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Yes, which is why we made the hard decision to take our kids out and home school. (The fact that we can even consider this is a luxury? Not sure how four hours

Yes, which is why we made the hard decision to take our kids out and home school. (The fact that we can even consider this is a luxury? Not sure how four hours in front of a virtual lecture works for kindergarten, or why it was seen as a viable approach. Seriously lamenting the lack of innovative thinking around this. What a wasted opportunity to do something truly interesting with education.

Spivak 6y ago
Strike the word virtual and you've just described school. Sure, there are schools that are trying different classroom methods but broadly kindergarten is lectures, worksheets, nap, lunch, and recess. I think your point stands that there's not much innovation in the world of k-12 but I don't think Zoom is what actually matters here. This stuff is hard, and so many classroom models fail that I'm not surprised that "replicate the one that works" is gaining traction.
- sailfast 6y ago
  Maybe? The major, MAJOR difference is that if a kindergarten class is in front of a teacher, the teacher can see the class and there are consequences for misbehavior / disobedience and the teacher can manage the class. The teacher has tools for making the kids pay attention that don't really seem possible over a longer-term Zoom meeting. The kids require supervision by parents on the other end of the call to achieve even close to this (the parents don't have the same "classroom management" skills), so I figure... "Might as well do it myself". That's the main Zoom vs. Kindergarten difference.
  - davidf560 6y ago
    There's another aspect too: when kids are in a classroom together, there's a peer-pressure effect. If all the other kids are listening quietly and doing their worksheets, the remaining children are likely to fall in line (not 100% guaranteed, of course). My observations of Zoom classes with young kids this spring is that this effect did not occur virtually. Not to mention that home is filled with lots of fun, distracting stuff that the kids otherwise wouldn't have access to during the school day in a classroom.

Spivak 6y ago

Strike the word virtual and you've just described school. Sure, there are schools that are trying different classroom methods but broadly kindergarten is lectures, worksheets, nap, lunch, and recess. I think your point stands that there's not much innovation in the world of k-12 but I don't think Zoom is what actually matters here. This stuff is hard, and so many classroom models fail that I'm not surprised that "replicate the one that works" is gaining traction.

sailfast 6y ago
Maybe? The major, MAJOR difference is that if a kindergarten class is in front of a teacher, the teacher can see the class and there are consequences for misbehavior / disobedience and the teacher can manage the class. The teacher has tools for making the kids pay attention that don't really seem possible over a longer-term Zoom meeting. The kids require supervision by parents on the other end of the call to achieve even close to this (the parents don't have the same "classroom management" skills), so I figure... "Might as well do it myself". That's the main Zoom vs. Kindergarten difference.
- davidf560 6y ago
  There's another aspect too: when kids are in a classroom together, there's a peer-pressure effect. If all the other kids are listening quietly and doing their worksheets, the remaining children are likely to fall in line (not 100% guaranteed, of course). My observations of Zoom classes with young kids this spring is that this effect did not occur virtually. Not to mention that home is filled with lots of fun, distracting stuff that the kids otherwise wouldn't have access to during the school day in a classroom.