Think before you comment, because the kids are reading
It was probably the fifth article on distance learning I'd read this week, but the information was not new. The pandemic, and the fear of spreading a potentially life-threatening virus, had closed schools all over the country. Teachers scrambled to post their classes online. Videos, quizzes, instructions for doing projects and experiments at home. Reading and math assignments. Educators everywhere spent hours figuring out how to make what was once delivered face-to-face work in an online format, some of them even decorating a corner of their house like a mini-classroom.
For some teachers, the effort was in vain. By and large, America's students have not followed their teachers into the virtual classroom. For some, it is lack of access; schools have frantically distributed Chromebooks, iPads, and Internet hotspots, but that's not always enough. Even with some companies generously offering free Internet for a couple of months, there are language barriers and time constraints preventing families from taking advantage of these offers. Older children babysit younger siblings. Students at my school, a Title 1 high school, rushed to pick up extra hours at their jobs as soon as schools closed. The majority work at fast-food restaurants or grocery stores, and many have been able to continue working through the pandemic. If their parents are furloughed or laid off, their incomes becomes even more critical. And then there's good old teen laziness. There are a lot of teenagers and young adults who, while being intelligent and well-mannered, are not necessarily going to get up and log onto an 8 am class that isn't graded and is merely a "learning opportunity."
The comments following the article I read were nearly all the same. The parents should be responsible for making sure their kids log on. The parents should be responsible for their kids' education. The parents should be responsible for making their kids learn.
The parents.
The parents.
The parents.
Should.
Should.
Should.
I don't know anyone, personally, who would argue against the premise that it is the parents' responsibility to support their children's education, just as it is a parent's responsibility to provide food, housing and health care. That's not the question. We're dealing with facts and the fact is, some kids are not logging on. Some kids don't have access. Some kids don't have parents who will make them check their school email, or even provide the bare minimum in support. Some parents can't, either because they never received enough education themselves to know how to help with homework or because their mental health - a broad designation for a slew of conditions - doesn't allow them to support their children. The facts say, some kids don't have parents who help them get an education.
So the question becomes, what now? Do we, as a country, as a society, believe that if you are born to parents too poor to feed you, to busy to help you with your homework, too depressed or overwhelmed or whatever to educate you during a pandemic, then that's just your bad luck? Life is a game and you've lost before you ever really rolled the dice?
If these commenters could just meet some of the teachers I work with, some of the kids I teach, their attitudes would change. They would hear about the student who came to school a few years ago - before I started - suddenly smelling of body odor. Teachers gently questioned him about whether everything was ok at home and discovered no, it wasn't, because he didn't have a home. His mother had left, and he was squatting in an abandoned house near the school. Fifteen, and on his own, and the teachers were the ones who noticed.
One of my students told me a few weeks ago, near the end of first period, that her heart hurt. We had been talking about some emotional topics, potentially triggering things, and I thought she meant she was sad. I told her to wait for a few minutes until the bell rang. Then I took her to the guidance counselor. When I checked in with the counselor later that day, I found out I had been way off: my student has a pre-existing heart condition that was acting up because she hadn't taken any medication for it for a while. Her older brother is her guardian, they don't have insurance and didn't know where to get help. She meant her heart literally hurt. The guidance counselor took her to the school nurse, who gave my student and her brother resources for medical care.
I've wondered, all through this pandemic, what will happen if another student has a medical crisis and doesn't have the school nurse. Or a student's mother leaves him because her addiction or mental issues or whatever demons cause mothers to leave their children overpower her, and he's alone with no one to notice his personal hygiene is suddenly lacking. It's not really an if - it's what is happening. It might not be at my school, but it is happening somewhere.
Parents shouldn't abandon their kids. Parents should feed them, and make sure they have medical care and food and clothes; parents should comfort them and educate them.
But not all of them do. So, do children deserve it anyway?
We know they do. If you're posting about "those people breeding" and how your tax dollars are feeding other people's kids, please just stop. Those kids can read. If you're ranting about the money schools spend trying to provide access to educational devices or Internet, please check yourself. The kids I teach? They read the news. They read the comments. More importantly, they're really good at reading body language. They know when people resent them. Find God or a therapist or whatever helps you let go of your anger, because these kids don't deserve it. Posting your vitriol and judgment, your nastiness and hatred, whether in the comments section of a news article or on social media, is the same thing as saying it to their face. Just stop. They don't deserve it.
