With schools nationwide returning to either partial or full remote learning, parents and guardians are back mediating their children’s daily learning.
David Evans, a father in the Springfield Local School District, said the change to remote learning was an adjustment for his four children — a senior, a freshman, a seventh-grader, and a fifth-grader. He said daily routines drastically changed as school buildings were abruptly closed in the spring.
“We went from zero people home in the middle of the day to six people home over a weekend,” he said.
However, Mr. Evans said his family has since made many adjustments to ensure that his four students are keeping up with their studies.
“We have the ability to physically separate everyone into their own learning spaces and it was mandatory that we figured that piece out so there wasn’t the distraction of everyone doing work in the same physical space,” he said.
Mr. Evans added that the family has also instituted a scheduling system to ensure that Wi-Fi bandwidth is available as students may simultaneously be requiring Internet access.
“We have a fairly large dry erase board that has everyone’s schedule and mandatory online class time. If a child is doing something that isn’t mandatory at the time, we know who needs to get off the bandwidth and who is requiring it at that time,” he said.
Erin Wiley, local therapist and founder of the Willow Center, said the demands of remote learning can vary as different families experience different challenges amid the pandemic.
“It can be burdensome and of course we don’t want to think about our children’s education as a burden on us. But we have society set up in a way that we pay professional people to educate our children so we can be of service to the community and places in other ways,” Ms. Wiley said.
Ms. Wiley said remote learning widely impacts mothers.
Many are now having to stay home as the primary childcare provider for their children amid the pandemic.
“There’s the pressure people put on themselves, particularly mothers to be ‘good mothers’ and a ‘good mother’ should be happy to be around her children. A ‘good mother’ should be happy to share in her child’s education and joyful to experience new educational opportunities and that is a lot of social and emotional pressure that is put on women and that women put on themselves to perform at maximum capacity as the primary childcare provider of their kids,” she said.
Toledo Public Schools has partnered with the Tabernacle Church to offer a learning center for students in the Scott and Bowsher High Schools area. Pastors Calvin and Christine Sweeney said they’ve seen an increase in enrollment following parent and teacher conferences.
The learning center opened its doors to the community on Oct. 5 and serves students Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mrs. Sweeney said the center is currently serving 45 students and has 16 families on a wait list. The church is planning to open a second location in January.
Mrs. Sweeney said many parents voiced concerns about being able to assist their children with schoolwork while maintaining their homes.
“We heard concerns like ‘how do we connect students to the content and make sure that they’re finishing assignments successfully’ but additionally we heard concerns of social determinants such as food support, which we provide to all of our families as well emergency support including clothing and rental assistance,” she said.
Mrs. Sweeney said the learning center has been able to assist parents by providing a stable site for children to access remote learning, free of distractions.
“We’re really focused on providing a safe and comfortable environment for kids to learn. We do different things that mimic a school setting. We have a positive behavior where students can earn points for positive behavior, we have behavior expectations that are similar to that of a classroom. We also have a consistent daily schedule to make sure that we’re creating consistency as well as comfort and confidence between our students and staff,” she said.
Mr. Evans said this is such a unique time for families and each family had a different dynamic and support system.
“Our situation may look nothing like other situations. We have families that are very close to us where there’s only one child in the home or another who’s family is a single mom. Each situation looks different but all in all, we have to remember that ‘this too shall’,” Mr. Evans said.
First Published December 7, 2020, 1:00 p.m.
