If an apartment building burns down and the residents have to temporarily live in tents, we don’t say, “Everyone’s camping now!” like it’s some fun, novel activity. The word “homeschooling” is already problematic enough without becoming entangled with the crisis version of online schooling many parents and students are suddenly facing. This compulsory activity of online assignments is mostly adding stress to our culture in this difficult moment.
Online school-at-home is a miniscule subset of the homeschooling world. It is an approach that very few families find sustainable over time. In fact, I have been running North Star since 1996 because I am certain that a local community center is the essential resource needed to support families to use homeschooling as a viable and inspiring alternative to standard schooling. If I had any confidence in online-schooling, I would have done something very different with my life the past two decades.
Online school-at-home is the worst of everything:
• Students don’t get to be with their friends
• Students face many boring, confusing, or irrelevant assignments
• The electives and extra-curricular activities that make school worthwhile
don’t exist for the most part
• Teachers and students have fewer personal moments and important
interactions
• Parents are expected to make sure their children do this work – the
homework conflict expands to fill the day as well as the night.
This external curriculum with assignments, deadlines, and grades is the world I chose to leave behind, and it has nothing to do with North Star and our larger world of self- directed learning. One current meme circulating on social media reads:
A lot of people are joking that everyone’s homeschooling now. Here’s your friendly reminder that homeschoolers get way more social interaction than this! I feel like this is going to reinforce the common misconception that homeschoolers are isolated and never see their friends. In an ordinary homeschooling model, there are lots of meet ups and collaboration and library visits and playground days with friends in the sunshine.
So just know that regular homeschoolers are also feeling cut off and isolated right now because this is not how we usually do things!
I empathize with parents who find themselves caught with their children’s school expecting them to make their kids do the school’s assignments. One Israeli mother vented her frustration in this video. Another parent shared her resistance in this New York Times article, I Refuse to Run a Coronavirus Homeschool!
A local superintendent asked me for my response to this resistance. I replied that I agreed with the parents. I sympathized with the position of the superintendent, but I proposed that the school declare all of the online assignments to be optional. The students do need the school and teachers to offer some opportunities through online learning platforms, and a range of video book groups, demonstrations, discussions, and other presentations would be valuable. Some platforms allow for socializing as well. It is the school’s role to offer connection and opportunity to its students.
I told the superintendent that the most helpful thing she could say to parents would be: “When this crisis is over, we will welcome back all of our students to our school with no doubts about placement or credits. We offer the schoolwork during the closure as an effort to be helpful and interesting. We will not hold parents or students accountable for the completion of this work.” There are dozens of reasons why schools can’t fairly assign credit to these online assignments, such as computer availability, learning differences, and parental support, just to name a few. I believe parents and teens would breathe a giant sigh of relief if we released this tension.
Furthermore, I suggested the superintendent ask students to send her messages telling her one interesting thing they did that day. The superintendent might create a website or social media page to share the responses. The school can be a vital hub to supporting its students in this difficult time.
We have enough stress right now. We are in uncharted territory, with no timelines to guide us. We don’t know how things will proceed in the near future. Schools can support parents by offering helpful and interesting activities for their children. We all need to help align children and parents to be on the same team of making it through each day, each week, and likely each month together with as much health and joy as possible. If we can achieve that for now, our children will learn plenty. We’ll figure out next week and next month soon enough.
The distance learning plan for our district next fall involves the kids participating all day, it’s supposed to take up all the regular school hours. Some of it is live and some of it is independent, but they are trying to control what they do for every moment of the school day just like they do when they are there in person. Elementary age students and their parents are overwhelmed by that, so many of them are choosing homeschooling this year.
Hi Kelly,
Thanks for your note. Where are you living? I hope you and others are supporting families who want to opt out of these unappealing distance-learning plans. Can most families manage to complete the legal homeschooling process easily? Where can they find support if they need it?
