As we maneuver our way through the pandemic, education is struggling with what teaching and learning will look like after this is all over. Educators are working tirelessly to adapt to virtual learning. The plethora of webinars and workshops being offered by educational resourse outlets to teaching online is heartening. The number of educators accessing and attending these resourxes is also heartening.

It's pretty obvious that education will never be the same going forward. More and more parents and students will choose to remain in an online graduation track program as opposed to returning to the traditionsl brick and mortar classroom setting.

As a career educator, one aspect that jumps out to me is "what actually constitites a good education". Is education just content transmission? Online education will offer that. But I contend that education is more than just content transmission.

Teaching has always been about not only teaching content and basic skill development, its also about socialization.

Teaching children, no matter their age, has been and still remains on teaching what is the appropriate behavior in a mixed formal setting where diverse ages, genders, sensibilities may be encountered in close association together. It has been the unofficial job of educators to teach these socialization skills as part of our jobs. Anecdotally, those that argue against this paradigm, student and/or parent, are usually the ones that need the socialization the most.

I question whether online, virtual education take teach these skills effectively. Its too easy to ignore information or ideas that you do not like or deal with. Just turn it off or go to a different site. We are looking at a secondary pandemic as education moves forward. The pandemic of young people who will not growi up knowlingvappropriate social limits and behaviors. This will lead to an even more dysfunctional society and one more cruel and unforgiving of one another.