Posted on 07/23/2020 2:49:29 PM PDT by karpov
As school districts across the nation announce that their buildings will remain closed in the fall, parents are quickly organizing “learning pods” or “pandemic pods” — small groupings of children who gather every day and learn in a shared space, often participating in the online instruction provided by their schools. Pods are supervised either by a hired private teacher or other adult, or with parents taking turns.
At face value, learning pods seem a necessary solution to the current crisis. But in practice, they will exacerbate inequities, racial segregation and the opportunity gap within schools. Children whose parents have the means to participate in learning pods will most likely return to school academically ahead, while many low-income children will struggle at home without computers or reliable internet for online learning.
As a social emotional learning specialist, I know how important connection, community and socialization are for children and adults. I also know that parents are being crushed under the weight of having to simultaneously parent, work, and teach their children. Nowhere is the anxiety, fear and devastation that is gripping our country more evident than in our education system. The appeal of learning pods is immense. For parents who need to work and can’t supervise their children’s learning, joining a pod may feel like the only way they can educate their kids and keep their jobs.
Based on what I’ve seen online, the learning pod movement appears to be led by families with means, a large portion of whom are white. Paradoxically, at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted a national reckoning with white supremacy, white parents are again ignoring racial and class inequality when it comes to educating their children.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Now parents are going to be called “racist” for setting up alternatives to public schools that the dems want to remain shut down.
They will probably make homeschooling against the law just to hold everyone back equally I’m school.
Freedom of association is RAYCISS!
Maybe they can rent classrooms at the neighborhood school.
With the Schools refunding taxes to all of course.
Parents should demand that 75% of the teachers and 90% of school administrators be laid off if schools remain closed. Teachers and admins can apply for unemployment just like everyone else.
Poor kids are stupid anyway.../s
I am the product of public skrewel
I have a 10th grade education and two years of college
Fact is, I had parents who encouraged my education and curiosity
I never stopped learning
Oh yeah, the 10th grade education thing: I tested out
And NYC and SF, likely other cities, have already set up new “educational assistance centers” where disadvantaged kids now denied their schools can go, be assisted with their “online learning” on their laptops, and have lunch, recess, and be with other children.
In other words. . .school. Some will even be set up in. . .school. The only difference is the absence of unionized teachers.
Meanwhile yes the wealthier parents will hire tutors and set up their private versions. The new one room schoolhouse.
“...white parents are again ignoring racial and class inequality when it comes to educating their children.”
When are parents going to demand the right to educate their kids however they choose? The fact that the state has so much power here is ridiculous.
If you want to do public school do it... but it shouldn’t be required to slow your kid down so some slow ped can learn his abc’s. This is why US starts to lag. Let the smart / motivated kids move ahead and eventually create jobs for the average kids.
Parents can demand all we want but trust me it falls on deaf ears. The only thing we can do is recall or vote out the school board. The next seats aren’t up for reelection for a year.
The teachers contracts have already been signed for next year.
“Less privelged” children = children with incompetent parents, yes?
“But in practice, they [pods] will exacerbate inequities, racial segregation and the opportunity gap within schools ... white parents are again ignoring racial and class inequality when it comes to educating their children”
there’s only one solution: state laws need to be passed making it illegal for parents to educate their own children because some parents won’t do that ...
This is a job for the Handicapper General.
Based on what I’ve seen online, the learning pod movement appears to be led by families with means, a large portion of whom are white.
—
Translation. “I have no facts, but I have a narrative to push.”
Diana Moon Glampers.
Learning pods are ad hoc arrangements today, but if this persists, it will be interesting to see how many parents convert permanently to homeschooling cooperatives. Heck, some suburbanites will finally have found a good use for those spare rooms in their McMansions, which can become fully appointed, well equipped classrooms for a cluster of kids in the neighborhood. My prediction is that many of these that are supervised by gifted tutors will far outperform the conventional public school norm, due to fewer distractions, far less wasted time, fewer disciplinary problems, and more individualized instruction. A lot of parents may never go back.
How long can the schools stay closed, and still provide the free meals that disadvantaged kids are used to getting? Is this the new normal, where kids don't get taught, we just feed them like livestock? We are learning to be dependent at ever earlier ages...
What about diplomas? ACT and SAT tests are under attack now (racism, supposedly). Parents who don't use the public schools anymore will have kids who don't graduate?
Still more questions - if the gov't can't or won't teach kids any more, why should they get to determine what gets taught, what level of education each child attained, advancement to next level, etc.?
Question: If your kid goes to the crapiest school in your county that is doing at home learning, can you enroll your kid in the best school?
I think you should be able to.
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