The past year was a time of upheaval that tested the resilience of individuals, communities and nations around the world.
But might 2020 look different in hindsight?
Crises, after all, often engender profound change. The Great Depression — to which the current moment is widely compared — spurred the creation of a new social safety net, new safeguards in finance and commerce, a vastly improved infrastructure of roads, bridges, parks and other public works, a flowering in the arts and a general strengthening of civil society.
Might the current moment mark the beginning of such a time? Now, as then, everything has been called into question: how we work, how we teach and learn, how we view human difference, and how we understand the guiding premises of our democracy. Now, as then, a better future depends on our ability to learn from experience, create and apply new models and approaches and reaffirm and reinterpret our values for a new age.
During 2020 — as in so many past eras — the faculty, students and alumni of Teachers College, were in the forefront of addressing these huge challenges, working with schools, colleges, hospitals, communities, nonprofits and all levels of government.
In the following special report, we bring you our story of
Empowering Our Partners in the Times of COVID