Live data from Hacker News

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

theatlantic.com

361–370 of 467 posts

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

#361
post #123
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.

In Indiana at least it was semi-optional in '88 and I think they just had a morning class and an afternoon class to double the number of kids who got to go. But I mean, I'm pretty sure they went full-day as soon as it was possible. It's free childcare and way more households now are dual income.

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

#362

The schools need to be open. Child abuse ER visits are up 35%[0]. Let that sink in. If a child goes to the ER for abuse, it's not because they have a black eye. They likely have broken bones, or are unresponsive. Thirty-five percent! Schools provide surveillance into things like child abuse, the need for hearing aids, the need for speech therapy classes .. and school lunches provide nutrition standards for many under…

Isn't it sad that as a society, it has come down to schools to provide security to children, as opposed to their own family.

I think the root cause is the fragmented family system in the US. Marriages and divorces happen so much that the ultimate sufferers are the children.

A society that is so fragile socially, will eventually collapse.

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

#363
post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French is actually a significant language in Cincinnati? I've never been there and it isn't exactly close to the Ontario or Quebec provinces of Canada.

No, it is not. Occasionally bilingual lower educational programs become very popular, and French is a common choice, especially in places far away from the American Southwest. A lot of cities I’ve lived in have had a Lycée Français in them, although I’m not sure if they’re related (I don’t have kids, so I never checked).

I mean, it is literally across the river from Louisville.

Kidding. No, and they pronounce the city of Versailles, IN ver-sales.

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

#365

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 destro…

[deleted]

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

#366
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…

The issue is what to do with the kids in the meantime. Most parents have to work, even if it's at home. And even if they can pay attention to the kids... what can they do? Social events, clubs, camps, activities are all shut down. My kids climbing gym is closed to them, and I don't know if they'll be able to ski at the local boring ski hill this winter even.

My kids are going completely bonkers. They need to see other kids (and other adults). We're sending them back only for their own mental health. We'll evaluate a few weeks in and see how the numbers look and how they feel about the classroom.

My kids don't get much pedagogically out of school, neither are great students, but my daughter at least really needs the social side. I'm not worried about them falling behind so much as I'm worried about their emotional state.

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

#368

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 usually the first mistake new homeschoolers make - trying to recreate the "school" experience in their homes. It nearly always fails. Homeschooling is much more flexible and dynamic. More breaks, more following the rabbit down the hole, more fun. My kids can often be found reading in their makeshift forts behind the sofa, watching ants in the backyard, and clicking through the youtube videos following the cur…

[deleted]

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

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly no. But that's because we moved from the school district the following summer. It's a bit of a sore point for me. I have no doubt if I'd stayed there (K-6), I would have been close to fluent. After lunch was a full immersion in French. My teacher was a native speaker from Belgium. I remember having mastered counting in French, which is quite interesting considering most kindergarteners probably have not mastere…

You must’ve been learning the Belgian version, because French numbers in France are kind of a mess. Like English there are special words for some of the “teens” numbers, which is the least of the troubles. Compare deux (two) and douze (twelve) to huit (eight) and dix-huit (ten-eight, or eighteen). Mildly annoying, but we have special cases for “eleven” and “twelve” in English too, no big deal. Then some of the tens a…

The French use the vigesimal system (base-20). I learned this fact while learning Norwegian, which doesn't use a base-20 system anymore, expect almost everybody above 50y still use the Danish system (also base-20, like French), which was indeed very confusing.

In Spanish it's more or less the same as French when it comes to naming numbers, except more predictable spelling and it's base-10: dos (two), doce (twelve), ocho (eight), dieciocho (eighteen), ochenta (eighty), noventa (nighty), cien (one hundred) and so on.

In the case of e.g dos (two) and veinte (twenty), were there doesn't seem to be any relationship, the root of veinte is "dwi" (dos), but it lost a sound somewhere along the way. Two, dos, duo, dual, double, all share the same indo-european root.

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

#370

The schools need to be open. Child abuse ER visits are up 35%[0]. Let that sink in. If a child goes to the ER for abuse, it's not because they have a black eye. They likely have broken bones, or are unresponsive. Thirty-five percent! Schools provide surveillance into things like child abuse, the need for hearing aids, the need for speech therapy classes .. and school lunches provide nutrition standards for many under…

Isn't it sad that as a society, it has come down to schools to provide security to children, as opposed to their own family. I think the root cause is the fragmented family system in the US. Marriages and divorces happen so much that the ultimate sufferers are the children. A society that is so fragile socially, will eventually collapse.

> Isn't it sad that as a society, it has come down to schools to provide security to children, as opposed to their own family.

It hasn't. Families _are_ the primary way we provide security for children. No family is perfect but most keep their kids safe. Some don't, all over the world, so we have checks and balances. People trained to fill that role are called "mandated reporters". Teachers are arguably the most important mandated reporters because they spend so much time with the kids every weekday.

And even well-meaning, financially secure parents can miss things like the need for speech therapy. Teachers know what's developmentally normal, know what resources are available, etc.

> I think the root cause is the fragmented family system in the US. Marriages and divorces happen so much that the ultimate sufferers are the children.

How do the stats compare in some other country that doesn't have as much divorce?

Post reply on HN