The Pivot Issue

There was no playbook. No case study to tell us how to virtually change an entire way of teaching and learning and building friendships overnight. But the Ed School, like schools around the world, had no choice but to change. And we did. Going from a fully in-person experience to one fully online, with everyone from our community — students, faculty, staff, and alumni — at home, wherever home was. Starting in mid-March, we began studying at the kitchen table and lecturing from backyards. We Zoomed with our slippers on and joined study groups with our kids doing their own lessons in the next room. We adjusted. We adapted. And we changed. We also did something quickly that is usually slow going in academia: We pivoted. It’s this word, this action, that inspired us here at the magazine to reach out to people in the Ed School community to find out how they had pivoted since COVID-19 forever changed what it means to be a student, an educator, and a parent. Their essays, written this summer, follow. In a special podcast project, you can also listen to six of the writers read aloud their essays and answer follow-up questions.