5 ms·

I just pulled my own kids out of public school because I can't stomach it either. I can't in good conscience subject my kids to 6 hours of online class 5 days a

I just pulled my own kids out of public school because I can't stomach it either. I can't in good conscience subject my kids to 6 hours of online class 5 days a week. Whether or not you want to judge me for feeling this way or call me nasty names, "psychic torture" is exactly how I'd describe the solution these educators have come up with.

syndacks 6y ago
Educators did not come up with this plan, politicians did by their lack of any sort of COVID response. Do you really think educators want to do remote learning? My heart goes out to all the teachers who have to deal with this. It's as hard on them as it is parents and students.
- tboyd47 6y ago
  Ah, excuse me, I didn't mean to slight the real educators. I meant the phony ones who think this is a reasonable plan. I agree with you completely. We love the teachers at our kids' school and saying goodbye to them was the hardest part of leaving. They are just as frustrated. But the people who think that this solution is a reasonable one are insane.
  - danans 6y ago
    > I meant the phony ones who think this is a reasonable plan. I'm not sure what you mean by "reasonable", but I've yet to come across a single educator or administrator who thinks remote school is a good thing. They all think it's just the least bad among a set of bad options. Where are you finding educators who think it's actually net-positive and not just an unfortunate reality?
    - tboyd47 6y ago
      I dunno. Somebody had to come up with it. I have no clue who that is.
      - danans 6y ago
        Maybe reasonable just means "least bad" in the current context.
  - syndacks 6y ago
    Yea, it's a tough situation; I wish you and your family the best. Hope you didn't take my comment the wrong way either -- I'm just looking out for all good teachers out there :)
liveoneggs 6y ago
I would prefer this but my wife and I both work, I didn't want to make my kid re-test into grade level/honors, and they didn't release the "on screen 8am, off screen 2pm" schedule until last week.. oh well I guess we will see how it goes. I specifically complained that the main benefit of remote learning is the at-your-own-pace aspect of it, which is being tossed out the window. I swear the district was more concerned with the teachers putting in the correct number of working hours than with doing things that might actually work for kids.
bcrosby95 6y ago
Our first week was rough. But our school came up with a much better schedule for our kindergartener. Class is now from 8:20-9am, meet in small group with the teacher for 30 minutes (time depends upon your group), then closing instruction at 12:45pm-1:15pm. The rest of the time is "self study". Basically, you have assignments you need to do and complete with your kid. You can do it during self study time. Or at night. Or whenever. The first week they tried to do 8:20-11:10 (with 10 minute breaks every 50 minutes) of instruction. It really didn't work. This new schedule has been much more feasible to deal with.
- tboyd47 6y ago
  I imagine most school districts, including ours, will land on something like what you just described, albeit after a period of jerking parents around. Since your school was only planning on three hours a day, sounds like they are more flexible than mine, which demands six. I understand even the most school-marmiest of homeschooling parents wouldn't impose more than 1-2 hours of class on 5 and 6-year-olds. I have been preparing for the possibility of homeschooling all summer, so we were ready to pull the trigger. I just didn't expect it to be Day 2!
  - dorchadas 6y ago
    The district I teach at (high school) is requiring two hours for kindergartners, three for 1st and 2nd graders, and 4 for all the rest. Everyone is done by noon, and teachers are there until three to answer any questions people have while working on assignments. I think for the lower levels, it definitely might be best. Though a coworker has a son starting kidnergarden in a neighboring district, and they're there from 8-2:30, with planned time for recess and lunch. However, they're only in the main class for 30 minutes at the beginning and the end, and then each kid goes into a small group instruction with an instructor, and gets one-on-one time. I'm interested to see how that will work out overall, as it sounds like it could be a good compromise if you can get enough instructors.
- scottlamb 6y ago
  Nice! That's what I was hoping for but it's not going quite like that. We're on day 3 of virtual kindergarten. * Day #1 was a "minimum day": class from 08:35–11:50am, with a break from 09:40am–10:20am. That was okay, except for a technology fail: the (awesome) teacher has two pages of kids, so she doesn't always see when someone is "raising a quiet hand". And growing pains as kids learn the classroom etiquette. After class, we dropped off our kindergartener at the preschool where his younger sister goes. That gave him play time with other kids without exposing our family to another group of people, and it gave us some uninterrupted work time. * Day #2 was similar, except there was a long gap between the end of the morning Zoom at 11:30am and the "circle time" at 1:45pm–2:00pm. The teacher used this to start meeting families one-by-one; the other families didn't have much assigned to do in that time. The gap was frustrating. Day #4 and #5 will be like this again, except our kid might be absent from afternoon circle time... * Day #3 was an "asynchronous day" similar to what you're describing. It went pretty well. Next week they're supposed to be on Zoom in the afternoon until circle time, too. I'm not looking forward to this at all, even though the afternoon time is supposed to be some of the most fun stuff (music, art, science). It sounds like our teacher is not the one deciding all this, but I'll pass along your message anyway. I don't know how parents with less flexible work arrangements manage this at all. There are a couple programs to support them, but I think they involve a bunch of kids in the same room in different virtual classes on different schedules, not enough adults there to help them focus, and no reason to believe it's any safer than regular school. I imagine they're quite horrible.

