For the record, my kids hated e-learning and so did I. This post is dedicated to all the parents who suffered through this horrific period during the Covid-19 shutdown.

My youngest daughter, Mandi, spent some of third grade and most of fourth grade logging in to a Chromebook from the opposite side of my office desk. I had a front row seat into the e-learning horror show every Monday through Friday. Teachers were doing the best they could when it came to using Zoom and Google Classroom. Schools had to pivot there teaching modus operandi over a weekend and had little interest, time, or resources to train teachers how to succeed in the new virtual world. Mandi, at this point in her life, could navigate the iPhone with dexterity and precision that left me envious. Yet, when she opened the Chromebook with it’s glorious keyboard for the first time she looked at me as if she was being asked to use some form of alien technology.

I could overhear the teacher admonishing students to, “turn your camera back on.” Parents and Grandparents tasked with making sure their kids logged in for school every morning could be heard scolding them to “pay attention” or “turn off your iPhone and pay attention.” The first student to open an assignment in Google Docs answered the questions for all the other students. You see, the “Save As” command is a pretty heady concept for a seven year old to grasp. It was like being stuck in my own Groundhog Day hell.

Rebranding home learning

To make home learning more palatable for everyone we tried to rebrand the experience. After a family brainstorming session we landed on our school name: Brooksville Academy. The kids, not only accepted the challenge in finding a mascot but also developed their own mini-brief by trying to adopt an animal that is, “kinder, gentler and less carnivorous” than other schools. And I began work on the corporate branding designs.

Mighty Sparrows

The kids settled on using a “Sparrow” as our mascot after coming across these items while doing research:

The cultural relevance of sparrows is not limited to early literature or classical poetry, and the birds have an undeniably strong presence in modern culture too. Many popular songs and films have been written with reference to sparrows.

Marvin Gaye’s song ‘Sparrow’ has the theme of speaking out and standing up for justice. When he questions why the sparrow has fallen silent, it is seen as a loss of hope and the sparrow’s voice represents truth, honesty, and the importance of self-expression.

We couldn’t just go with “Sparrows” so we collectively decided to prepend the word “Mighty.” At that point, the Brooksville Academy Mighty Sparrows took flight.

This little project was super fun for the family to work on during a very challenging time in our lives.

Credits

• Typefaces: Domaine Display, Founders Grotesk
• Illustration: Steve Wolf
• Concept: Brooks Family
• Design: Steven Brooks