The Pandemic has Changed Parenting

Most of us, in Pre-COVID times, would drop off our kids at school in a rush to get back to the rat race. Then we would spend the next 7 hours at work trusting, hoping, and possibly worrying that our kids were getting what they need to be successful at school.

In our imagination, the time spent sitting at a desk and listening to a trained professional explain history, mathematics, literature, and science would somehow make them graduate ready to face this increasing complicated and chaotic world.

As parents, exhausted and distracted by our phones, would pick our kids up from school, we would fight make the few hours before bed FUN, even memorable. However, most nights may have been spent arguing, deal making, and pleading to get homework done.

For many families, the idea of school had become these wacky “Common Core” worksheets and an underlying frustration. School was a disruption of the few precious moments of bonding left in the day.

Our society was too busy to question how an underpaid, but well intentioned, teachers could possibly ensure 30+ kids will stay on track to go to college, fulfill their potential and make a career for themselves. These unspoken expectations have caused a rising anxiety on the schools side as well.

Then came a global pandemic that turned our lives upside down. For those who were lucky enough to keep their jobs, school and work worlds collided. It has been strange reset to the whole field of education. Parents can look over their kid's shoulder and see their classroom. Working in a school, I can say this has freaked teachers out in the beginning. Having 30 parents deciding to do a classroom observation on the same day was the stuff of educator nightmares.

Now secret is out. The system we use to educate children in America is outdated. While the people who choose to be teachers come in all personality types and ability levels, very few are given the proper training to handle a classroom on their first day. None of them are prepared to tap into the high levels of discussion necessary for students to master the Common Core. There just isn't a text book for this anymore. It has become obvious now to parents when their kids are struggling, and we may blame the zoom format and simply wait out the storm. I think the problem is much deeper.

If you do a quick Google search on how learning best occurs, you will notice a fact which has been proven over and over again. Children require undivided attention to learn a new concept. They need someone to listen and answer their questions. They need someone who can truly see their methods of understanding the world to help guide them to success. Who is in the best position to provide this? Classroom teachers? Tutors? Educational Specialists? Not so much…

Parents, guardians, even siblings have a much better insight into child's learning. Who are they are most comfortable making mistakes in front of… its YOU.

The Concept of Homework is Broken

A parent’s role in 20th century schools has become confined to the absurd cultural concept of “Homework.” The actual purpose of this work is purely practice. Ask any teacher, most of the homework worksheets and learning software activities you wrestle with each night are fairly meaningless to your child’s grade or progress in mastering the standards. A good teacher is like a Doctor and much prefers their own carefully constructed exam or their own observational notes of a student’s performance in class, when making this diagnosis.

The Pandemic Has Changed Parenting