They do deserve a chance.
For some teachers, the effort was in vain. By and large, America's students have not followed their teachers into the virtual classroom. For some, it is lack of access; schools have frantically distributed Chromebooks, iPads, and Internet hotspots, but that's not always enough. Even with some companies generously offering free Internet for a couple of months, there are language barriers and time constraints preventing families from taking advantage of these offers. Older children babysit younger siblings. Students at my school, a Title 1 high school, rushed to pick up extra hours at their jobs as soon as schools closed. The majority work at fast-food restaurants or grocery stores, and many have been able to continue working through the pandemic. If their parents are furloughed or laid off, their incomes becomes even more critical. And then there's good old teen laziness. There are a lot of teenagers and young adults who, while being intelligent and well-mannered, are not necessarily going to get up and log onto an 8 am class that isn't graded and is merely a "learning opportunity."
The comments following the article I read were nearly all the same. The parents should be responsible for making sure their kids log on. The parents should be responsible for their kids' education. The parents should be responsible for making their kids learn.
The parents.
The parents.
The parents.
Should.
Should.
Should.
I don't know anyone, personally, who would argue against the premise that it is the parents' responsibility to support their children's education, just as it is a parent's responsibility to provide food, housing and health care. That's not the question. We're dealing with facts and the fact is, some kids are not logging on. Some kids don't have access. Some kids don't have parents who will make them check their school email, or even provide the bare minimum in support. Some parents can't, either because they never received enough education themselves to know how to help with homework or because their mental health - a broad designation for a slew of conditions - doesn't allow them to support their children. The facts say, some kids don't have parents who help them get an education.
So the question becomes, what now? Do we, as a country, as a society, believe that if you are born to parents too poor to feed you, to busy to help you with your homework, too depressed or overwhelmed or whatever to educate you during a pandemic, then that's just your bad luck? Life is a game and you've lost before you ever really rolled the dice?
If these commenters could just meet some of the teachers I work with, some of the kids I teach, their attitudes would change. They would hear about the student who came to school a few years ago - before I started - suddenly smelling of body odor. Teachers gently questioned him about whether everything was ok at home and discovered no, it wasn't, because he didn't have a home. His mother had left, and he was squatting in an abandoned house near the school. Fifteen, and on his own, and the teachers were the ones who noticed.
One of my students told me a few weeks ago, near the end of first period, that her heart hurt. We had been talking about some emotional topics, potentially triggering things, and I thought she meant she was sad. I told her to wait for a few minutes until the bell rang. Then I took her to the guidance counselor. When I checked in with the counselor later that day, I found out I had been way off: my student has a pre-existing heart condition that was acting up because she hadn't taken any medication for it for a while. Her older brother is her guardian, they don't have insurance and didn't know where to get help. She meant her heart literally hurt. The guidance counselor took her to the school nurse, who gave my student and her brother resources for medical care.
I've wondered, all through this pandemic, what will happen if another student has a medical crisis and doesn't have the school nurse. Or a student's mother leaves him because her addiction or mental issues or whatever demons cause mothers to leave their children overpower her, and he's alone with no one to notice his personal hygiene is suddenly lacking. It's not really an if - it's what is happening. It might not be at my school, but it is happening somewhere.
Parents shouldn't abandon their kids. Parents should feed them, and make sure they have medical care and food and clothes; parents should comfort them and educate them.
But not all of them do. So, do children deserve it anyway?
We know they do. If you're posting about "those people breeding" and how your tax dollars are feeding other people's kids, please just stop. Those kids can read. If you're ranting about the money schools spend trying to provide access to educational devices or Internet, please check yourself. The kids I teach? They read the news. They read the comments. More importantly, they're really good at reading body language. They know when people resent them. Find God or a therapist or whatever helps you let go of your anger, because these kids don't deserve it. Posting your vitriol and judgment, your nastiness and hatred, whether in the comments section of a news article or on social media, is the same thing as saying it to their face. Just stop. They don't deserve it.
They do deserve a chance.
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