Coronavirus Education Holiday

Surprising changes to my son's education since the coronavirus hit:

Three-week spring break with no days added to end of the school year

District grading policy: 2nd semester grades will be the same or higher than the 3rd quarter grades

No live classes

Now this last item is just for my son, at least after the first week of his distance learning program. He had to complete worksheets, online quizzes, a test, and watch one video. There were no live or prerecorded lessons from his teachers yet.

Needless to say, my son is very happy.

I have mixed feelings.

I like the fact that due to the light workload he is completing his work on his own in a short amount of time. I like that he feels confident that he can finally keep up with his work. Rather than spending all day at school and hours working on homework every night, he is only spending an hour or two a day on schoolwork. I like that we are not arguing over when he will complete his work.

But, I do not like that a neighboring school district has had a distance program up and running a week before our district.

I do not like that I have heard from families with children in private schools, whether very expensive to relatively inexpensive, that their children have been in full day online classes since the beginning of the crises. I feel that their children are learning so much more than my son.

My biggest fear is that when my son starts school next year, he will be ill-prepared for the rigors of 11th grade after 2 months of light schoolwork and 3 months of summer break. Of course, an almost 5-month educational holiday of relaxation, confidence building, and no homework arguments may turn out to be the best experience for both my son and our family.

This is a new world we have entered, a new educational experiment. I just wish my son wasn't the sample group receiving the less than rigorous education.

Take care and be safe.

Posts: Monday, Thursday, Saturday