Brought to you by The Knights Who Say “NEA”:
“I Just Can’t Do This.” Harried Parents Forgo Home School
AP / Gillian Flacus and Jocelyn Gecker / April 21, 2020Frustration is mounting as more families across the U.S. enter their second or even third week of distance learning — and some overwhelmed parents say it will be their last.
Amid the barrage of learning apps, video meet-ups and e-mailed assignments that pass as pandemic home school, some frustrated and exhausted parents are choosing to disconnect entirely for the rest of the academic year.
Others are cramming all their children’s school work into the weekend or taking days off work to help their kids with a week’s worth of assignments in one day.
“We tried to make it work the first week. We put together a schedule, and what we found is that forcing a child who is that young into a fake teaching situation is really, really hard,” said Alexandra Nicholson, whose son is in kindergarten in a town outside Boston.
“I’d rather have him watch classic Godzilla movies and play in the yard and pretend to be a Jedi rather than figure out basic math.”
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Sarah Karpanty, 44, a mother of two middle schoolers in Roanoke, Virginia, said the reality kicked in last week when spring break ended and home learning began.
“I wanted to get into a fetal position and hide out,” said Karpanty, a professor of wildlife biology at Virginia Tech who is also teaching her own students online.
Parents still going to work? Lucky them
Homeschooling would be easier if my kid’s school had an actual system for assigning and collecting schoolwork.
I home schooled my kid for a year, using homeschool materials instead of the useless public school materials makes it a LOT easier. PS materials are designed to make you appreciate the school teacher. educating your child doesn’t figure in there anywhere. I mean why start now?
If a parent can’t figure out how to teach a Kindergarten student, their parenting license should be revoked.