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Parenting is hard. Giving up is the wrong thing to do for the child.

brianpan 6y ago
Teachers and school district are not prepared to provide a curriculum for distance learning. It's takes months and years to develop a curriculum and no one had time to do that. Teachers may be doing their best but there's nothing wrong with stepping back and choosing to provide a different experience for your kid. Preparation for adulthood happens in different ways and parents should recognize that. Also, parenting is hard and involves trade-offs every day. There are always going to be things you give up on to win the battles you can win.
- nonbirithm 6y ago
  > Teachers may be doing their best but there's nothing wrong with stepping back and choosing to provide a different experience for your kid. Preparation for adulthood happens in different ways and parents should recognize that. Would this statement sound as reasonable in non-pandemic times? It feels like public schools would still be a better option if the choice were still available. It isn't, but as a result I feel like people who would have been able to go to school are missing out on something beneficial. Especially given how important expensive pieces of college-minted paper are for more and more careers, and how competitive it is to get a chance at earning one in public schools alone. If I had children, which I do not, I would rather choose the teachers with the time available to prepare the in-depth curriculum specifically designed to earn the chance at the expensive piece of paper with some proven degree of success over what I could provide by myself, alongside what time it takes out of work and all that implies. That is assuming they have no difficulties in learning however. In that case the schools would likely be unprepared. But of course nobody has that option now, so I would probably have much the same experience as the parents in the article. I'm not sure what else we can do in the short term.
  - brianpan 6y ago
    Exactly, these are crazy, never-before-experienced times. In the short term there will be compromises. We should recognize that and give ourselves a break.
shostack 6y ago
For parents struggling to juggle this with jobs so they can remain employed as they increasingly get viewed as delivering less value than people without kids, do you see "giving up" on things like this as a higher or lower priority than maintaining job security?

Teachers and school district are not prepared to provide a curriculum for distance learning. It's takes months and years to develop a curriculum and no one had time to do that. Teachers may be doing their best but there's nothing wrong with stepping back and choosing to provide a different experience for your kid. Preparation for adulthood happens in different ways and parents should recognize that. Also, parenting is hard and involves trade-offs every day. There are always going to be things you give up on to win the battles you can win.

nonbirithm 6y ago
> Teachers may be doing their best but there's nothing wrong with stepping back and choosing to provide a different experience for your kid. Preparation for adulthood happens in different ways and parents should recognize that. Would this statement sound as reasonable in non-pandemic times? It feels like public schools would still be a better option if the choice were still available. It isn't, but as a result I feel like people who would have been able to go to school are missing out on something beneficial. Especially given how important expensive pieces of college-minted paper are for more and more careers, and how competitive it is to get a chance at earning one in public schools alone. If I had children, which I do not, I would rather choose the teachers with the time available to prepare the in-depth curriculum specifically designed to earn the chance at the expensive piece of paper with some proven degree of success over what I could provide by myself, alongside what time it takes out of work and all that implies. That is assuming they have no difficulties in learning however. In that case the schools would likely be unprepared. But of course nobody has that option now, so I would probably have much the same experience as the parents in the article. I'm not sure what else we can do in the short term.
- brianpan 6y ago
  Exactly, these are crazy, never-before-experienced times. In the short term there will be compromises. We should recognize that and give ourselves a break.

shostack 6y ago

For parents struggling to juggle this with jobs so they can remain employed as they increasingly get viewed as delivering less value than people without kids, do you see "giving up" on things like this as a higher or lower priority than maintaining job security?