Shall we eat, or shall we educate?

The positive coronavirus cases are on the uptick again as we head for the winter. In the United States policymakers have mostly decided to keep restaurants open and schools closed. In Europe, they are doing the opposite and as far as the virus goes the European approach seems to be faring better.

The overarching argument for re-opening schools has remained that closing schools and switching entirely to remote learning have negative social implications. The first argument is that children are learning less. But why? The second is that many parents and mostly mothers have dropped out of the labor force. But is that such a bad thing? How many mothers, self-included would agree that it is a blessing to be more intimately involved in their children’s learning.

The sudden switch to online learning, instead of the gradual transition that would have been ideal for some institutions, is the reason why students have been seen in recent research to be falling months behind during virus disruptions. It is even more severe in developing countries where internet access is still minimal. After the reality of the pandemic and distance learning has set in, continuing slides in student progress have more to do with a failure to adapt our learning and teaching to the novel approaches we need to now take towards the transmission of knowledge and student success.

In grades K-4, for example, I will agree the challenge feels greater. Perhaps now, when they are still in the formative stages of their learning development, we should not focus so much on ‘getting back to normal,’ but take this opportunity, especially as the pandemic rages on, to rethink and begin to transform education to the new ways of teaching and learning, that are becoming undeniably the new normal.

Teachers across the world are sharing experiences where students are not consistently engaged with remote assignments. This points to a lack of supervision in the remote setting. Some students have parents who work outside the home, or who lack basic tech skills to be able to assist their children even if they wanted to. Parents clearly need support in myriad ways including understanding how they can best support their children and set standards and limits as well as a positive environment for student success.

Juliet