syndacks 6y ago

Educators did not come up with this plan, politicians did by their lack of any sort of COVID response. Do you really think educators want to do remote learning? My heart goes out to all the teachers who have to deal with this. It's as hard on them as it is parents and students.

tboyd47 6y ago
Ah, excuse me, I didn't mean to slight the real educators. I meant the phony ones who think this is a reasonable plan. I agree with you completely. We love the teachers at our kids' school and saying goodbye to them was the hardest part of leaving. They are just as frustrated. But the people who think that this solution is a reasonable one are insane.
- danans 6y ago
  > I meant the phony ones who think this is a reasonable plan. I'm not sure what you mean by "reasonable", but I've yet to come across a single educator or administrator who thinks remote school is a good thing. They all think it's just the least bad among a set of bad options. Where are you finding educators who think it's actually net-positive and not just an unfortunate reality?
  - tboyd47 6y ago
    I dunno. Somebody had to come up with it. I have no clue who that is.
    - danans 6y ago
      Maybe reasonable just means "least bad" in the current context.
- syndacks 6y ago
  Yea, it's a tough situation; I wish you and your family the best. Hope you didn't take my comment the wrong way either -- I'm just looking out for all good teachers out there :)

liveoneggs 6y ago

I would prefer this but my wife and I both work, I didn't want to make my kid re-test into grade level/honors, and they didn't release the "on screen 8am, off screen 2pm" schedule until last week.. oh well I guess we will see how it goes. I specifically complained that the main benefit of remote learning is the at-your-own-pace aspect of it, which is being tossed out the window. I swear the district was more concerned with the teachers putting in the correct number of working hours than with doing things that might actually work for kids.

bcrosby95 6y ago

Our first week was rough. But our school came up with a much better schedule for our kindergartener. Class is now from 8:20-9am, meet in small group with the teacher for 30 minutes (time depends upon your group), then closing instruction at 12:45pm-1:15pm. The rest of the time is "self study". Basically, you have assignments you need to do and complete with your kid. You can do it during self study time. Or at night. Or whenever. The first week they tried to do 8:20-11:10 (with 10 minute breaks every 50 minutes) of instruction. It really didn't work. This new schedule has been much more feasible to deal with.

tboyd47 6y ago
I imagine most school districts, including ours, will land on something like what you just described, albeit after a period of jerking parents around. Since your school was only planning on three hours a day, sounds like they are more flexible than mine, which demands six. I understand even the most school-marmiest of homeschooling parents wouldn't impose more than 1-2 hours of class on 5 and 6-year-olds. I have been preparing for the possibility of homeschooling all summer, so we were ready to pull the trigger. I just didn't expect it to be Day 2!
- dorchadas 6y ago
  The district I teach at (high school) is requiring two hours for kindergartners, three for 1st and 2nd graders, and 4 for all the rest. Everyone is done by noon, and teachers are there until three to answer any questions people have while working on assignments. I think for the lower levels, it definitely might be best. Though a coworker has a son starting kidnergarden in a neighboring district, and they're there from 8-2:30, with planned time for recess and lunch. However, they're only in the main class for 30 minutes at the beginning and the end, and then each kid goes into a small group instruction with an instructor, and gets one-on-one time. I'm interested to see how that will work out overall, as it sounds like it could be a good compromise if you can get enough instructors.
scottlamb 6y ago
Nice! That's what I was hoping for but it's not going quite like that. We're on day 3 of virtual kindergarten. * Day #1 was a "minimum day": class from 08:35–11:50am, with a break from 09:40am–10:20am. That was okay, except for a technology fail: the (awesome) teacher has two pages of kids, so she doesn't always see when someone is "raising a quiet hand". And growing pains as kids learn the classroom etiquette. After class, we dropped off our kindergartener at the preschool where his younger sister goes. That gave him play time with other kids without exposing our family to another group of people, and it gave us some uninterrupted work time. * Day #2 was similar, except there was a long gap between the end of the morning Zoom at 11:30am and the "circle time" at 1:45pm–2:00pm. The teacher used this to start meeting families one-by-one; the other families didn't have much assigned to do in that time. The gap was frustrating. Day #4 and #5 will be like this again, except our kid might be absent from afternoon circle time... * Day #3 was an "asynchronous day" similar to what you're describing. It went pretty well. Next week they're supposed to be on Zoom in the afternoon until circle time, too. I'm not looking forward to this at all, even though the afternoon time is supposed to be some of the most fun stuff (music, art, science). It sounds like our teacher is not the one deciding all this, but I'll pass along your message anyway. I don't know how parents with less flexible work arrangements manage this at all. There are a couple programs to support them, but I think they involve a bunch of kids in the same room in different virtual classes on different schedules, not enough adults there to help them focus, and no reason to believe it's any safer than regular school. I imagine they're quite horrible.