Online School/Homeschool V/S Traditional school

[Erika Smith]

Due to the current pandemic situation are you considering switching your child to homeschool/ online school from traditional school?

[CautiouslyOptimistic]

My daughter graduated in 2019, but my son asked to switch to online school 2 years ago and now I'm glad I let him do it!  He will be a senior and COVID hasn't affected much at all except they got a lot more time off during the second half of his 11th grade because the school was pretty confused about whether or not the shutdown rules applied to them, etc.  That was kinda chaotic.  

[Erika Smith]

Thanks for sharing your experience about your son's virtual learning.

I have enrolled my daughter to an online school recently after a hard transition from elementary to middle school due to health issues. She is in Y6 and so far the best decision ever. Considering the fact that it's safe, she can do school anytime from the comfort of her home, it's amazing. She gets very excited being able to do all her assignments online and is quickly learning how to use the platform. 

The first phase of covid-19 was pretty confusing for many people. Education sector has been the most effected.

[Pastypop]

My son has autism.  He suffered through online in the spring and didn’t really learn anything.  The school system is doing that again, so I’m in the process of finding a new school.  So sad, before Covid, that school was wonderful because he received the best education in 7 months than he did in 5 years at his old school.  
 

I really, really hope all this online school is a total disaster in the first few weeks and the schools open again.  If it works out well, they will never open the schools and a lot of people are going to lose their jobs. You aren’t going to need even half the staff if only online is offered and why would you need anyone to clean and maintain all the buildings if no one is there?  

[Erika Smith]

Ya you are right. It shouldn't be like that we are down to only virtual options and traditional brick and mortar schools gradually  go extinct. People should have all kinds of options and depending on their socio-economic, health and other situation, they can choose what kind of schooling they would wanna go for. 

I guess right now we can't say anything as it's hard to predict how long before a vaccine comes out in the market and we can let our children go back to school without any fear.

Let's keep our hopes up for something best to come up as a solution for the current unfortunate situation.

[d0nnivain]

2 hours ago, Erika Smith said:

 It shouldn't be like that we are down to only virtual options and traditional brick and mortar schools gradually  go extinct.

I'd rather traditional brick & mortar schools go extinct then children die.  

I don't have kids.  I have been a teacher both in the classroom & on line.  I prefer teaching in person so I can see the faces & know which student is struggling to understand the material.  

I can't imagine trying to balance work & homeschooling especially for special needs students but is it really a good idea to send the kids back for them, the teachers, the janitors & the staff to get sick, infect others & possibly worsen the burden on the health care system?  

[Erika Smith]

And while I completely respect your point of view as a teacher but as a parent of a daughter who had a pretty hard time in middle school due to bullying and her health issues. Online school option has come as a blessing to us. I mean I get you don't get the social feeling of meeting your classmates and teachers in person but those things can have negative sides too. 

So far my daughter is so happy. Many people say that home-schooled children face social awkwardness but I haven't seen anything like that in my daughter in fact the transition has brought about a lot of positive changes in her. She is excited to learn again at the comfort of her home. It also gives her a lot more time to focus on enrichment activities. She loves learning languages and recently started Spanish lessons.

[d0nnivain]

If home schooling works for your daughter, then continue with that.  My issue isn't with home schooling, it's with the push to re-open brick & mortar schools.  I seem them as germ factories.  I would not send my kid back 

I work with a group that has yearly academic contests where schools compete.  Over the years we have had a number of home school teams advance to the later rounds.  The kid across the street is home schooled & a great kid.  He gets his socialization through Scouts & recreational leagues.  

[Ollie180]

My daughter is 15 and will be going into her final school year in September.

Word is schools will be going back to normal for the new school year as a ‘top priority’. Which sounds like good news to me! There’s risk of course, but there’s risk with pubs and restaurants too, I think schools are more important than those for sure, so if we do have to close pubs In order to open schools (being discussed in the U.K.) then I’d be fully behind that!

I won’t speak for all kids, but I think a lot of them need school! My daughter definitely does... she’s had a pretty life altering summer and still has a difficult path in front of her... so I do not want online school! ..she needs to be able to hang out with her friends every day, have that routine and sense of normality the school day brings, have that environment and contact with professional adults who know her and can offer her support... you don’t really get any of that through a computer (imho of course)!!

Live and let live an all, I would understand people being hesitant about sending their kids back, but from everything I hear I think that’s going to be a minority.. most folk I’ve spoken to are keen for their kids to go back.. My daughter doesn’t know anyone in her year who has indicated they might not go back 🤷🏼‍♂️

[major_merrick]

I'm very thankful that my husband's kids (and eventually mine) don't go to public school.  Instead, homeschooling in a group is what my community does.  The kids go to another family's house for school each day.  Stay-at-home parents provide the supervision.  Parents who have specialty skills volunteer to teach lessons.  My husband and my father-in-law provide some curriculum guidance since they have education degrees and teaching experience.  Parents who have to work barter goods and services in exchange for the schooling. 

I suspect that homeschooling in groups will become more popular, almost like a one-room frontier schoolhouse.  Smaller and less risky than a public school, but still with enough interaction for kids to be social with each other.  I think isolated homeschool kids who only get to see their siblings or a couple of friends tend to suffer.  I can't imagine making younger kids learn almost totally online.  A screen is no substitute for a human teacher, and too much screen time is going to cause lots of eye problems and brain issues. 

[Artdeco]

Glad I don’t have kids, as I’d have a hard time to decide what’s best. My friends who do have kids tend to opt for school in the school building, while many of their own children (mostly teens, tweens) want to go online. However, Online has been done since March because there was no other option, and since most of these parents are career people they have no way to supervise the learning properly, and by now they know it hasn’t worked for the most part. Their kids don’t want to get up, have done the bare min at online school, including one of these kids who used to be in the gifted program. There has not been a lot of academic progress since March is what I understand. Also - Parents with only children say that the social interaction is absolutely missing and the kids are miserable even though they don’t seem to recognize it for themselves, they still want to stay home, do some wishy washy online schooling, play Xbox, and be lazy.
I would be terrified to make the wrong decision here as a parent. And what do parents do who have kids that start kindergarten? Do they have to hire a teacher that comes to the house? No way a parent, even a stay at home parent, can give enough support during the first few school years. Most of them aren’t professional teachers!

Edited August 13, 2020 by Artdeco