Anna Siegal

This interview took place on August 31, 2021 remotely via Zoom; it is Anna Siegal's fifth conversation with the Education Narratives Project. At the time of the interview, Anna was the Executive Director at Red Hook Playgroup, a progressive community-based early education program. She is preparing to begin the third school year impacted by the pandemic and feeling the weight and burden of continued restrictions and obstacles that threaten her ability to provide a quality educational and developmental experience for her students. She describes a sense of feeling bored with and tired of the tedium of dealing with COVID-19. She feels distanced from actual teaching--the work she loves--because of her responsibility as executive director to navigate and advise on the logistics involved in getting children into the classroom. She sees potential burnout in her colleagues and is actively promoting self care and work/life balance for her teachers. Anna talks extensively about how she and the teachers at her school are engaging children in facing and talking about the pandemic and the many other difficult issues that have surfaced during the past year and a half (racial tension, economy, climate change, politics). She also talks about the special projects her students worked on through the last school year to express their thoughts and feelings about what is happening in the world. Anna expresses cautious hope and optimism for the future, envisioning young children who grow up imbued with a sense of fairness for all, social justice, and activism as a result of what they are learning and absorbing from the world around them.