COVID-19 in Northern Texas

            Life in late 2019 and early 2020 has changed drastically for people across the globe, and almost any sense of normalcy has diminished for the time being, as we wait to see what changes our future holds. The long-term effects of a new coronavirus, recently referred to as COVID-19, are yet to be determined. The temporary situations many people have found themselves in due to this pandemic are truly tragic, as this disease has spread around the globe incredibly quickly, giving people and communities little time - if any time at all - to physically and emotionally prepare. With unemployment rates rising higher than they have in almost a century, "The nation has not experienced this magnitude of layoffs and economic contraction since the Great Depression, many experts say, and recovery is unlikely to be swift" (Long, 2020, para. 3). From personal experience, businesses and individuals alike are still struggling to apply for unemployment benefits.

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            Come early March, all seemed relatively calm in Northern Texas, until one of the first positive cases of the coronavirus, COVID-19, popped up on the ninth in the Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex (Kera News, 2020). About as quickly as the first case was announced, announcements of related cases started to fill the local news stations, and panic slowly spread amongst members of the community. We experienced shortages with paper-goods, medical supplies, and pantry foods, much like most of the nation and many other parts of the world. Shelter-in-place orders were placed on March 22nd, and they continue on, still. Currently, there have been over 2,000 total cases in the area, with 60 confirmed fatalities (DallasCounty.Org, 2020).

 

The Virus and Early Education

            By the twelfth of March, the preschool center I work with had announced state of emergency restrictions and procedures. Staff had to be questioned upon entrance, and our temperatures were tracked. We restricted all parental access into our building, meeting parents at the front door of our center for all student check-ins and drop-offs, and only brought their children inside if they failed to show any symptoms of the new virus and passed a temperature check. This inconvenient change in the daily routines of our students resulted in tension and anxiety in our students that myself and my coworkers agreed we could feel. It felt as if even our youngest of students knew something serious was taking over their otherwise safe, positive environment. Over the following week, mask requirements were placed among all staff. While our staff were more than eager to participate in keeping our students as safe as possible, this made interacting with them a little bit different than usual. We've become accustomed to using facial expressions to help communicate to infants and toddlers while they learn about the world around them, and covering over half of one's face only offered an obstacle in their learning.

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            By the twentieth of March, my center shut down entirely to help stop the spread of the virus. We are still uncertain of when we will begin to operate functionally again. While no staff from the company have been laid off, we have been encouraged to file for unemployment while we wait anxiously to learn about the future of our careers, as our current hazard pay situation is extremely limited.

 

Expressing Trauma through the Arts

            It's become clear to me that this pandemic has created various levels of tension for all, while we wait patiently to learn when we can see our families again, what will happen next, and how our society can be more prepared for this kind of situation again in the future. While art and the act of creating are not the cure-all for times of hardship such as this pandemic, I believe they can be helpful in terms of processing the emotional trauma that has developed because of this. Much like how Drew and Rankin have stated, "The goal of engaging in the creative arts is to communicate, think, and feel. The goal is to express thought and feeling through movement, and to express visual perception and representation through the process of play and creative art" (Drew & Rankin, 2004, p. 38). I have come to the belief that allowing ourselves opportunities to creatively express the stress we have undergone just might help us find opportunities to heal from trauma.

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            As an aspiring art educator, my goal is to offer aid and inspiration to families and children through acts of creating. Expressive arts have proven by many to be helpful to others in times of hardship. Heather Stuckey's article about art and health states, "The idea that creative expression can make a powerful contribution to the healing process has been embraced in many different cultures. Throughout recorded history, people have used pictures, stories, dances, and chants as healing rituals" (Stuckey, 2010). UFL graduate student Michelle Silverman has stated that expressive arts can aid in the recovery process for adults suffering from various forms of abuse and trauma (Silverman, 2019), so perhaps the act of creating can help both children and adults overcome traumas developed by the global 2020 pandemic, as well. Tish Sjoberg clarifies that Expressive arts are similar to art therapy, " Expressive Arts is a discipline of helping and healing that uses the arts as its basis for discovery and change", as it can help someone process life obstacles, at any age.      

