Praise the Kids
In the virtual elementary school classroom, the side-by-side teacher and student engagement found in the traditional classroom does not necessarily happen.
Instead, the teacher must call out and check in with the heads in boxes on his or her screen.
They might ask.:
“Did you get that?”
“Do you need extra time?”
“What answer did you get?”
But what happens when a student is not in their neat little their box in Zoom world?
Well, that teacher interprets the student has left the virtual classroom, and so they log them out.
This happened a few times to both of my sons during last year’s Zoom doom. One minute they were in class, the next minute they stepped away, and the next minute, their screen went black.
My second grader was puzzled when he returned. My kindergartner cried.
As parents we inquired. “Why?”
The teacher: “They weren’t there, so I logged them off.”
After giving a few explanations that they had to use the bathroom, etc., or the ones we didn’t give, such as our kids were simply bored and wanted to do something else, reminded us what a mess the whole arrangement was.
We couldn’t force the kids to sit all day. At least not ours. And when we tried to explain to them why they had to sit, we were met with more tears and groans and eventual fits, which in turn soured our day.
Bottom line, virtual learning for two busy little boys turned out to be a diminishing return. As much as we sat right next to them as directed, they were driven to distraction, and we were driven to frustration.
God love the teachers who held up the sky for over a year working in that environment. And have mercy on those parents, like us, who saw our children’s education erode ever so slightly.
But, praise the kids who continue to learn so much more in this day and age. How they are so tuned into technology, but yet can somehow walk away from it all with ease.
Could this be the generation that swings away from it all when they are older and more mature, the generation which had to endure so much tech at such a young age?
We can only hope they do, or at least truly figure out a way to harness it and put it back in its place.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Unsplash
