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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

#41

Post by mumblemumble »

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.

The important things that kids are learning at these ages are the psychosocial things - how to wait your turn, how to resolve conflicts, how to share, etc. None of this, I'm guessing, can be replicated in online learning, anyway. And my understanding is that that stuff is best learned at specific developmental periods. We just have to do our best to make sure our kids are getting it outside of school.

I'm not nearly as worried about the 3 R's. I just don't expect that we'll find there's much long term difference between kids who are taught to read in 1st and second grade, and kids who are taught to read in kindergarten and 1st grade.

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

#42

Post by willcipriano »

skizm wrote: post #20

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.

I don't think you'll get kids, particularly young kids to wear those for more than a few minutes at a time.

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

#43

Post by actfrench »

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 helpful in my group is to try to focus the zoom on social-emotional learning and then do an "independent study" together period where kids work on mastery-based learning apps independently, but with their friends and a teacher there if they get stuck (Math tango is our favorite!). I find kids learn a lot better with the apps then when I teach them a lesson verbally and give them a worksheet.

Zoom represents a really interesting challenge for teachers, but there is a lot of gold to be found if you look!

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

#44

Post by dpcan »

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.…

And yet, with a little time, patience, and dedication from parents, all children can be taught to be respectful, focus, and learn the way we need them to learn during a strange and complicated time.

This world is full of can't can't can't. Everywhere we turn, if there's an inconvenience involved. If we have to do something boring. If it won't be fun. If it's hard work..... we can't do it. It can't be done.

I wish we had a "we can do this" attitude. I wish parents could say, "Don't worry, let's help each other. You may not have the time, but I do, and I'm here to help."

But I'm out of hope.

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

#45

Post by [deleted] »

danShumway wrote: post #33
mjayhn wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I failed 7th grade because my parents were divorcing in the middle of it and literally everybody including my family acted like it was the end of my school career and I'd never recover and get a real job and would be SOO behind my peers. I'm 100% on the "yeah you can take a year off, it'll be ok or better in the end" side of things. I can't imagine myself at 13 having to deal with that + quarantine/2020.

I'm not an expert on education, I'm not going to speculate on the psychological effects of having a year without school on a kid. I don't think I'm qualified to do that. Outside of developmental effects though, by the time you get to college does it really matter if someone is one year older than another person? Is anyone going to get rejected from a first job interview just because they're 26 instead of 25? Plenty o…

[deleted]

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

#46

Post by sologoub »

Personal counter-anecdote. When I was I think about the same age (5-6), my mom would take me in the office and occasionally my only entertainment would be a DOS computer with a few basic games. From what I’m told, I was very motivated to get to the said games and quickly learned commands and my way around the command line - skill that turned out to be pretty useful in life. For “Raffi”, being a true digital native and having command of all of these communication nuances could be quite valuable in life. Who knows, maybe the “drained” experience his parents have won’t translate to him in the future because it will be second nature.

I do fear for the skills of reading a physical book though...

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

#47

Post by mc32 »

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.

I meant a pause in institutionalized learning—of course I expect them to learn other things around the home.

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

#48

Post by [deleted] »

Waterluvian wrote: post #24
causality0 wrote: post #17

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…

I thought I was failing as a parent because my 3 year old sometimes _still_ pushes my 1 year old. I feel terrible for the child and for the parent(s) who have created a _lot_ of work for themselves, the child, and maybe even society. But I also feel a wee bit of relief of, "okay so maybe I'm being too hard on myself."

[deleted]

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

#49

Post by dang »

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.…

"I'm amazed how dismissive all the comments are here"

The contrarian dynamic strikes again: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

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

#50

Post by dpcan »

coderholic wrote: post #39
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.…

Me too! We're jugging 3 kids and working from home, and I thought the article was on point. My guess is that most of the dismissive comments are from people without kids!

I have 4 kids. I work from home. My wife works 11 hours a day away from the house. I feel like this world is full of "can't" people who aren't willing to do the extra work. We seem to have enough time to comment on Hacker News. To argue about masks on Facebook. To watch every TikTok, and spend hours on Twitter.

But put in the necessary work to make learning at home productive. Nope, can't do that.

We have put in the work at our house to make e-learning possible, and it can be effective, and kids can focus, and kids can wear masks, and kids CAN still LEARN during difficult times - but it takes sacrifices from parents, be it sleep, entertainment, our phones, TV, or even time off work and living lean.

But I'm ready for it... let's hear some CAN DO stuff from the HN community!

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