"Social distancing" has become a term we all use in these Corona times. But the actual meaning is a strong call to keep a physical distance from others that may infect you. There is no good reason to distance yourself from others socially.
Physical distancing as a protection against getting infected is nothing new. Historically, physical distancing has been used to keep from becoming infected. For example, people with cholera, plague, or leprosy have been isolated from the healthy, just as the healthy have tried to avoid the sick.
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| A Danish kindergarten June 2020 |
Escape the infection by isolation?
There is a road with a strange name in the western part of Denmark, where I grew up. It's called "Ondaftensvej” (literally “Evil Evening Road"). Its name stems from an event one night in the year 1350, while the black plague ravaged Europe. A group of inhabitants from a local village traveled away from the infected with their household goods, livestock, and all family members in cover of the night's murky darkness.
"Ondaftensvej" led through a wadden sea and they ended up in a remote sand dune area near the North Sea. Here they built a village with palisades that created physical distance to everyone else. In doing so, they escaped the plague. (Nørregård-Nielsen pp. 192-195, 2008).
Meanwhile, between one third and one half of Europe's population died as a result of the plague. Nørregård-Nielsen writes that many parishes were completely depopulated. Vast areas were deserted, and a traveler going through the country would see deserted villages and stone churches, one after another.
"Ondaftensvej" led through a wadden sea and they ended up in a remote sand dune area near the North Sea. Here they built a village with palisades that created physical distance to everyone else. In doing so, they escaped the plague. (Nørregård-Nielsen pp. 192-195, 2008).
Meanwhile, between one third and one half of Europe's population died as a result of the plague. Nørregård-Nielsen writes that many parishes were completely depopulated. Vast areas were deserted, and a traveler going through the country would see deserted villages and stone churches, one after another.
You also find groups today that are trying to escape the infection by isolating themselves: There are tribes in the Amazon that have chosen to retreat to areas deep inside the rainforest and begin again to live in their indigenous ways. They fear history will repeat itself, from the time South America was colonized and infectious diseases killed most of the indigenous population.
Social distancing works, just ask lobsters, ants, and vampire bats
In biology, it is a well-known phenomenon that when one is sick, others of the same kind keep away from the sick and in this way avoid becoming infected. This applies, for example, to ants and birds. In monkey communities, it is common for all except close family members to stay away from sick individuals, while members of the family help secure food for the sick.
Calls to show community spirit
Human communities are the only ones where individuals choose to help the sick outside their own family with care, and treatment. The narrative of responsibility including everyone in the nation has proven to still have its strength here in the Corona crisis. National communities are still an extension of the solidarity of the clan and the sense of commitment towards others in the family. Especially, health professionals in hospitals and those caring for the elderly have taken a great risk - and in some cases - sacrificed their lives in order to save others.
The fight against Covid 19 has been called a war, but the war metaphor does not describe the fight against the pandemic in its entirety. Commands from above are key in a war situation. In the current fight against the pandemic, appeals to the public have also been a very important contribution in addition to emergency legislation and crisis organization in the health sector. Calls to show community spirit have taken on very concrete forms of action - like washing hands and physical distancing from others.
The challenge is to keep physical distance without losing social contact.
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| A Danish school class May 2020 |
Emotional reflexivity
Online education in schools and educational institutions around the world has proved a huge experiment in teaching with physical distance while trying to maintain engagement and social connectivity.
Rashmi Singla, a researcher in communication, has created a concept for grasping the challenge of maintaining contact under physical distancing, even over long periods of time.
She has researched how couples separated by physical distance manage to maintain close emotional contact. She maintains that those who succeed do so by creating "emotional reflexivity". What is crucial is that both parties in communication engage their feelings and commitments directly as well as indirectly. There are not one but many different ways to do it. Some do it with emojis or photos; others by creating their own drawings and games, while others use (carefully chosen)
spoken words and online fun.
Anyone who has tried typical online courses now is available by the thousands, with videos, assignments, and quizzes, will probably have found that further development is needed before you can talk about emotional reflexivity in use in order to maintain your students and colleagues’ mental health.
