Outdoor Classrooms Shouldn't End With the Pandemic

In the weeks since the Centers for Disease Control issued new guidelines for reopening schools, we have learned one lesson: It’s going to take more than a policy document to make this goal a reality. That’s especially true in poor communities, which have been hit hardest by Covid-19, and where students have suffered the greatest academic setbacks. Many families as well as educators remain reluctant to return to in-person instruction.

Instead of engaging in political finger-pointing, there is one approach that might foster confidence in reopening in-person schools while also promoting learning and the physical and emotional health of students: a mandatory, extended spring-to-summer curriculum focused on outdoor learning. President Joe Biden alluded to his support for summer school during a CNN Town Hall on Feb. 16.