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

theatlantic.com

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

#171

Post by wvenable »

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.

> If it wasn't hard to do, it wasn't worth doing

That might be true but if something is hard that doesn't mean it's automatically worth doing. Video conference learning might be both simultaneously hard and completely worthless.

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

#172

Post by t0mbstone »

jeffbee wrote: post #27
mc32 wrote: post #4

If remote learning is leaving a lot to be desired where kids aren’t really getting much benefit academically and it’s stressing people out, is there a possibility to pause education for a year and resume a year from now? Now, I know there is no guarantee there will be an effective vaccine, but if not we may learn enough whether heard immunity is enough by then. Graduating a year later for everyone from K- to-be-senio…

You can pause education but a child is a learning machine and they aren't going to stop learning just because you stop teaching them. They'll just learn in unstructured ways without direction.

Is that really such a bad thing?

I mean, that's pretty much the entire point of Montessori school and various "lifestyle of learning" types of educational programs

I think huge swathes of the information that we force feed our children in school is mostly forgotten or un-used.

I was homeschooled as a kid, and my parents let me basically stop school at the age of 11. I was interested in computers, and by the age of 13 I had a job as a programmer, and by the age of 16 I was employed full time. I ended up going back and studying for my GED (passed it with a 98%) when I was 17 (because my parents said I couldn't get a car until I passed the GED at least).

One of my other siblings didn't even learn to read competently until the age of 10. He now has a college degree, owns a huge house, and makes six figures.

Kids are a lot more resilient than people give them credit for, and the most sure-fire way to make kids hate learning is to force them to do it.

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

#173

Post by olyjohn »

trhway wrote: post #134
toper-centage wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately that is incompatible with 30 children in a classroom being managed but a single underpaid teacher.

so, who is up for a startup - an AI-agent as a teacher, each child gets his own teacher, or several simultaneously, basically personalized Muppet show guiding the child through the intricacies of 1+1=2 and how to write "mom". For the older students - some FPS (multi-played by the whole class or school against school) with math and other problems to unlock new more powerful weapons/etc. should work too - anybody who d…

Not sure if serious...

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

#174

Post by danans »

tboyd47 wrote: post #78
syndacks wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Educators did not come up with this plan, politicians did by their lack of any sort of COVID response. Do you really think educators want to do remote learning? My heart goes out to all the teachers who have to deal with this. It's as hard on them as it is parents and students.

Ah, excuse me, I didn't mean to slight the real educators. I meant the phony ones who think this is a reasonable plan. I agree with you completely. We love the teachers at our kids' school and saying goodbye to them was the hardest part of leaving. They are just as frustrated. But the people who think that this solution is a reasonable one are insane.

> I meant the phony ones who think this is a reasonable plan.

I'm not sure what you mean by "reasonable", but I've yet to come across a single educator or administrator who thinks remote school is a good thing. They all think it's just the least bad among a set of bad options. Where are you finding educators who think it's actually net-positive and not just an unfortunate reality?

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

#175

Post by grahamburger »

floren wrote: post #123
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.

My kid's Kindergarten is still half day. As far as I know half-day kindergarten is still the standard in my state (Utah.)

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

#176

Post by zelphirkalt »

actfrench wrote: post #43
actfrench wrote: post #31

In my opinion, the issue here isn't virtual learning (the what), the issue is how we are doing virtual learning (the how). We can't use zoom the way we use a physical classroom. It's a totally different medium. I teach a group of kindergarteners online every morning for 3 hours. The first thing we do is make sure their space is set up to allow for movement. They can jump up move, around, wiggle, whatever they want. I…

This is how my class is structured and the activities we do. https://www.modulo.app/manishamodule Feel free to share with other teachers if it could benefit them. I"d also be happy to talk to your teacher or anyone else's teacher if they need support on making zoom more engaging. Also, if other teachers have ideas of activities that worked well for them, I'd love to hear! I'll just add that one thing that's been help…

Zoom does not belong in any classroom, regardless of virtual or physical. It is proprietary software, which has a back track record on privacy and security. It is not free software respecting children's and teachers' rights and freedom.

I find the this reliance on proprietary shitty software annoying and absurd. Often teachers barely know manage to cobble together virtual classrooms. They lack information about alternatives and support for setting things up properly.

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

#177

Post by Miraste »

CydeWeys wrote: post #112
einarfd wrote: post #105

A lot of people complain about Zoom fatigue, and while on one hand I'm fairly happy that it is a competitors offering that has ended up with being a part of that moniker, and not the product I'm working on, it is somewhat unfair to blame Zoom or the software stack for that. The main culprit for messing up meetings are the cameras and the microphones on laptops. I'm not sure if there are any vendors at all, including…

You can buy a top-of-the-line $3,000 16" Macbook Pro and it comes with a garbage-tier 720p webcam that has terrible dynamic range and low-light performance. It's embarrassing . Most Windows laptops at a third of the price have significantly better webcams.

The ultrabooks that are priced to compete with MacBooks have even worse webcams than Apple uses, because they have even thinner lids and bezels. It's not a question of cost, it's the result of physical laws and design priorities.

It is interesting that companies are willing to put massive, tumorous lumps and display cutouts on smartphones in the name of picture quality but not even a little bump on laptop lids.

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

#178

Post by vinbreau »

My daughter started Kindergarten and we're doing remote learning. She' almost 5 years old and can work a computer for the things she needs. But she can't work a zoom meeting. So I am a teacher's asst. from 8am until 2:30 pm. It's exhausting and sometimes I take a 2 hour nap afterward. It's hard on her because until a few weeks ago she would wake up, come into my office with me and watch shows on a laptop, maybe play some Minecraft. Now I wake her up instead, and prep her for school, which is in the same office she used to have fun in. She has been adjusting slowly, but it has not been without breakdowns on all our parts.

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

#179

Post by zelphirkalt »

function_seven wrote: post #26

I'm amazed how dismissive all the comments are here. I read the article and it seems totally normal for a little kid not to be able to do "school" on a laptop. Kindergarten is so much different than later years of schooling. It's not about lectures and subjects, or homework and tests. It's about much more fundamental lessons, interspersed with creativity, socialization, and learning to be separated from your parents.…

But what about children in Australia, where remote teaching has been done for many years? Are they all somehow specially gifted children, so that they manage?

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

#180

Post by nxc18 »

turtlebits wrote: post #166

5 is a crucial age in child development. Get offline and home school. Take a leave of absence if you really have to. Talk to your employer.

That's nice and great advice for parents who can afford that. Unfortunately most parents aren't in a position to do that.

I know my parents growing up would have been in a world of hurt if they had to home school - it was hard enough making ends meet as it was.

This situation is going to really entrench and amplify socioeconomic inequality - for the first time in generations we could see a world where only the very wealthy/privileged are able to give their kids a good education.

FWIW 'leave of absence' isn't really a concept for many, many jobs.

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