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Younger students (K-12) need interaction with other students and their teachers, not lectures. I teach some of the most motivated and diligent students you coul

Younger students (K-12) need interaction with other students and their teachers, not lectures. I teach some of the most motivated and diligent students you could ask for, but after 3 weeks of online learning they were burnt out. To further compound the issue, in many places students don't have reliable internet access or a decent computer.

bubbleRefuge 6y ago
Yes, its tough enough to get them to concentrate with all of the electronic stimulants available, and now we are forcing them to spend more time on these electronic platforms. For young people, we need to stimulate their curiosity. They need to see , touch, feel, and experience things in multiple dimensions. They have all this curiosity and energy and we squash it by expecting them to sit and listen to lectures and do worksheets. Experiential learning was falling by the wayside before this crisis, and now that is accelerating. Living in the 3rd largest school district in America, I'm wondering if secretly ,the administrators are seeing this as an opportunity to get 1 step closer to automating away the teacher so that they can stay within budget constraints and serve more people. Feels like it is all going the wrong way. We need to flip this narrative: massive federal funding for schools, more teachers, better pay for teachers, better facilities, more field trips, small student to teacher ratios, free tutoring.
- zzedd 6y ago
  yes, there is a long history of trying to automate education (largely unsuccessfully). see Larry Cuban's "Teaching and Machines"
yay_cloud2 6y ago
This has been my son's experience as well (Grade 4). We are on week 6 of home-school, and by far the thing that energizes him, lifts his mood, and gets him through his work is any interactions at all with his fellow students. Most of his classmates are too young to have strong bonds outside of the structure of school, so (I think) school needs to accept the power of these bonds and facilitate social interaction between kids. De-prioritize the output, and prioritize the process of learning things together.
- WillPostForFood 6y ago
  Most of his classmates are too young to have strong bonds outside of the structure of school It is unfortunate, and a poor reflection on modern culture that 4th grade is too young to form strong bonds outside of school. Kids are missing the after school unstructured free/play time. Decades later, I'm sill best friends with kids I went to school with in 4th grade.
  - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
    It's not exactly like the kids could all go out and play together right now.
    - irishcoffee 6y ago
      My kids do.
      - sjg007 6y ago
        I mean you are taking a risk here. But even then some of us don't have the option here.
        irishcoffee 6y ago
        I don’t go anywhere and my kids don’t leave the street. “Sorry kids you can’t go outside for the next 3 months. I’ll keep the windows clean for you so you can look.” Tantamount to child torture.
        anoncareer0212 6y ago
        Not sure what you mean, I think y'all might be talking past eachother: poster is saying they can't exactly go play outside with the neighbors right now, which is obviously true, if kids in the neighborhood are running around together, we'd just be building really efficient viral transmission chains
sjg007 6y ago
I think high schoolers (so 9th grade onward) could be fairly independent. For sure seniors.
- dorchadas 6y ago
  I teach high school, and they're not. Many of them are burnt out and struggling, even with constant teacher availability. They need the interaction and in-person support just as much as younger kids.
adchari 6y ago
Even as a college student, same. My quality of learning has seriously gone down the hill without the same access to my peers for homework and projects
- Hextinium 6y ago
  Its not even that I study with other people, it's the "what is he going on about" while in class that I miss the most. I am expecting to drop a full letter grade this semester from my average just from being online.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
briandear 6y ago
Remote kindergarten is horrible. It defeats the purpose. The lockdown is causing significant developmental harm to younger kids. Ask anyone with a five year old doing “remote” kindergarten. Even older primary school kids are being significantly stressed. Teaching elementary school via Zoom is insane. The second order effects of these lockdowns are being ignored. We are worried about nursing homes and older co-morbid people but we are literally ignoring the damage being caused to the kids. This isn’t “homeschool,” this is something else entirely and it’s brutal. Kids should be in school and the old and sick should be the ones locked down. Those with special needs as well as the poor are being especially hammered by this. A lot of crucial development happens in younger kids and losing almost half the school year isn’t a trivial thing. The mental health and developmental impacts are being ignored.
fatnoah 6y ago
>Younger students (K-12) need interaction with other students and their teachers, not lectures My son is the kid who relishes every chance to miss school, but was devastated to find out there would be no more school for the year.

