Dispatches from Quarantine:
Young People on Covid-19

During the COVID-19 quarantine lockdown, Alexandra Zapruder, author of Salvaged Pages: Young Writer’s Diaries’ of the Holocaust, launched an initiative familiar to her work—capturing the voices of teens during times of conflict. The project yielded an overwhelming response and a portion of the submissions from young people have been curated in the gallery linked in the images below:

Dispatches from Quarantine was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition. To listen to the story, click here.

We are now turning to educators worldwide to ask you to be a part of the historical record. We invite you to share your experiences of teaching in this complicated moment. We are interested in anything you want to say, and we especially welcome your thoughts on the daily challenges of managing your workload, juggling virtual, hybrid, and in-person instruction, and the impact of America’s divided political climate on you and your students in the classroom.

Here are a few prompting questions to help guide your reflections. We encourage submissions in writing or other media, including poetry, art, music, song, and the like.

Feel free to submit once or as often as you wish.

• What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a classroom teacher during this time?

• How has this experience affected your teaching and/or your view of education in America?

• Have you been supported in terms of mental and emotional health during this period? If so, how? If not, what would have helped?

• Has the political divisiveness of pro- and anti-mask or vaccine rhetoric affected you or your job?

• Are there lessons that teachers can take away from this historic period that serve teaching and learning in new and meaningful ways?

• What would you like to preserve and record about your experience for future generations?

Contact us at dispatches@eihr.org