This is an anonymous note from a reader that don't want to be known. I thought this was a great statement on what is going on today in most parents and students world as we continue to fight this pandemic.
I'm not trying to tell my age but I remember being in my ROTC army uniform and having to walk in 5 plus inches of snow to school. And we not talking about down the street at the corner school...... we talking about a mile or so to school from the house. And guess what? Our Captain still wanted our uniform including the shoes to be clean and free of snow and wetness. We was made to believe that your uniform (outfit) shows your character. Our schools was not close because of 'potential' weather but it seems that the climate change have really changed the way the school systems does things. If they have only a half of inch of snow, school is closed.
That was the challenge of parents around fours years ago but now we have this pandemic as of 2020. It seems with the new outbreak of another form of the virus that the virtual learning pandemic will continue. Yes I said 'virtual pandemic". The world is in a crisis with COVID and parents and teachers are in a crisis with teaching and learning. When I was in high school, you needed 200 credits in order to graduate but things have changed from the way they grade things to the way they teaches which is different from when I was in school. Now we are in a time where school is mostly online. This transition have been stressful on parents. Most parents across the world is working from home which is something different but just maybe you have some that loves working from home because they don't have to worry about a place to park, they can sit at the computer in their pajamas, they can do housework on their break from work, eat what's in the fridge, etc. You also have the ones that loves to go into the office to get away from their home lives. But what about the kids?
Just like the adults, you have some kids that thieve with being inside the school and then you have the kids that is content with being at home and doing school work. Some kids may not because of the pandemic but because they was being bullied in school prior or they just want to be solo away from everyone and still attend school. The reasons varies so much when it come to kids according to their age. I have found that some middle school kids and high school kids have became so uninterested in school. This pandemic has an effect on the education and mindset of children these days.
What do we do as parents to ensure that the kids are successful in school until completion thru this pandemic. Not only do they have to have computers to attend and do school work but some may need a phone not along wifi. So now, what if the kids are failing in school? Normanly, we as parents would take the computers, phones, etc but that is not an option at all because they need them things to be successful, right! But just like grown people going to work to get away from home, so does some of these children. they want and need to see and talk to their friends. We as parents is trying to figure out how to help our kids to be successful in school but we don't know the new ways of doing the new math and some to old to remember.
Our children are facing just of a challenge as we as parents are facing but what can be done about it?. I believe that we parents need to be taught on how to help our kids with school work. Some of the work is totally different on how we did it. Our kids still need some kind of outlet outside of school because there are no more after school activities. It's so difficult on parents but very difficult on the children. How can we really help our children to be successful now?
Signed "A Speechless Parent"