Doing Online School Right Now Is A Terrible Idea
Right now, teachers everywhere are scrambling to come up with virtual lessons for their students. They’re sending out email after email to parents and children, assigning them homework, and asking them to join on camera meetings in the middle of the day.
Honestly, this all just needs to stop.
Somehow our country has decided we need to virtually school all of these children from home until the end of the school year because of all the super important education they’re going to miss out on.
Um, are you kidding me? This is seriously just ridiculous.
In light of everything that’s going on right now, we are for some reason hyper-focused on nine weeks of school.
Nobody is going to be woefully behind if we just skip the last grading period of the year.
It really isn’t that big of a deal. In the grand scheme of things, missing a half semester of 13 years of education isn’t hurting anybody. If you had to miss any part of school, the last part is probably the best of all times to miss.
There are kids out there trying to find places to print homeschool packets because nobody has a printer.
Parents negotiating computer and laptop time with their children because they have to work, or they have multiple children trying to use devices.
And, just… why?
This is such an unnecessary complication with everything else going on right now.
I mean, when the kids got back from spring break, all they were going to do was study for the state standardized test, take said test, and then throw a bunch of parties and events until the last day anyway. That really isn’t a huge sacrifice to miss out on.
State testing is cancelled, and those parties aren’t happening, so teachers might as well hang up their pointers and call it early summer.
You see, here’s the thing, kids and parents are worrying about a lot right now.
There are moms and dads who’s jobs have closed indefinitely and they have no idea how they’re going to pay their bills at the end of the month.
Do you really think they have time to help their kids focus on geography when they aren’t sure they’re going to have running water a couple of weeks from now?
There are elementary aged kids who have suddenly become in home child care providers to little brothers and sisters because their parents still have to go to work even though schools and daycares have closed down.
Do you really think they can pause for a classroom hang out when they’re changing diapers and making macaroni and cheese?
And let’s not forget the teachers.
Many of them are now home full time with their own children. Trying to figure out how to fit in time for lesson plans and instruction is just another added stress they do not need right now.
They need to be spending this time with their kids. Not learning how to use complicated technology and software to connect with their students.
Lots of times, teachers are married to other community helpers like nurses, firefighters, and others in essential community helper roles that can’t shut down right now, so not only are they having to burden the whole workload from home, but they’re also dealing with the fact that the people they care out are out in the world being exposed to this thing every day.
Nobody has time for a FaceTime on polynomials right now. It’s the furthest thing from everybody’s mind.
So let’s just pause this whole focus on making sure learning is happening for the next couple of months.
Let’s even put a big cheery spin on it and call it early summer.
Let’s take care of everyone’s basic needs right now, and save the abc’s and 123’s for a kinder gentler time.
I know that we all need a semblance of normal right now, but school from home just isn’t it. That isn’t the thing that is going to get us through this.
So please, happy early summer, everyone.
