Think of Children as POW’s, and Act Accordingly | The Merrow Report

Think of Children as POW’s, and Act Accordingly | The Merrow Report

Think of Children as POW’s, and Act Accordingly

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fault lines in our society, including in public education.  Thankfully, nearly all our children and youth have survived, but many went through harrowing experiences, including serious illnesses and deaths of family and friends.  Some of our young have prospered, thanks to their parents’ wealth and savvy, but many more have been left out, left behind, and deeply scarred.  

Soon almost all our young people will be back in school buildings, for what one might call ‘brick-and-mortar learning.’  What should that look like?  What should happen in classrooms? Will there be a mindless rush to measure “learning loss” and then ‘catch up,’ or will the adults in charge recognize the gravity of what most kids have experienced?

I suggest that we think of our children as recently freed Prisoners of War who’ve been kept in isolation for months.  They have endured unprecedented and often harrowing experiences, and they’ve also endured endless stretches of boredom. They now need time and space to process what they have been through.  They need to learn how to be together. Basically, they need a safe way to re-enter society. 

We don’t want to go back to ‘normal,’ not now and not ever!  Pre-COVID, most schools were uncomfortable and even unsafe for many youngsters, who were bullied and teased and victimized by their peers, conscious of their place in the dreaded CONTINUE READING: Think of Children as POW’s, and Act Accordingly | The Merrow Report

'Parents are powerless': Students face being held back after a year of remote learning - POLITICO

'Parents are powerless': Students face being held back after a year of remote learning - POLITICO

'Parents are powerless': Students face being held back after a year of remote learning

Pandemic-related learning loss means some parents are weighing whether their children should repeat a grade. In 18 states, they won’t have a choice.

David Scruggs Jr. has spent most of the pandemic at his second-grade son’s side, helping him with virtual learning as their Nashville, Tenn., home became a schoolhouse as well as his office. In the next room, Scruggs’ wife, Dorothy, sat beside their first-grade daughter, a mirror image on the other side of the wall, doing the same while holding down her own job.

For a year, the Scruggs worked to keep their kids from falling behind as the pandemic forced children to stay home and America’s education system struggled to adjust. The family installed a whiteboard and baby pink desk next to their TV. The coffee table became a receptacle for homework, folders and laminated multiplication tables.

Now, the Scruggs and thousands of families like them in Tennessee and more than a dozen other states face a reckoning with how well they succeeded in their new role as substitute teachers. In the coming months, under a new, stricter state policy, if their son doesn’t do well enough on a standardized reading test next year, he could be forced to repeat a grade.

“I don’t know how much was lost or gained in this process. That’s the scary part,” Scruggs said of learning during Covid-19. “I would hope he’s not held back. CONTINUE READING: 'Parents are powerless': Students face being held back after a year of remote learning - POLITICO

Parent as Teacher during the Pandemic | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Parent as Teacher during the Pandemic | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Parent as Teacher during the Pandemic

Renee Enyart, 28, was across the room from her sixth-grader when it happened. She glanced over and saw her daughter Emi, who was virtually attending science class at their home in Winter Haven, Fla., reaching for her laptop’s power cable. Suddenly, a sharp voice rang out from the speakers. “It was just an instant scolding: ‘I told you to look at the screen. You know what you’re supposed to be doing. I shouldn’t have to tell you guys,’ ” Enyart recalled.

Tears sprang into Emi’s eyes. “I didn’t know she was unmuted, and I just told her, ‘Go ahead and let it die.’ Because it just annoyed me — she was still paying attention. She was grabbing our charger, trying to be present in the class,” Enyart said. “I was actually kind of glad that the teacher did hear it, because for a second it was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ She instantly apologized.”

From a survey of parents six months after schools closed:

*In the early days of the pandemic, the majority of parents (78%) were educating their child at home.

•Only about half (55%) of parents felt prepared to educate their child at home and 50% of parents felt overwhelmed by responsibilities to educate their child CONTINUE READING: Parent as Teacher during the Pandemic | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teacher Tom: What I Miss

Teacher Tom: What I Miss

What I Miss

Most of the time these days I manage to make peace with the pandemic, but there are other days when I wallow in what I miss.

I miss the feeling of little fingers exploring my knee cap through the holes in my jeans as I read from a story book.

I miss the blast of overheated breath against my cheek as they excitedly whisper their news in my ear.

I miss the warmth of tears spreading through the fabric of my shirt and onto my shoulder as I hold them after a fall.

I miss the dampness that soaks through the seat of my pants when I sit on wet ground in order to be eye-to-eye with them.

I miss being genuinely eye-to-eye.

I miss living my days in a place where whenever I need to CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: What I Miss

glen brown: When Children Return to School by Teresa Thayer Snyder

glen brown: When Children Return to School by Teresa Thayer Snyder

When Children Return to School by Teresa Thayer Snyder

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

 I am writing today about the children of this pandemic. After a lifetime of working among the young, I feel compelled to address the concerns that are being expressed by so many of my peers about the deficits the children will demonstrate when they finally return to school.

 My goodness, what a disconcerting thing to be concerned about in the face of a pandemic which is affecting millions of people around the country and the world. It speaks to one of my biggest fears for the children when they return. In our determination to “catch them up,” I fear that we will lose who they are and what they have learned during this unprecedented era.

 What on earth are we trying to catch them up on? The models no longer apply, the benchmarks are no longer valid, the trend analyses have been interrupted. We must not forget that those arbitrary measures were established by people, not ordained by God. We can make those invalid measures as obsolete as a crank up telephone! They simply do not apply.

When the children return to school, they will have returned with a new history that we will need to help them identify and make sense of. When the children return to school, we will need to listen to them. Let their stories be told. They have endured a year that has no parallel in modern times. There is no assessment that applies to who they are or what they have learned.

Remember, their brains did not go into hibernation during this year. Their brains may not have been focused on traditional school material, but they did not stop either. Their brains may have been focused on where their next meal is coming from, or how to care for a younger sibling, or how to deal CONTINUE READING: glen brown: When Children Return to School by Teresa Thayer Snyder