Parents and teachers everywhere have been vocal about their wishes when it comes to school and education. Based on the current climate, it still doesn't seem safe for children to go back to their physical buildings. However, some parents just don't have a choice in the matter.
Some parents were left having to choose between their careers and the education of their kids through distance learning. Since not all employers are offering flexible schedules, it's become more of a challenge having to balance both. Many schools are taking precautions, but some wonder if it's enough. A lot of safety comes in making sure the students follow protocol. And since many adults are having trouble with that, the outlook seems grim.
While kids aren't as susceptible to getting seriously ill due to the virus, they can still feel the effects and pass it onto friends and loved ones. That's why it's important to do what we can to keep everyone safe. And it's not like children necessarily like being away from school. Even though this may have seemed like "the dream" back when we were in elementary grades, school in itself was never as scary as it is now.
Bullying and anxiety may have existed, but a crisis like this never has. Pair that with the fact that many elementary school students have been going through active shooter drills, and it's safe to say that school isn't the same.
Distance learning can also be very stressful on kids. And that's why mom Jana Coombs snapped a picture of her son sobbing by his desk. He, too, was frustrated with this arrangement.
Jana knew that such a vulnerable moment would help showcase the fact that kids are really in a tough place right now. Many of them are scared, and most don't know if this arrangement will ever have an ending. Her son is 5 and has enrolled in virtual kindergarten. Typically, the standard kindergarten class doesn't happen in front of a laptop. But for her son — and kids around the nation — this was his reality.
"I just took that picture because I wanted people to see reality," she told CNN affiliate WXIA. "And then he came over and we hugged and I was crying right along with him." However, Jana couldn't help him much more. She was also balancing the online educations of her second and fourth graders, and she also had a baby to take care of.
"Juggling a household, having an infant in the house, getting 5,000 emails a day from all their teachers, trying to keep up… different apps, different codes, different platforms, some links don't work. You're running from one laptop to another," she exclaimed. While digital learning is truly one of the safer methods healthwise, it's increasingly difficult for all parents — but especially parents of multiples.
In a typical school setup, students can openly ask for help from their teacher, or speak up if they don't understand something. But communicating on a digital platform is harder. Kids may be scared to answer or ask a question, or they might just tune out. As many working adults know, staring at a computer screen all day can become tiresome.
But students today have nothing else they can look at. For Jana's son, the whole arrangement of his year has changed. Show-and-tell will be different. Art class will happen at home, if at all. And he's missing out on face-to-face interaction with other children.
Jana's husband, Luke, also feels as if distance learning is making the children miss out. "A lot of what they're learning is getting lost in translation because they're not getting interaction on a personal level," he said. But many parents don't have a choice.
Of course, it's going to take a long time to go back to the way things were before. And that's why it's important to try to prep your child ahead of time. If anything, at least show support in that you, also, know it's a stressful situation. It's even harder for elementary school students, as many of them may not be quite as well versed with using technology.
Emily Gould wrote a piece for The Atlantic that, more or less, calls distance learning a joke. She, herself, has had to help a child with virtual kindergarten. "Before mid-March 2020, if you'd asked me how I felt about videoconferencing, I'd have shrugged. It's fine?" she wrote. "Now I would have to amend that opinion slightly. It's not fine. It's horrible, a form of psychic torture, and I hate it so deeply that my hatred feels physical, like an allergic reaction."
Emily is currently 38 and is known best for her freelance work for Gawker. She's also written plenty of novels. Also, she's the mom of 5-year-old Raffi, who is also in the midst of attending school virtually. "I'm dreading the fall, when his kindergarten class will be conducted at least partially, and possibly entirely, remotely," she wrote. "I'm eager to be proved wrong, but I suspect that for him and for my family, Zoom kindergarten might be worse than no school at all."
In her eyes, distance learning was just too hard to implement on such a small child. "On day one Raffi cried, screamed, hit his parents, hit his brother, broke things, and spat a cup of juice all over my laptop," she wrote. "The next day, my husband and I tried it again, and things went about the same way."
She believes that part of it was because the concept was so unfamiliar to him. School can be scary for many children, but not many programs have tackled what virtual school looks like. Plus, some children are just too antsy due to staying indoors for months. All children can learn how to behave in a situation like this, but it can be a full-time job in itself for parents who are already overloaded.
"Our first mistake, I think, was expecting that Raffi would be as excited about online school as we were," Emily wrote. "We'd been so eager to see his wonderful teacher and his classmates that we hadn't paused to think about how jarring it would be for Raffi, who had only recently learned that the people in the TV set weren't tiny puppets."
That experience gets worse with other children in the house. It also gets worse if mom and dad are tied up with their own responsibilities. It's a reminder that nothing will beat actual, in-person school. But again, it's a sacrifice these children are making to help make sure their community doesn't lose valuable members when it shouldn't have to. All in all, both parents and students need to realize they're not alone.
The situation in front of us is frustrating for everyone, and there's no answer that'll solve every problem and concern. Just make sure to go easy on your children if they're experiencing similar frustrations. As long as we all try our hardest to listen to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations and keep tabs on our state policies, this will hopefully be a small blip in an otherwise social and successful period of education.
Always check with your health care provider concerning any symptoms you may be experiencing, and seek the most accurate information from the CDC and your state’s health department.
