Consolidated School and art curator for The Cornwall Library, paints en plein air. Her work investigates what constitutes a garden. In the description of the show, she writes: “there are many sorts...formal, botanical, cottage, vegetable, herb...even a path through the woods is a kind of garden. My current working definition of a garden is a human intervention in the landscape to enhance human appreciation of the landscape.” Also on display are two of her hand-embroidered jackets. One depicts spring’s flowering trees and pollinators. The other, a kimono, was inspired by Yeats’s “The Song of the Wandering Aengus.”

Keep ReadingShow less