bubbleRefuge 6y ago

Yes, its tough enough to get them to concentrate with all of the electronic stimulants available, and now we are forcing them to spend more time on these electronic platforms. For young people, we need to stimulate their curiosity. They need to see , touch, feel, and experience things in multiple dimensions. They have all this curiosity and energy and we squash it by expecting them to sit and listen to lectures and do worksheets. Experiential learning was falling by the wayside before this crisis, and now that is accelerating. Living in the 3rd largest school district in America, I'm wondering if secretly ,the administrators are seeing this as an opportunity to get 1 step closer to automating away the teacher so that they can stay within budget constraints and serve more people. Feels like it is all going the wrong way. We need to flip this narrative: massive federal funding for schools, more teachers, better pay for teachers, better facilities, more field trips, small student to teacher ratios, free tutoring.

zzedd 6y ago
yes, there is a long history of trying to automate education (largely unsuccessfully). see Larry Cuban's "Teaching and Machines"

yay_cloud2 6y ago

This has been my son's experience as well (Grade 4). We are on week 6 of home-school, and by far the thing that energizes him, lifts his mood, and gets him through his work is any interactions at all with his fellow students. Most of his classmates are too young to have strong bonds outside of the structure of school, so (I think) school needs to accept the power of these bonds and facilitate social interaction between kids. De-prioritize the output, and prioritize the process of learning things together.

WillPostForFood 6y ago
Most of his classmates are too young to have strong bonds outside of the structure of school It is unfortunate, and a poor reflection on modern culture that 4th grade is too young to form strong bonds outside of school. Kids are missing the after school unstructured free/play time. Decades later, I'm sill best friends with kids I went to school with in 4th grade.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  It's not exactly like the kids could all go out and play together right now.
  - irishcoffee 6y ago
    My kids do.
    - sjg007 6y ago
      I mean you are taking a risk here. But even then some of us don't have the option here.
      - irishcoffee 6y ago
        I don’t go anywhere and my kids don’t leave the street. “Sorry kids you can’t go outside for the next 3 months. I’ll keep the windows clean for you so you can look.” Tantamount to child torture.
        anoncareer0212 6y ago
        Not sure what you mean, I think y'all might be talking past eachother: poster is saying they can't exactly go play outside with the neighbors right now, which is obviously true, if kids in the neighborhood are running around together, we'd just be building really efficient viral transmission chains

sjg007 6y ago

I think high schoolers (so 9th grade onward) could be fairly independent. For sure seniors.

dorchadas 6y ago
I teach high school, and they're not. Many of them are burnt out and struggling, even with constant teacher availability. They need the interaction and in-person support just as much as younger kids.

adchari 6y ago

Even as a college student, same. My quality of learning has seriously gone down the hill without the same access to my peers for homework and projects

Hextinium 6y ago
Its not even that I study with other people, it's the "what is he going on about" while in class that I miss the most. I am expecting to drop a full letter grade this semester from my average just from being online.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

briandear 6y ago

Remote kindergarten is horrible. It defeats the purpose. The lockdown is causing significant developmental harm to younger kids. Ask anyone with a five year old doing “remote” kindergarten. Even older primary school kids are being significantly stressed. Teaching elementary school via Zoom is insane. The second order effects of these lockdowns are being ignored. We are worried about nursing homes and older co-morbid people but we are literally ignoring the damage being caused to the kids. This isn’t “homeschool,” this is something else entirely and it’s brutal. Kids should be in school and the old and sick should be the ones locked down. Those with special needs as well as the poor are being especially hammered by this. A lot of crucial development happens in younger kids and losing almost half the school year isn’t a trivial thing. The mental health and developmental impacts are being ignored.

fatnoah 6y ago

>Younger students (K-12) need interaction with other students and their teachers, not lectures My son is the kid who relishes every chance to miss school, but was devastated to find out there would be no more school for the year.