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My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

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Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#121

Post by crooked-v »

somethoughts wrote: post #80
actfrench wrote: post #73

"forced to sit in front of a screen" is the key phrase here. What if we didn't force them to sit, but allowed them to stand and move about freely, come and go when they please, have some autonomy and decision making power around what goes on in class (e.g. share preferences for what they want to learn) and give them frequent movement breaks (a good set of headphones, an ipad with a wide lens attached allows that). Wh…

A balance ball seems to be working better than a hard wood chair was for the seven year old to handle 3-4 hours of Zoom. Posture is much better too. Also trying to figure out how to throw up the Zoom conference on the TV. I think it'll probably be much more natural for the kids.

Google Chrome and macOS can both do desktop mirroring (to a Chromecast device or Apple TV respectively), so then you just need a webcam with a long cable you can stick on top of the TV.

Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#122

Post by vkou »

nickff wrote: post #74
actfrench wrote: post #54

Here's a crazy idea: What if we raised our children to process their difficult emotions instead of suppress them and stay active and move freely while working and studying (instead of sitting in a chair at a desk)

It's not what teachers are used to or desire, and the educational system is primarily designed for teachers.

The education system is primarily designed for controlling costs, and making children easy to manage.

Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#123

Post by floren »

learc83 wrote: post #97

Kids can't learn all day long in a classroom. I don't know why we expect them to be able to do it remotely. School has always been 1/3 learning 2/3 baby sitting. When my parents were kids, they only went to kindergarten for half a day.

> When my parents were kids, they only went to kindergarten for half a day.

Wait, hang on, is kindergarten all-day now? I was in kindergarten in... 1992, and it was half a day.

Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#124

Post by visarga »

dpcan wrote: post #70
coderholic wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the point is it can't be done. I think it's just acknowledging that it's HARD. Both for the kids, and the parents.

What the hell is wrong with HARD???? Why is everyone so lazy? We are going backwards as a society. I was raised thinking that if it wasn't hard to do, it wasn't worth doing. Every uphill path should not be looked at as an arduous journey, but as an adventure with an amazing reward at the top.

This comment is lacking in empathy. Not all situations can be solved by the same logic.

Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#125

Post by dstick »

marta_morena_25 wrote: post #82
actfrench wrote: post #54

Here's a crazy idea: What if we raised our children to process their difficult emotions instead of suppress them and stay active and move freely while working and studying (instead of sitting in a chair at a desk)

Here is a crazy idea that needs to come before this: What if we taught our adult population to process their difficult emotions instead of suppressing them and stay active and move freely while working and studying. Actually, this already falls flat in the first section. At least 90% of adult fail on that one. How are they supposed to teach something to their children that they themselves don't even understand? And t…

Is there some deeper meaning to 1 + 1 = 2 you could enlighten us on? Most teachers I’ve met seem perfectly capable at getting at least that across.

Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#126

Post by nradov »

learc83 wrote: post #97

Kids can't learn all day long in a classroom. I don't know why we expect them to be able to do it remotely. School has always been 1/3 learning 2/3 baby sitting. When my parents were kids, they only went to kindergarten for half a day.

Kindergarten in the US became far more academically focused after the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and the adoption of Common Core curriculum. Most schools also changed the age cutoff date for kindergarten so the average student is now slightly older.

Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#127

Post by itronitron »

dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #40

All of these comments make me think HN has never interacted with a 5 year old. Adults are barely able to make it through a day of Zoom meetings without feeling drained, how do you expect an almost toddler to react when forced to sit in front of a screen? The only reasons adults can do it is years and years of learning impulse controls and suppression of bad emotions for everyone's good. A 5 year old does not have the…

I pulled my teenagers out of 'classroom' oriented school so that they can just do self-paced online courses instead of risking a repeat of the disaster from last semester when their school tried to do 'distance' learning with zoom meetings. I can't imagine a five year old doing well with this.

Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#128

Post by balfirevic »

threatofrain wrote: post #23
gonehome wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get ahead of what? I’m not convinced any of this remote learning stuff matters that much as long as parents have money to feed their kids and house themselves. Canceling remote learning to spend time with the kids and giving them space to let them learn about something they’re interested in for a year probably does zero harm and might even be beneficial. I would have loved it. Obviously bad family situations, and pov…

Get ahead on placement exams. Schools have only so many teachers for Algebra. Also not all kids are doing remote education.

How does that work? The idea is to just resume schooling where you left off a year prior. In what way can anyone get ahead? Kids who didn't pause would simply be in a higher grade, others in a lower grade, but so what?

Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#129

Post by elliekelly »

actfrench wrote: post #73

"forced to sit in front of a screen" is the key phrase here. What if we didn't force them to sit, but allowed them to stand and move about freely, come and go when they please, have some autonomy and decision making power around what goes on in class (e.g. share preferences for what they want to learn) and give them frequent movement breaks (a good set of headphones, an ipad with a wide lens attached allows that). Wh…

Yes and I’d even go so far as to say I‘m not sure the “screen” really has much to do with the difficulty. I had a hard time sitting and paying attention in class 25 years ago. All of my teachers “solved” this by putting me in the front row so they could keep an eye on me and remind me to sit again. But my 3rd grade teacher gave me a desk in the back row so I could sit in my chair, sit on my desk, or stand without bothering the other students. It turned out I could pay attention when I wasn’t forced to assume the learning position.

Re: My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I

#130

Post by danudey »

marta_morena_25 wrote: post #82
actfrench wrote: post #54

Here's a crazy idea: What if we raised our children to process their difficult emotions instead of suppress them and stay active and move freely while working and studying (instead of sitting in a chair at a desk)

Here is a crazy idea that needs to come before this: What if we taught our adult population to process their difficult emotions instead of suppressing them and stay active and move freely while working and studying. Actually, this already falls flat in the first section. At least 90% of adult fail on that one. How are they supposed to teach something to their children that they themselves don't even understand? And t…

We were extremely lucky to have a great K teacher who really wanted to work with us and our son to help him through his difficult time adjusting to school. We worked with him quite a bit, and by the "end of the year" (i.e. spring break, when lockdown started), he was processing his feelings of overwhelmedness much better, and going to her (and just collapsing into a heap in her lap) when he felt overwhelmed.

Compare that to a friend's son, who is the same age as ours but has some developmental delays of some type (I assume). Their teacher told them that they had to "get this dealt with"; in other words, "fix your kid so I don't have to deal with him". Not exactly a welcoming and comforting environment for a child who needs to be met halfway.

I mentioned this anecdote to our son's teacher and her first comment was "wow... is she an older teacher?" And yes, she was. She's been working with kids for 30 years, probably isn't as flexible in terms of learning strategies as younger teachers are, and, probably even worse, has been underpaid (and under-respected) for that whole time, so she's surely just burnt out and waiting for retirement at this point.

Maybe if teaching paid decent money we'd have more teachers who could put in the time and emotional energy to nurture their students, rather than just putting them through the pipeline, and who wouldn't get so cynical and short-tempered by the end of their career.

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