I Spent 3 Weeks in School, With Kids, Under Covid-19

The private school where I teach followed CDC guidelines to the letter. Let this be a cautionary tale.

I just spent three weeks teaching in a school with kids in the classroom. Back in February, that would have been one of the most unremarkable statements a teacher could possibly make. But within just a couple of months, the idea of students filling classrooms went from being commonplace to almost impossible to believe.

My school conducted a very carefully controlled experiment in the month of May. Under strict Covid-19 guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we reopened our school and held classes on campus with live, in-person instruction. We believe we were the only school in our state in the Intermountain West to do so, and one of only a handful of schools in the country.

Depending on where you land on this whole Covid-19 mess — whether you think it’s seriously overblown, or that it’s far more serious than we’ve acknowledged — you likely have preconceived notions of what back-to-school season may look like. I know because I did. Almost nothing I expected turned out to be true.

I teach history at a private school, which means our staff has complete control over what we do in the…