Just another way to pick a kid's pocket

 Just Another Way to Pick a Kid’s Pocket

 

The pandemic has not been kind to students.  Virtual instruction is probably the second best oxymoron right after common sense.  It is bad enough that achievement test scores have crashed during online instruction, mental health issues have mushroomed, and teachers are done with the aggression they are having to deal with in schools.  Now school districts have come up with the newest idea of how to cheat kids out of an education.

Most school districts in Maryland have allowed four days in the calendar for inclement weather.  It seems that number of days has already been used by many districts.  Typically, when that happens, days are added to the end of the school year so that students still get the required 180 days of instruction.

But hey, that would mean the needs of students and their education comes first in making decisions.  We all know that ain’t so.

Now the public schools in Maryland have come up with a plan to save the extension of the school year.   With the approval of the State Board of Education, districts can “stay open” on bad weather days by offering online instruction.  The State Board is requiring that it approve each district’s plan AND there must be at least four hours (not the usual 6.5) of synchronous instruction.  The teachers’ union pretty much loves it, less work for them, and no school year extension.  The administrators think it is a smooth way to appease everyone.

So, what’s wrong with the idea?  

A LOT.  First of all, snow days are pretty much a last-minute decision, sometimes just an hour or so before the school day begins.  So how are teachers going to pivot from the planned instruction to something that is taught online within the hour?   The only plan would be to have a pocket lesson that is sort of related to what the teacher was going to do that could be plugged in at the last minute.  For the remaining 2.5 hours of the school day the kids can just do worksheets online.

But the next question is:  will they?  Making kids look at a screen when they should be outside playing in the snow or sleeping in is just plain mean.  Particularly when what we want them to do is second-rate instruction at best.  

What about the kids who are not connected with good internet service?  Oh, they will have places to go to learn together-really, how will they get there.

What about teachers who may also have kids of their own?  Who gets the device, the teacher or the kids?  What about families with multiple children at different age levels?  Will parents be able to monitor all the different Chromebooks at once?  

One of the joys of winter is the surprise snow day. Anticipated snow days fill the before time with excitement of what you will do with the unexpected time at home. There are special projects to be done on snow days, games to play, snow cones to make, books to read. Maryland winter days are regularly filled with grey.  Snow days are the sunshine.   The pandemic has done its best to suck the joy from life.  We don’t need this new virtual snow day to pick our pockets again.