“All of us, at some time or other, need help.
Whether we’re giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world.
That’s one of the things that connects us as neighbors–
in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver.”
Fred Rogers
(Fox News)
Here is a great story I caught during a quick foray into doing something novel…
such as actually sitting down, breathing and reading things that were not Disney
or child-related.
And this oh so novel activity took place during the briefest of moments of quiet
when my two wee charges were finally napping simultaneously—
IT’S A MIRACLE!!!
A MIRACLE I tell ya!!!
You do know that the Mayor and the Sheriff, along with their mom,
are here during Coronagedon right?
What is this…nearing the end of week 2 ???
And by the way, what day is this???
Thursday, I think.
So our daughter-in-law is a teacher.
She is now spending 8 plus hours holed up in our makeshift office/ guest bedroom
each Sunday trying to create a week’s worth of lessons for the middle grades
that she teaches—
Social Studies to various grade levels–6th, 7th, and 8th grades.
During the weekdays, she is submitting attendance,
for those students logged in onto the learning platform via the computer each morning.
She is then live on-line for 4 or more hours each day in order to answer questions,
post more webinar assignments while e-mailing with
parents and students— of which is an all-day and night activity.
This is on top of being a mom to two kids who are two years old and 11 months old.
Hence why she’s with us while her husband, our son, is home in Atlanta, working
from home.
The state’s on lockdown so the separation is a little tough on this little family.
And it is beyond my soul as to how two working parents with young children
are managing to work from home during the Coronageden without extended
family to help.
My daughter-in-law is sensing that some parents are getting very testy.
Some have e-mailed words of thanks…
Some, on the other hand, have been downright ugly.
Yet some were ugly before all of this mess, so needless to say,
the caddyness has ramped up exponentially.
It’s as if the parents have forgotten the fact that their children’s teachers
also have children and lives, and are all stuck inside just like they are…
doing the best they can under the circumstance.
Patience seems to be as scarce as toilet paper!
Our daughter-in-law teaches at an Atlanta private school that feeds into the larger
private high schools—so some of these parents are, in a word, a tad uppity
while blessedly some, on the other hand, are more than kind.
As a former educator, I can sympathize greatly.
So let us look at what is happening here with this whole national learning from home
emergency.
Homeschooling has now gone national…as I suspect it has gone global.
We have parents and their children all together in the house
for an extended length of time….as in weeks on top of weeks.
No sports.
No scouts.
No recess.
No clubs.
No nothing.
Just parents, kids and home.
Children are used to having hands-on instructors despite working
on-line or from textbooks…there are still adults in the room
instructing and or assisting.
These are usually trained adults, as in educators.
Folks who know their subject matter readily and fluently.
With schools being shut down, kids are home with “instructor” assistants
who are now their parents…parents working from home and also assisting with schooling.
With the majority of parents ill-equipped to instruct in subjects, they know nothing about.
And all of this just doesn’t seem to be going very smoothly.
Or so the following story seems to explain.
As funny as the story is, I was touched reading it as it seems
that parents all over the country, and I suspect all over our globe, are
now each carrying the educational burden for their children and
they are not carrying it very well.
So my word today to everyone is kindness—as well as patience.
So make that two words.
We are all tired.
We are all stressed.
And we are all in this together.
Here’s the story…
An 8-year-old boy’s hilarious journal entry is going viral for his candid thoughts
on his mother’s attempt at homeschooling during the coronavirus outbreak.
“It is not going good,” says the boy, whose name is Ben.
“My mom’s getting stressed out. My mom is really getting confused.
We took a break so my mom can figure this stuff out. And I’m telling you it is not going good.”
Ben’s mom, Candice Hunter Kennedy, wasn’t entirely upset by her son’s remarks,
seeing as she herself shared a photograph of the journal entry to Facebook.
“Y’all I’m dying!!!” she wrote on Facebook last week, adding that she was
particularly amused by “that last sentence.”
Thousands of Facebook users agreed with Kennedy in the comments,
telling her they found it “so funny,” and assuring her she wasn’t the only
parent struggling with homeschooling her kids.
“My kids feel the same way,” one said.
“This will be all of us next week,” added another.
“Dead,” someone else simply wrote.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear initially recommended the closure of schools in the state
on March 12 in a bid to slow the coronavirus outbreak. All districts soon complied,
with plans to shut down for at least two weeks, per the Louisville Courier-Journal.
In fairness to Kennedy, though, she knew homeschooling was going to be tough on the very first day.
“We are 39 minutes into [non-traditional instruction],” she wrote in a Facebook post on March 16.
“Papers are everywhere. Kids are panicking. I am stress-eating while trying to keep it
together so the kids can’t see my own panic. Teachers need triple raises ASAP!!”
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/boy-journal-moms-attempt-homeschooling-coronavirus-not-going-good
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