My new session hit this week with a tidal wave of rescheduled and missed classes, questions, and hesitant registration. I scrambled to tighten protocols and figure out close contact and quarantining guidelines. So many of our families affected by COVID, seemingly all at once, presumably Omicron. Schools closed, parents infected, asymptomatic children testing positive. Just when we were getting the hang of living with Delta (sort of), Omicron appears and demands new rules. So I required upgraded masks, reinforced distance in lessons, took my classes back outside. At first I thought we were stepping backward but now I think instead that this is how we stay put.

At least that’s how it seems from my vantage point behind the registration desk and in front of my classes. Parents are saying “We’ll see you in a week or two,” instead of, “We’re stopping.” Teachers are swinging agilely from in-person to virtual lessons, depending upon what seems safest for each family each week. I’m asking parents to bring blankets to class so we can sing and play on the lawn for a while. Back up go the canopies.

We take it week by week. I notice more flexibility in the parents I talk to, more patience with parsing each next step. I hope I demonstrate the same toward them. I feel as though I’m different in that regard than I was pre-pandemic and maybe even pre-Omicron. There is no planning ahead. There is just what is happening today, if we’re healthy, what the test says, whether the class can run. I am grateful for such a wonderful group of teachers and families to figure it out with and to be with in this unpredictable time. Despite all the challenges of the day we can still teach and learn music. I’ll lean in to that.