Editorial, Issue 6 – Volume CX – Pleasing Everyone Leaves No One Happy

After a tumultuous period of discussion and planning, Parker is finally making the transition to a hybrid learning format. This leap has caused dispute among various groups in our community, and we on “The Weekly” Editorial Board want to clear the air on some miscommunications circling around. Additionally, we would like to point out some areas in which we believe we can all have a better relationship with each other during this time.

The first thing that is important to understand is that everyone wants to return to “normal” as quickly as possible. Everyone involved has differing ideas of how to get there and the speed at which we should. Even if it may feel like it, nobody is purposely holding up the transition back to hybrid learning to hinder the Parker experience for the students.

It is not uncommon for the administration to clash with the student body,  “the Weekly is no stranger to disputes with them, and this hybrid schedule has been the source of one of the largest conflicts in recent memory. Many groups in the high school were upset by the schedule’s format, as they believed it didn’t suit their personal needs best. What we at “the Weekly” say is that many of those people aren’t seeing the full picture and need to step back to understand the gravity of this transition.

One explanation for the massive pushback in response to the new schedule is that many different groups at Parker have different needs and need to be accommodated accordingly in the schedule. For instance, the now second-semester senior class may push back from adding classes back into the schedule while this would be welcomed by many parents who have been calling for more class time since the start of the school year. Neither group is wrong to have their own preferences for their education, and we must all acknowledge this.

For all the differing outlooks on the return to school situation, the easiest group to blame is the administration. They are faced with a logistical nightmare for the ages in working to fit as many students in the building as allowed by current regulations. On top of this, they are getting pushback for whatever route they do choose to go because they are bound to upset a subset of the Parker population. No matter how hard they work, they’ll simply never be able to accommodate everyone’s needs simultaneously at this point in time.

The phrase “trying to please everyone ends up pleasing no one” rings very true in this unique situation. We, as a student body, and as a Parker community, need to recognize and acknowledge this. For this reason, we ask you to drop any hints of cynicism and come to appreciate the importance of this big step we are taking as a school.

At the end of the day, we all want to be back in our beloved model home. While the current state of the schedule may not be what we were expecting, we should adopt a more empathetic perspective and consider the needs of the school as a whole. The administration may not have handled the process perfectly, but who can blame them? It’s not like they have experience with this before. At the end of the day, we are still going back to school, and that is all that we should be thinking about.