Twice Baked

 Twice Baked

Most folks get that distance learning is at some level an oxymoron.   There is an inverse relationship between distance and learning.  The more distance, the less learning.  Teachers need to be able to reach out and touch a child.   Technology is a wonderful thing but it does not replace hands on learning.  Children with disabilities are even more greatly impacted.   Kids who struggle to read are not great candidates for screen time learning.   It’s difficult enough to sustain their attention in a classroom let alone on the screen of a tablet.   

Pundits tell us these are about to be boom times for private schools as parents of plain children look at small private schools as a serious option.   Some families have even joined to create “COVID pods”.  When several families join and hire a teacher who they set up in a learning pod in someone’s backyard. 

Day care centers are jumping on the bandwagon.   Some are offering online tutoring and monitoring of school work in addition to day care while parents go back to work. 

But all of these plans cost money.   And probably won’t work for kids with disabilities.  

Exceptional learners are already being burned by the ineffectiveness of distance learning in meeting their needs.   They get burned again if they are in a family of modest means.   And the alternative options that work for plain kids don’t work for students with special learning challenges even if their parents had the money.  It seems that the federal and state requirements that children with disabilities receive a free, appropriate education has been all but forgotten. 

More seriously learning challenged students are getting next to nothing from online learning.  Why can’t these small numbers of students be brought into carefully sanitized buildings where they can receive in-person instruction?

How many times do children with disabilities have to be burned?   They are not potatoes that improve with a second baking.