Children! You are living through history, record it…

Teachers are always looking for opportunities that they can use to engage their students, and ways in which they can help them learn.

For all the appalling death and distress it is causing, the coronavirus crisis is an historic situation – and an opportunity.

We are living through times that will be written about by historians – just like the Black Death, The Plague, Asian Flu and Spanish Flu.

Contemporaneous accounts of the Coronavirus Covid-19 and its effect upon individuals and communities will be of great use in the years and decades to come.

That is why I think it is worth encouraging children to record their experiences.

In 50 years’ time, teachers will be able to use these accounts to teach their charges about the famous coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

It doesn’t matter how old a child is; all of them can record in some way their experiences of being at home and self-isolating – and even being taught by mum and dad.

They can draw pictures, take photographs, write about their feelings and how they spent their time.

They can let future generations know exactly what living through the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 was like.

How the X-box became even more important!

How grateful they were for modern communications, but how they missed contact with friends.

How they were able to better understand the Diary of Anne Frank.

How they actually discovered that they missed school!

How they feared for their grandparents and great grandparents.

How they learned about virology and disease.

They can describe how much more valuable their football sessions and dance classes became when they were denied them.

Children of key workers can describe how they felt – still in school while their parents worked in hospitals, or in other key areas.

Recording these events would not just be a lesson in history, but in writing, biology, psychology, science, history, politics and geography.

One of the biggest lessons they will learn, however, is the importance of hygiene and respecting the power of the natural world.