How Has the AAPS Fared during the Pandemic?

There have been three (so far) academic years in which learning has been compromised by pandemic-related measures: 2019/2020, 2020/2021, and 2021/2022. The amount of loss is difficult to quantify or measure.

In the Ann Arbor Public Schools, elements of loss include lost instructional time, lost exposure to physical bound books, lost opportunities for administration of accurate assessments, etc. These could be at least approximately quantified.

Intangible factors are as real, but less easy to measure: the loss of in-person and face-to-face instruction, for example.

Among the biggest losses are three which are related to the German program in the AAPS. Ann Arbor has long been known for its German classes, starting in sixth or seventh grade, and allowing students to achieve at high levels until the end of twelfth grade.

Successful work in a German class distinguishes a high school transcript when it is read by a university admissions officer. Spanish is ubiquitous and French is relatively common, but a high school graduate who’s done significant amounts of work in German stands out.

German has suffered the same learning losses as History, Mathematics, and other disciplines. The AAPS German program, however, has long had several academic opportunities above and beyond standard classroom learning activities; these special opportunities, sadly, were also especially vulnerable to the COVID-related measures.

The German-American Partnership Program (GAPP) has been operating in various forms since the late 1960s in Ann Arbor. The program consists roughly of this: during the first half of the calendar year, a delegation of high school students from Tübingen, accompanied by one or more of their teachers, is hosted in Ann Arbor by AAPS families. Tübigen is Ann Arbor's sister city. The visiting students from Germany attend AAPS high school classes, and get to know daily life in the area by living with their host families.

The second part of the program takes place between academic years, in the middle of the calendar year, when delegations of AAPS high school students, accompanied by their teachers, visit Tübingen, usually for three weeks. The students from Ann Arbor stay with families in Tübingen and attend classes in their schools.

This program has successfully enabled AAPS students to engage in large amounts of learning, starting with but going far beyond the German language. The experiences of culture, economics, diplomacy, international relations, and communication are immense.

After decades of enriching the lives of AAPS students, the GAPP was shut down. In 2020, the German delegation didn’t come to Ann Arbor, and students from Ann Arbor didn’t go to Tübingen. The same is true for 2021, and will be for 2022.

The earliest possible hope for a GAPP exchange would be 2023. The reader is already aware of the uncertainty surrounding any long-range planning, so a 2023 event is desired but far from definite.

The loss of at least three consecutive GAPP events constitutes a major loss, not only to the students of the AAPS, but also to the entire community, as the enriching effects of this program touched families and local businesses.

The omission of GAPP events is not, however, the only loss inflicted by pandemic-related actions.

In the spring of each year, often in March or April, the University of Michigan invites those high school students who are enrolled in German classes to attend the university’s annual German Day. Middle school students are also invited, and AAPS middle school students have participated with distinction in this event over the decades. This long-standing event allows high school students to meet and interact with the university’s professors, grad students, and undergrad students. The day is spent on the U of M’s campus, giving the high school students not only a chance to explore the German language in deeper and different ways, but also to get a feel for campus activity. Again, the learning includes but goes beyond the German language: the participants in German Day explore some life skills which they’ll need after high school.

Sadly, the U of M’s German Day was not held in person in 2021, and is scheduled likewise not to occur in 2022: Again, two years of significant loss for students. What will 2023 bring?

A third major learning loss occurred with the cancellation of the annual field trip to Chicago. Students in both middle school and high school spend a day in Chicago, starting with the city’s annual Christkindlmarkt sponsored by Chicago's mayor and city council. The day also includes the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Loyola Museum of Art. Interdisciplinary learning is combined with a chance to walk through the monumental architecture of Chicago.

The annual AAPS field trip to Chicago, for all middle school and high school students who are enrolled in a German class, was cancelled in 2020 and 2021. There is some hope for 2022, but again, it is far from certain.

Such, then, are the losses of intangible and non-traditional educational experiences: learning outside the classroom. The learning loss of measurable content and curriculum is clear. There are skills which students don’t have, and facts which they don’t know: fluent manipulation of a quadratic equation, or the ability to explain the significance of the Battle of Hastings.

Also significant, but less easy to measure, are the other losses, like the three identified above.

History as a Source of Hope: The American Narrative Produces a Sense of Justice

The greatest threat to any demographic group — race, gender, religion, ethnicity — is posed by those who claim to befriend it. The person most likely to be a racist is the one who’s constantly accusing individuals and institutions of racism. The person most likely to be a misogynist is the one who spends time and energy labelling ideas and organizations as sexist.

By contrast, the greatest friend of justice is the one who explores and presents history in the calm bright light of reason. The analysis of past events, not passion, allows justice to manifest itself.

A dizzying amount of vocabulary is generated by those who claim to represent the cause of justice and who claim to be the ally of Black, Brown, African American, Latino, and Hispanic people. Yet those who present themselves as friends of the oppressed routinely have the net effect of removing hope: they offer a political doctrine which teaches groups to view themselves exclusively as oppressed victims and to seek help by making themselves reliant on paternalistic sources of support.

Hope and justice arise when individuals see themselves capable of creativity, ingenuity, and autonomy — and see themselves as individuals, not merely members of some demographic segment, as educator Stephen Tootle writes:

The students at the college where I teach are mostly poor, and most of them have brown skin. But they are not stupid and they are not lazy. They have been told for most of their lives — by people claiming to help them — that the system is rigged, that the past is nothing but a record of oppression, that they should not want to participate in our sick society, that racism is the answer to racism, and that freedom exists only to crush the weak. Yet something inside them has always led them to believe that those ideas are wrong.

The United States has offered hope and opportunity to people of all religions and races, to people of all languages and ethnicities. America’s structure is such that injustices, when they occur, are addressed and corrected. This is more than can be said of many countries, which is why immigrants continue to desire U.S. citizenship.

One aspect of the American mentality is the acknowledgement of two facts which have emerged in the history of the world: humans seek freedom, and they seek acknowledgement of their individuality. Stephen Tootle continues:

Hope brought them into my classroom. Hope keeps them going when they’re surrounded by people who not only are not supportive but are actively working to undermine their plans. They read Hamilton. They identify with his ideas regardless of such matters as the passage of time and the color of his skin — or theirs. They know that America is a land of hope.

To teach students about the history of the United States, and to teach them unapologetically about America’s promotion of liberty and individuality, is to offer hope.

Hope thus offered is more than a sentiment. It is empowerment. It is the ability to see one’s self incorporated into an ideology of empowerment. Free markets and free enterprise foster hope and foster concrete advancement for those who engage in them. Property rights create dignity and energize industriousness — a family which owns the smallest home on the smallest piece of land is motivated and prompted to act with more resoluteness than a family which holds no property.

A nation governed by freely-elected representatives is a nation with hope. These motivational lessons arise from studying the history of the United States.