I have a B.S. in Elementary/Special Education. I taught in public & private school & homeschooled both my kids for many years. They had lots of interaction with peers in homeschool settings, field trips, hands on learning, & structured textbook learning. I do think it is a great idea to be “loose” in academic expectations in this crisis. Childrens’ emotional needs, fears, & concerns should take precedent. Imparting hope is essential to our future generations!
My kids WERE in a community college & LOVED every minute of it! They are crushed that their world has changed so drastically. I have been making many new, delicious meals & treats to give them some “positives” in the midst of all the “negatives!” I read the BEST fb post idea. Have kids journal, do a media project, “record History” somehow. This is the biggest “life lesson” ever & whatever they learn should be focused on this pandemic. It lends itself to EVERY subject! 😥🤔😁🎼😱🤩😉
Sounds like things are going well for you. I hope you are able to share your outlook in your community.
Ken – Another comment: Domestic violence is reportedly on the rise. I have a close friend who is a doctor, and she has told me that she has seen horrific cases of the results of violence in homes, including the death of a young girl. I’m sure this applies to a very small minority of people who are doing school-at-home because of school closures, but for some the added stress of keeping their kids “on track” could, it seems to me, tip them into violence. – Wes
Thanks, Wes. Indeed, the stress of these times must be very hard on those already vulnerable.
Ken – Your remarks are wise and wonderful. I hope the superintendent you spoke to has the courage to follow your advice. I also hope that you and the people you’re close to are safe and well and stay that way. – Wes
Ken – I loved your article. I wrote this helpful advice for our community, and then another when it was obvious it was going to go on longer…..
https://medium.com/@johannasanter/inside-together-how-not-to-hate-each-other-at-least-not-right-away-fdfdbfd55978
https://medium.com/@johannasanter/inside-together-staying-human-903d033765cd
my community center here on hold…..:(
Thank you for sharing these articles. I’m with you all the way. Best wishes.
Right on Ken! This is articulated very well and resonates with the actual homeschooling community…which too is not homeschooling, because as you said, “we are in uncharted territory.” Thank you for this post!
Thank you, Sabrina. I hope you are doing well.
This resonates with me so much. As a teacher in an independent school, we’ve been charged with maintaining a sense of normalcy and moving forward with albeit slightly lower expectations, expectations. The parent community actually seems to want this. And I feel so conflicted. I’m doing my best to engage my students and be there for them, but I’m stressed too and have my own family to worry about. Ug. It’s such a mess. Wishing I’d opened up a self-directed learning center years ago. Thank you for your words. They help me feel less insane.
Hi Colleen, It seems to me the private schools have it the worst. The public schools are pretty much obligated to make this moment work-optional for legal and equity reasons. They won’t be able to threaten kids with failing the year for not doing this online work. But private schools aren’t constrained, and can insist that their students do the assignments. I find that unfortunate – I hope your private school will make things pass-fail or find other ways to keep stress to a minimum. And I hope the assignments are generally helpful to the students in the moment.
Thanks so much for this! You’ve expressed so many aspects of how I’ve been feeling about friends telling me that they’re homeschooling now, too. It does seem sensible to me for more parents to give their kids space to relax, explore, and weather this challenging period. Thanks for putting that message out into the world.
Thank you Phoebe! I cringe every time I hear someone refer to this phase as “homeschooling.” best wishes.
Thank you for your article. As a some time homeschooling & sometime brick & mortar schooling parent (who also works part-time) I disagree that what’s happening now is the worst of everything, at least for my family.
-not everyone has friends/easy time navigate the social realm
-no boring… assignments so far!
-more time to do other extra curriculars outside of school ..
-less classroom management-more focus
-I’m sure this does exacerbate homework struggles, luckily not for us
Hi Hillary,
Thank you for posting your experience, and that things are working out favorably for your family. I’m sure what you describe is true for others as well, and I’m glad to have you represent that here. Best wishes to your family.