Is School the Most Important Thing During a Pandemic?

This title may seem daunting. We are teachers. Of course, school is important! But is it the most important thing? During this once in a lifetime (hopefully) pandemic, I have realized that school is not the most important thing. With all that is happening around us, it is difficult to focus on school when it seems so miniscule to everything else going on. While death and sickness rates continuing to rise, it seems odd to pursue grades the way we were before. Some teachers have backed off and realized that there are bigger things in our life going on, but some teachers have not. While online remote learning appears to be the only option, that does not make it an easy option.
Students went from doing schoolwork in places such as the library or in quiet buildings. Now, they have to do schoolwork in their homes, where it may not be that quiet and they may not have a table to set up on. For some students, the only safe place they could go was school. Not only was this taken away from them, but they still have to do their work at home. This makes focusing on school a lot harder than it ever was before. I have heard stories of students being given more homework than they are able to handle. While some students may have less on their plate since they do not have to be in the school building, this may not be true for all. As teachers, we worry about our students not learning enough, but we need to consider that it might just be too much. Teachers cannot keep pretending that assigning the same amount of work will work for the students. This may be a delicate balance, but I believe that the balance needs to be achieved, because school cannot be the same as before.