Sunday July 19 2020
As we move towards the end of July and think about schools starting up again next month, I’d like to explain how this is all going to work now.
But I can’t. I have nothing but confusion on what the heck is happening on this front.
I’m so, so relieved to not have a school age kid in the house now. I haven’t needed to give this my full attention, but from what I understand is the collective public education system is working to build best practices in these unprecedented times [take a drink].
Depending on the school system, we can expect to see a mix of staffed classrooms and distance learning in homes; a challenge for the students, the teachers, and working parents. And oh lordy, what about the parents like me who suck at math? Is there a shared tutelage plan between the parents? The engineer sends her kid to spend a day at the English major’s house, while that kid goes off to learn American history from the weird dad who does Civil War reenactments?
In our own Northmont City Schools, two learning options are offered for the start of the 2020-2021 school year.
“The first is face-to-face learning located in the school buildings. Currently, this means students are physically present all day, every day (this is subject to change).
The second is remote learning at home through the Northmont Remote Learning Academy. This will be available to any student who is medically fragile and/or families who are uncomfortable sending their child to school in a face-to-face setting.”
Northmont City Schools http://www.northmont.net
They say you don’t know how you’ll react to a situation until you’re knee deep into it and I wonder what my choice would be if faced with this today. Maybe fear and anxiety would drive me to keep the kid home, while I tried to negotiate my own work-from-home agreement to facilitate distance learning. But then I would worry about my ability to properly manage a school plan for a kid I can’t even convince to pick up his Legos?
I feel empathy for those responsible for educating our future leaders. What are we going to see with these kids in twenty years?
Perhaps strength and adaptability developed through adversity? Or a generation really bad at math?
Donnatopia 