This blog often critiques schools and universities for rushing to adopt technologies without prioritizing learning. No technology replaces the value of a skilled teacher selecting and delivering materials.
But, the novel coronavirus proves that schools also wait too long to adopt necessary policies and important technologies. The same school leaders who rush to buy tablets without an implementation plan have demonstrated they cannot do something as basic as follow safety protocols during a pandemic.
We’ve completed three weeks of the 2021-2022 pandemic parenting school year, and I’m already convinced this school year will feel much longer. The year remains the same 180 days, plus a few, but we feel more stressed about our choice to homeschool. We feel more stress about COVID-19 generally, too.
Each morning, many of the neighborhood students board the elementary and middle school buses. In the afternoon, three different busses return to the neighborhood. The last bus returns student-athletes who have after-school practice.
Masks are required on busses, which are federally regulated. However, there are few masks worn before students board the busses, and the students quickly remove the masks after returning. The absurdity of this hasn’t been lost on our daughters.
The local school district had planned to offer online supports for those families choosing to keep students at home. That hasn’t gone as planned. Texas first withheld funding for online learning, only to restore that funding when Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 15 on September 9. He didn’t have much choice, as final approval in the legislature was 115 to 3.
We had enrolled our daughters in the local public school district, assuming that those too young for vaccines would likely have an online option. When the online option never materialized, we unenrolled and planned for a second full year of homeschooling.
Texas and too many other states are not mandating masks at school. Schools are too crowded, with minimal efforts to ensure social distancing. The students themselves won’t wear masks unsupervised. We felt online learning was the only acceptable way to return our daughters to public school.
When the schools realized how many families were opting to homeschool, districts sought to keep those students connected to the district. Public schools depend on attendance-based revenue payments from counties, states, and federal programs. When the students leave, so do the funds.
Our school district hopes to have some online resources available “soon.” They are rushing, which is inexcusable.
Schools should have had online resources ready a decade ago. There’s no excuse not to have online portals ready. Students have long-term medical absences. Weather emergencies cancel in-person classes. From snow days to family emergencies, schools should be able to direct students online as a viable “next best” learning experience.
Every teacher should have a course shell, updated daily and accessible to both students and guardians. If a parent wants to help a child, the materials should be a click away.
As a university instructor, my courses included current and complete online spaces. All my notes, my lecture slides, and other materials were posted online. Every assignment sheet was online. Anything a student might need, including most textbooks I used recently, were online and included in the virtual classroom.
We’re now waiting for the school district to straighten out our online accounts and access the promised support materials. We want to ensure what our daughters are learning aligns with what their peers are learning on campus.
This academic year, we’ll be anxiously awaiting vaccine approval for children under the age of 12. We’ll be waiting for new coronavirus variants that might delay a return to on-campus learning. We’ll be watching the news for outbreaks of viral and
bacterial infections resulting from the return of students to schools.
The year will feel longer because we might be close to a return… or we might be on the edge of disaster. Last year, I assumed we’d homeschool for the entire academic calendar. I convinced myself there’d be a vaccine, and everything would be normal by the fall of 2021.
Every school, college, and university would learn from the pandemic experience. Sadly, I doubt many schools will apply the experiences to improve education in the future. What should have been the catalyst for reform will merely be a source of lingering distrust.
My wife, our daughters, and I will never be confident that schools know how to best care for and educate children.