A much-needed change

Covid-19 has changed everything. But it’s not all for the worse. I would argue that a few good things came from all this. I think we all managed well to turn this into an opportunity for growth. I’m not just talking about me, personally, or each of us individually, but for us as a society.

Somethings have been done the same way for years and we don’t even question why. I’ll give you an example: summer vacation. Do you know why schools break for three months in the summertime? Farming is not the only answer. Lack of proper ventilation in some school buildings, standardization, and budget issues had a lot to do with it. You can read more about it here.

Because of the pandemic, the Houston Independent School District is questioning this big break in the summer and thinking of changing it to smaller breaks year-round and (most importantly) a break in the height of flu season. As a parent, I have to say this is the best idea there ever was. Sticking with something just because things have always been done a certain way shouldn’t be a good enough reason to keep it as is. Especially when teachers and researchers know that students lose knowledge over the summer.

And just as schools are redeveloping their calendar, we should start asking ourselves: why do people commute every day to jobs where they sit in front of their computer? Why do we cram ourselves on top of each other in cities when we could have more space to breathe?

Among all the personal tragedies that this pandemic brought us, we can honor the losses by focusing on the good that can come of it. We can look outside the box and maybe forget about the box completely and create something entirely new, something without boundaries at all. Let’s make something new together.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Rear Admiral Grace Hopper:

Probably the most dangerous phrase that anyone can use in the world today is that dreadful one: “But we’ve always done this way”.