“Nobody knew how long it would be, or how difficult.”

MAY

We must have grace for others and ourselves during a time when there isn’t a model for what “good” looks like.

Matt Kirwen is a 6th grade math and science teacher. We interviewed him during the school shut downs early in the pandemic.

Mr. Kirwen was really open about how hard the time had been — not just for his students, but for him.

“It definitely felt like I wasn’t doing enough. I’m missing something. I’m not doing as much as I can, that insignificant feeling of I’m not doing as much as I could. It was tough to work through.”

Mr. Kirwen reminds us to be gentle with the world, to have grace for others and ourselves during a time when there isn’t really a model for what “good” looks like.

^{The project: Agncy’s work with the EF+Math program was initially focused on the contexts of math classrooms around the country. When the pandemic struck, our team carved out a separate track of work to explore how teachers were adjusting to remote learning.}