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| The curve of the pandemic in Denmark 2020 |
Reopening of kindergartens and schools
Now, in Denmark, we have come a long way toward reducing distancing requirements. There remains, however, a two-meter distance requirement during short visits to relatives in nursing homes. Otherwise, the general distance requirement is now only one meter, and kindergartens and schools have been reopened successfully - the infection rate has not increased.
Nonetheless, in order to avoid developing contagion chains, there are still many precautions in use. The children are divided into groups of up to 8, with as much of the teaching as possible held outdoors. This explains why everywhere in the country – especially in the woods and on the beaches - we now see children outdoors on school days, even in Tivoli, which has offered free access to all kindergartens.
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| Tivoli Gardens in center of CPH closed because of Corona restrictions but opened for kindergartens. |
Denmark is one of the few countries that has already reopened schools, but many are following suit.Don't we start to glimpse a world without social distancing again? Back to normal (or a new normal)? But what will change in the long run is yet to be seen.
Recommended deepening sources:
- People from more than 30 countries share happy moments from their life in Corona Quarantine in this video: What Social Distance Looks Like Across the World.
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| The UNESCO site with update on school closures |
Lynch, Matthew (June 2020): Creating a low-cost high-impact online learning program with heart
The article has this focus: Extensive further development of online teaching is needed, so that there is room for participants' engagement and emotional reflexivity
Lynch, Matthew (June 2020): Revisiting accountability in online learning.
The article has this focus: It is just as important in an online learning environment (as in learning with a physical presence) that participants are engaged. This is achieved only by setting high expectations and holding students accountable for living up to them. There must also be good reasons for the students to be motivated for genuine responsibility for their own learning.
Caring for your own and others' mental health
"The Friendship Bench" in Zimbabwe has developed a range of materials for use by anyone feeling mentally depressed (or helping others who are mentally depressed or in crisis). These materials are freely downloadable from the organization's website: friendshipbenchzimbabwe.org/tools-to-thrive
Introduction to how the “Friendship Bench” has developed a method used by villagers to care for mental health of others: “Everyone, everywhere should have someone to turn to in support of their mental health”
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| Bike ride training in kindergarten in Denmark 2020 |
This article is a follow up to the blog post:
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| "We found the baby tadpoles!" Dyrehaven, Copenhagen June 2020 |
A complete list of references
- Nørregård-Nielsen, Hans Edward (2008): Som sagt. Et tidsbillede.
- How Europe recovered from the Black Death– Recovery podcast series del 1 (36 min.)
- Brown, Kimberley (Marts 2020): Indigenous race into Ecuador's Amazon to escape coronavirus
- Hawley & Buck (2020): Social distancing works – just ask lobsters, ants and vampire bats.
- Yuval Noah Harari (2019): The Bright Side of Nationalism.Video on YouTube.
- Rashmi, Singla (April 2020): Opinion: Social distancing or physical distancing and social connecting
- Rashmi, Singla: Hvordan kan vi være nære trods fysisk afstand?
- Financial Times: Denmark edges towards reopening as children return to school.
- Reuters: Reopening schools in Denmark did not worsen outbreak, data shows.
- Romano, Andrea (June 2020): Copenhagen Turned Tivoli Gardens Into a Temporary Kindergarten
- Orange, Richard (May 2020): Split classes, outdoor lessons: what Denmark can teach England about reopening schools after Covid. The Guardian
Teach GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP Newsletter no. 38
Everyone, who is engaged in developing global citizenship, is welcome to receive these thematic introductions & curated learning possibilities.
June 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark
Egon Hedegaard
Thanks goes to Glenn Sweitzer for editing (as always)
Links to all blog posts: click
Blogs in Danish:
Comment from G.S. in Indiana, USA:
SvarSletUnlike several other large countries - and almost all smaller countries - the U.S. defers education (including COVID-19) decisions to the 50 individual states. Many states further delegate decision-making to individual city or even local school districts. This reflects in part our expansive geography and associated climates, population distribution, and constitutional method of governance.
Under the current pandemic, this system has failed to provide either factual information or consistent advice to our education administrators, teachers, parents, and students. That said, a normal secondary school year in the U.S. ends by the end of May. Summer school is a separate term, if held. As yet, plans for returning autumn term are now being discussed, with contingencies, pending the continued spread of the virus.