My kid can’t handle a virtual education, and neither can I • Hacker News Board

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

#11

Post by supergeek133 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:14 PM UTC

supercanuck wrote: post #6

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…

Sure, but don’t expect other people to follow suit. They will hire private teachers and remote home school to get ahead.

That's been the case with or without school.

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

#12

Post by supergeek133 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:15 PM UTC

I read it and ended being not sure what it was about.

Unless you're going to end with a stance of "but we'll get through it because of COIVD" or "we should go back to school no matter what" I'm a little lost of the point here.

Nobody is "doing this" to you, it's what we all have to do. Yes it impacts everyone different, but what's the message?

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

#13

Post by codefreakxff » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:15 PM UTC

Wow. Agree with all the other comments. I read the whole article, and there is some next level self-centered entitlement here that has wholly passed on to "Raffi" the 5 year old who is only now learning not to deliberately make his little brother cry, and who has learned that spitting his drink on a laptop makes mommy and daddy take him to the park. While I want to empathize with the parents, the fact that they blame remote learning for all their problems rather than realizing that they have raised a hellion and dumped him on the poor teachers at school... and are bitter that now they have to deal with their own child... wow... yeah, definitely not the parents problem. Everything is to blame on remote learning! We better re-open the schools again so parents don't have to deal with their children!

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

#14

Post by mc32 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:17 PM UTC

supercanuck wrote: post #6

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…

Sure, but don’t expect other people to follow suit. They will hire private teachers and remote home school to get ahead.

I guess that may happen for kids who go to private school (public in U.K.) but for kids in public schools, skipping a grade when the schools know their status before the pause might be harder to do. Additionally it’d likely be a minority of students—most would take the opp to remain refreshed and current rather than learning new subject matter.

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

#15

Post by klipt » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:17 PM UTC

organsnyder wrote: post #10

doggydogs94 wrote: post #5

I expect that the next school year will be a virtual “gap” year. As the author illustrates, anything we do with remote learning is just wishful thinking.

Given the amount of brain development that happens at young ages, this is daunting to consider.

Kids spending more time playing outside and some less time on stressful academics is probably good for them. We didn't evolve to sit sedentary in a classroom.

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

#16

Post by gonehome » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:17 PM UTC

supercanuck wrote: post #6

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…

Sure, but don’t expect other people to follow suit. They will hire private teachers and remote home school to get ahead.

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 poverty are not helped by this - but those things are probably made worse by throwing remote learning on top of it.

Wealthy countries should have a vaccine and distribution done by end of 2021. Waiting that out is what I would do if I had kids.

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

#17

Post by causality0 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:17 PM UTC

hit his parents, hit his brother, broke things, and spat a cup of juice all over my laptop.

Barring some kind of psychiatric problem like ODD, that's a significant failure of discipline, the responsibility for which lies squarely on the shoulders of the parent. I would not trust any kind generalized behavioral prediction from someone who can't keep a five year old from striking their siblings and intentionally destroying objects.

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

#18

Post by supergeek133 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

codefreakxff wrote: post #13

Wow. Agree with all the other comments. I read the whole article, and there is some next level self-centered entitlement here that has wholly passed on to "Raffi" the 5 year old who is only now learning not to deliberately make his little brother cry, and who has learned that spitting his drink on a laptop makes mommy and daddy take him to the park. While I want to empathize with the parents, the fact that they blame…

Yeah, I'm really missing the message here.

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

#19

Post by chiyc » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:19 PM UTC

"I even think Raffi might be able to improve his digital etiquette—to get better at waiting his turn to speak without slamming the computer shut because he’s bored, to sit through a lesson without whining or screaming.

But is digital etiquette something I want Raffi to learn at age 5? He’ll have the rest of his life to figure out the niceties of interacting with people through a screen. I can’t accept that he should get acclimated to this form of school."

The author is almost onto something with this comment. I'm not an expert in this area, but virtual "education" for pre-K seems to miss the point of going to school for a 4 year old child. I would venture a guess that the impact is more about socialization and acclimating to the routine of school than learning things.

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

#20

Post by skizm » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 7:19 PM UTC

I'm genuinely curious if we stuck VR headsets on kids, and had the proper software, if their would be any better results. I'm one of the people who think there won't be a VR/AR revolution any time soon, but I do think there are narrow sets of applications and games the benefit A LOT from it. I don't know if education is one of those, but I'm am very interested in finding out.