This Changes Everything

Ep. 3 - Online Learning is Here to Stay (Season 3)

Having remote classes in the early part of the pandemic was difficult. But for some teachers, it has been a revelation.

Consensus in education is difficult to come by, and the pandemic certainly has not changed that. But one thing that most everyone seems to agree on is this: Online learning was terrible. 

As schools moved to remote education, most everything was thrown online as quickly as possible. It was a crisis and, given the public health restrictions, there weren’t any other options. And, as later research showed, there were costs. There have been so-called “learning loss” and mental health impacts, and, ultimately, the research says online school simply didn’t work for most kids, especially in the younger grades.

But that’s not the case with every child. Some students did fine, or did better, online. Even after schools reopened, many school districts and states continued to experiment with remote and hybrid learning. And some families have chosen, at least for now, to keep their kids online. A lot of that has to do with ongoing concerns around COVID-19, of course, but there are other reasons, which we explore throughout this season of This Changes Everything.  

For this episode, host Sara Bernard speaks with two teachers who have found success in the remote-learning era and consider the radical, transformative impact that this period of forced remote learning could have on our education system and our communities.

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Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporters: Venice Buhain, Claudia Rowe

Editorial assistant: Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers

Consulting editor: Donna Blankinship

Executive producer/story editor: Mark Baumgarten

Audio support: Jonah Cohen

Ep. 4 - ’I Wasn’t Safe Before’ (Season 3)

For some students and educators, the school shutdowns offered a break from the racism they typically experienced at school.

When the pandemic hit and schools shut down, a broad spectrum of emotions followed. There was uncertainty and dread, along with a kind of naive giddiness that accompanies the potential of an unplanned, extended spring break. And then, according to a number of the students of color interviewed for this season of This Changes Everything, there was a sense of relief. 

The relief, they said, came with the realization that they wouldn’t be subject to the microaggressions and macroaggressions that make day-to-day school a harrowing experience for students who are not white. 

Racism in American schools is not new, but this forced departure from the physical classroom was. It shifted perspectives, revealed difficult truths and catalyzed some people to make major changes. The number of Black families who home-school their children, for instance, rose fivefold in the first year of the pandemic and, at 16%, is five points higher than the overall average of home-schooled students at the time.

For this episode, the first of two episodes focused on race, host Sara Bernard speaks with one mother who is considering pulling her daughters out of school and finds that there is a whole lot more going on than COVID-19.

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Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporters: Venice Buhain, Claudia Rowe

Editorial assistant: Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers

Consulting editor: Donna Blankinship

Executive producer/story editor: Mark Baumgarten

Audio support: Jonah Cohen

Ep. 5 - The Roots of Hope (Season 3)

In the midst of the pandemic and in the wake of 2020 protests against racism, one group of students in Washington state pressed for real change … and achieved it.

When the protests spurred by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police spilled into the streets of American cities, the initial focus was on policing. But in the weeks and months that followed, a reckoning with racist practices took hold in almost all aspects of American culture. Education was on the list. 

In Washington state, a number of teachers had already been committing a portion of their careers toward equity in education. But the protests, combined with the inequities highlighted by the pandemic, inspired a new generation of students to get involved and to push for change.

With the guidance of educators, these Washington students formed a youth-led group called The Root of Our Youth. They created a support network for students of color, organized teach-ins where their teachers became the students and lobbied for legislation to improve their education. 

For this episode of This Changes Everything, host Sara Bernard talks with the students and the adults who have helped them about the ways the pandemic changed them, the aims of their new movement and why they feel young people need to be at the table for decisions about education.

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Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporters: Venice Buhain, Claudia Rowe

Editorial assistant: Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers

Consulting editor: Donna Blankinship

Executive producer/story editor: Mark Baumgarten

Audio support: Jonah Cohen

Ep. 6 - Learning About Learning (Season 3)

For some families, the shutdowns provided an opportunity to understand how to become better advocates for their kids.

Of all the educational challenges created by the pandemic, none is likely as great as the requirement that public schools continue to provide “free and appropriate” education for students with special needs. 

For many students and families involved in special education, the shutdowns were a nightmare. So many crucial learning accommodations seemed to vanish overnight. Local and national media decried the many failures, lawsuits were filed, and state investigations into districts, including Seattle Public Schools, found violations of the federal law that requires public schools to serve these students.

Many of these students continue to face considerable challenges. But for some students and parents served by special education, the shutdowns provided a kind of silver lining: the opportunity to better understand how their kids learn and become better advocates for them.

For this, the final episode of this season of This Changes Everything, host Sara Bernard speaks with some of these parents about what they’ve learned about their children in these difficult days and how it has actually made their experience with education better.

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Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporters: Venice Buhain, Claudia Rowe

Editorial assistant: Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers

Consulting editor: Donna Blankinship

Executive producer/story editor: Mark Baumgarten

Audio support: Jonah Cohen

Introducing the Black Arts Legacies Podcast!

Enjoy this short excerpt of Crosscut's newest podcast title, which features host Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers touring the places that have fostered Seattle’s Black artists.

Every episode of the Black Arts Legacies podcast explores the history and ongoing impact of an art spaces in Seattle, the stories of each built around the voices of the artists who claim these places as critical to their development and experts who understand their deep history.

The podcast is part of Black Arts Legacies, a major multimedia project from Crosscut also featuring profiles, original photography, and videos all about Black arts and artists in Seattle. 

Subscribe to the Black Arts Legacies podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Play.

Introducing Those Who Can’t Teach Anymore

This Changes Everything Season 3 was all about public education. So we wanted to share an episode from another podcast that you might be interested in.

This spring, This Changes Everything won a first place award in Audio Storytelling from the Best of the West journalism contest — specifically for the second episode of Season 3,  The Kids Are Not All Right, which was about the mental health crisis facing young people today, its relationship to the pandemic and the effect that all this is having on teachers, too.

Because of that award, a high school teacher from Wyoming named Charles Fournier asked us to do an episode swap with his podcast, Those Who Can’t Teach Anymore. His podcast also won a first place award: a Top of the Rockies award from the Society of Professional Journalists. It explores why teachers are leaving education right now and what can be done to stop the exodus.

We wanted to share the first episode of that podcast right here. It’s called “Fight, Flight, or Apathy.” It chronicles this mass exodus of teachers, one of whom includes Charles’ wife, Jennie. Jennie and two other teachers who recently left the profession talk about why they left, offering some key insight into what’s going on — and going wrong — for teachers in public schools right now.

And if you want to hear more podcasts from the Crosscut newsroom, check out Crosscut Reports, which comes out a lot more frequently, and showcases reporting from our colleagues here. Topics range from efforts to change the culture inside Washington’s prisons to how reproductive health care has changed in Washington after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.