Home Schooling – Part II. Lessons learned.

After the traumatic experience that was homeschooling last Spring, we were excited at the prospect that the New York Department of Education (DOE) and the Mayor had figured out an excellent plan to get kids back in school for the fall. Five months to figure out a game plan seemed realistic to me. I mean these are educators, what could go wrong, right?

Wrong. School opening this year was a series of false starts and inept planning. Finally, “opening” a hybrid three weeks after the usual start, on September 29th. Sure, there were a variety of reasons given, ventilation, safety concerns and the ability to social distance. Generally all pretty valid concerns in the main, but what we have learned is that the specifics of a situation and data matter. In the case of schools, it appears that no kids under ten have tested positive enough to disrupt in-school learning, nor have any been shown to be the super spreaders that many had feared. I guess we shouldn’t let science and data get in the way of good old bureaucracy and politics.

Ater NYC tested above 3% infection seven days in a row, the DOE & the mayor shut the schools down again just before Thanksgiving. The outcry was loud and clear. Open the schools and get the kids back in class. So when the Mayor and the national news gleefully reported that NYC schools would open again, but not just open, but open for 5 days a week in-person for all, I was practically levitating with joy. “NYC Schools to Open 5 days a week” blared the headlines. But proving that gas lighting is not just in the realm of politics, this turned out to be completely disingenuous. What do we have opening this week? Not 5 days of in-person classes that much I can tell you. My little guy gets one day a week in-person, just like it was before the recent shutdown, not the five I was breathlessly made to believe. I checked with other parents in different schools in the neighborhood and it was pretty much the same for them as well. Back to normal, my arse. Exasperating.

So what have I learned from all of this?

13 things I learned from homeschooling

1. Parents get a choice on who quits their day job to mind the kids. (not applicable: those already unemployed due to the pandemic).
2. Health insurers haven’t yet updated their policies to exclude mental health services because of kids at home 24 x 7.
3. Seventy five minutes of school mandated remote Zoom learning a day is the winning ticket to the next generation of rocket scientists.
4. Neither of us still not qualified to teach.
5. Continuing respect for teachers abilities.
6. Six hours of cartoons does not make a three year old cross eyed.
7. Professional zoom calls are much more interesting when a three year old joins in. Credibility factor improves call by 20%.
8. Guantanamo vs 24 hour stay at home with kids? Still in research.
9. Moving vino breaks from late afternoon to lunch makes better sense.
10. Patience as a virtue is still under assault.
11. Fixing lock on bathroom door and dad time go hand in hand.
12. Wife is the new family hero, Fauci drops off the list.
13. Six year olds are remarkably adept at learning their way around an iPad and even better at making ludicrous Amazon purchases. Sometimes a magic wand is NOT a magic wand.

Meanwhile, there are 14,634,911 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 282,000 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.