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            Practicing expressive arts with children is similar to teaching methods of Reggio Emilia, offering lessons of accepting uncertainty (Drew & Rankin, 2004, p. 39). Today, teachers such as Lanie Bergen have studied the beneficial extents of expressive arts. She has expressed that, children:

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             "Receive a variety of stimuli and can react on multiple levels. My research in            trauma, attachment theory and neuroscience informs how I think about     teaching. My experience with expressive arts and being with children (and   adults) is relational — always in learning mode as I am curious to hear another’s story" (Lanie Bergin, n.d.).

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           By promoting the creation of expressive arts and offering opportunities to use open-ended materials, we allow children to gain independence while we help stimulate their creativity (Drew & Rankin, p. 41). These actions don't need to only take place in school settings, and during times of pandemic, such as now, when schools are closed and students are home, it may be beneficial for these students to find opportunities to continue to play and explore.

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Personal Action Plan

            In efforts to help parents who have children at home at this time who would otherwise at school find stimulating, creativity-inducing projects, I have put together a website to share with families in my community with project ideas for all ages. This helps encourage others to stay home and away from public spaces, to ensure health and safety for themselves, their families, and others. As Enid and Laura Zimmerman remind us, young children rely on adults for encouragement to create, materials to work with, and an environment to learn, whether this is at home or at school (Zimmerman, E., & Zimmerman, L. 2000, p.87).

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            Following the footsteps of Pamela Taylor, an art educator and advocate for a sustainable future, I am curious to continue finding project ideas that ask us to rethink the purpose of disposable objects. Before we turn to toss something into the garbage can, what if we asked ourselves, "Is there anything I can do with this object?" In one of her articles, Taylor states, "We need to think about our materials, our methods, and treat them gently. Frugality is in! Not simply because of capitalist notions of money but to actually reduce the amount of waste we throw in our own home (our earth)" (Taylor, 1997. p.16). Moments spent thinking this way might help families save money, as well as help weaken our collective ecological footprint by decreasing production of waste.

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My website to help families reconsider possible art materials they may already have in their homes, without needing to go out into public to entertain and educate their children is here:

https://fallinmeg.wixsite.com/restoringpositivity

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References

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-Bergin Learning Arts (n.d.). What is expressive arts? Retrieved from    https://berginlearningarts.com/what-is-expressive-arts/

-Dallas County, (2020) 2019 Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19). Dallas, Texas. Retrieved from https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dcchs/2019-novel-coronavirus.php          

-Drew, W., & Rankin, B. (2004). Promoting creativity for life using open-ended            materials. YC Young Children, 59(4), 38-45. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from     www.jstor.org/stable/42730131

-Heather Long, A. V. D. (April 9, 2020). America is in a depression. The challenge now is to make it short-lived. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com

/business/2020/04/09/66-million-americans-filed-unemployed-last-week- bringing-pandemic-total-over-17-  million/

-KERA News. (2020). COVID-19 In DFW: How the spread of coronavirus is affecting North Texas. Retrieved from https://www.keranews.org/post/covid-19-dfw-how-spread-coronavirus-affecting-north-texas

-Silverman, M. (2019). Expressive arts & mindfulness in recovery. Retrieved from     https://silvermanmn.weebly.com/expressive-arts--mindfulness-in-recovery.html

-Sjoberg, T. M. (n.d.). What is expressive arts? Retrieved April 18, 2020, from http://www.expressiveartssandiego.com/what-is-expressive-arts

-Stuckey, H. L., & Nobel, J. (2010). The connection between art, healing, and public health: A Review of Current Literature. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 254-263.

-Taylor, P. (1997). It all started with the trash: Taking Steps toward Sustainable Art     Education. Art Education, 50(2), 13-18. doi:10.2307/3193638

-Zimmerman, E., & Zimmerman, L. (2000). Art education and early childhood education: The young child as creator and meaning maker within a  community context. Young children, 55(6), 87-92. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from: www.jstor.org/stable/42728610

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