(Editor’s note: The Readers’ Advocate’s role is to address the concerns of readers on a variety of matters, including the fairness of stories; what The Item covers and how; stories that may have been missed; and the emphasis put on certain stories but perhaps not on others. It is written by Jo Sullivan, a retired educator who is not a member of The Item staff and is not being paid. These commentaries appear periodically, on no set schedule.)
Thank you to The Item for the detailed story, “Home Schooling, Covid-Style” (Feb. 17), in which the reporter profiled two families coping with the challenges of remote learning: children in multiple grade levels, with varied learning styles and needs. As challenging as it was, one family was fortunate to have parents doing a tag team of work and supervision of their children’s learning.
The Item should give us more of these details of students, teachers, parents and their struggles. Stories about schools during this pandemic always tug at my heart and at times make me cry. This is especially true when I try to picture what it is really like for teachers, students and families day to day.
I have had the following questions all year long: In The Item’s coverage of area cities and towns, when learning remotely:
- How are teachers with children handling their students and helping their own children?
- When teachers live in one district and teach in another, how does that work when each district has a different model (remote, hybrid, or in-person) or schedule?
- How do principals and supervisors observe and evaluate teachers, especially those who are new and need extra support?
- Are all schools, in-person, hybrid or remote, providing breakfast and lunch? How?
- When parents cannot work from home, are older siblings supervising younger ones while doing their own remote classes?
- Are young students at home on their own?
- How does it work when community organizations such as the YMCA, Girls Inc., Boys & Girls Club, are open during the day to supervise children learning remotely?
- Are these programs costly?
- For districts now with in-person learning, how does instruction work if some families still opt to remain remote?
Recently, when speaking with friends, I learned of several surprising situations. In a South Shore town that claims a hybrid model, when high school students are on their “in-school” days, they are sitting in the cafeteria or auditorium with their laptops, while their teachers are still at home, and an adult supervises the group. Another friend in a midwestern state has a 7-year-old first-grader who is in a remote model. This child has only 30 minutes with her teacher each morning, when the teacher gives assignments for the day. Then the children are on their own, unless they can afford to pay for a day program while their parents are at work.
The Item could help your readers to know more. As with the issue of police reform, perhaps The Item could tell us, for the communities it covers:
- With their remote model, how much time do the children have with their teachers? If not face-to-face, what other access do they have?
- With a hybrid model, how much time do students have with their teachers face-to-face, and on which days?
- How does it work?
- After the return to classrooms, how do teachers balance working with the children in school and those at home who choose to remain remote?
- With in-person learning, how is social distancing achieved?
- Are there mask breaks?
Help us understand even more about the challenges facing our children and their teachers.
(Send your comments to [email protected].)
