Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
This, by far, has been one of the most unprecedented moments of my generation, with levels of anxiety and uncertainty at an all-time high with COVID-19. Our normal has been shattered with overwhelming updates on executive orders, school closures, skyrocketing unemployment numbers, overwhelmed healthcare professionals, and online-only church services in the middle of the Bible Belt. The most noticeable shift has been the new classroom — home.
Now that schools have been closed indefinitely for this academic year, we are facing the reality of the divide in continued learning options. With the unexpected halt of food distribution from originally planned sources, the community came together in true Memphis fashion to ensure all students had access to meals each day.
In addition to maintaining food expectations for students who relied on the two meals a day Monday through Friday, there was also the obvious question of how we continue instruction to avoid losing almost a full semester of learning. With libraries and community centers closed, I was immediately concerned about families who rely on the free internet resources, especially when students are expected to stay engaged via e-learning from home.
There’s an unfortunate reality that some people aren't willing to acknowledge. We have students in one part of the city who can go home and pop open a laptop with unlimited access to resources, but two streets over, that same convenience can be a luxury, yet we put the same expectation on both students to perform at a high academic level. If you needed an example of inequity in our schools, there you have it.
As a former educator with the opportunity to teach in a one-to-one classroom, which means each of my students had a laptop both at school and to take home, instruction seamlessly flowed outside the classroom. This is not the case across the city, which further intensifies my fight for equity and access for all of our students.
The implementation of technology in schools helps close the gap and creates a limitless learning environment for children to become productive citizens in a competitive society. The digital divide refers to the significant gap between demographics and communities that have access to technology in the home and those who lack or are restricted in resources. In a city with 27.8 percent of its residents experiencing various levels of poverty and 44.9 percent of children in poverty, I’m reminded of the continued work required by not only the school district, but from every Memphian. This issue doesn’t fall completely on one sector, but we should all take responsibility for the education of our children.
COVID-19 has caused an immense amount of trauma to our community, but it's also shed light on areas of refinement within our neighborhoods and created the perfect environment for our local corporations to collaborate with school leaders to increase access to technological resources, elected officials to form policy that increases school funding for technology integration, and for community advocates to lock arms with our families to create innovative ways to close the gap.
Now is the time, Memphis is the place, and we the people have to step up for all of our children and close the gap for the next generation of leaders.
Sheleah Harris, M.Ed., is the executive director of Living Grace, Inc., a nonprofit organization that caters to the advancement of youth in the city of Memphis.