Seriously!

As a parent who is now forced to work from home while attempting to manage my children’s educational needs, I am overwhelmed by the amount of correspondence and seemingly mountainous amounts of energy and effort that this is all going to take during an extremely stressful and unprecedented experience. I am not sure why the school districts are expecting so much from the children and families. Some of us are simply trying to figure out how we are going to pay the rent and put food on the table. It seems absolutely absurd and cruel to have these demands and expectations put on us by the school. WE ARE NOT TEACHERS!! We are ALL experiencing anxiety and stress and grief. How in the world are we meant to force our children to act as if everything is normal and that they’d best get there work done? It was hard enough to get some of them to complete their homework let alone sign into websites, create passwords, check for assignments, learn a language! You are adding more stress and more anxiety to an already unbelievable set of circumstances! How about give them all grades, tell them to read a book and take care of their mental health! This is shameful.

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Anonymous

Apr 5, 2020 at 1:32am

Oh, it's almost like the parents are learning what it's like for the teachers to teach their kids (and the dozens of other kids) in each class.
I'm shocked, really.
The innocent cherubs.
It must be the failed efforts of the lazy instructors that lead to this difficulty in the young learners reaching their true potential.
So sad.

What this...

Apr 5, 2020 at 2:13am

... is going to show is the disconnect between unionized fatcats who get paid no matter what and the rest of us. Your average teacher has never left the schoolsystem:

K-12 to Uni to Employment with Money For Life and Tenure.

They're detached from reality in most cases.

It’s ridiculous

Apr 5, 2020 at 3:50am

I can’t imagine what the teachers are thinking! Do they really think parents, many of whom are trying to actually work at home, have the time and resources to be their child’s teacher. I know of two people who have elementary aged kids at home, at the same time they’re trying to do their professional work, deal with having the kids not able to go anywhere so they’re cranky and annoyed, and add having to replace the teachers at the same time. Parents should simply refuse to do it. It’s just adding another huge burden on them that they don’t deserve.

Tutor

Apr 5, 2020 at 4:03am

If you help your children with their English lessons, you might learn something yourself. You're assessment that you are not a teacher is not accurate. It's time to start acting like a parent. That will require some teaching moments. Good luck to your kids.

Feeling like....

Apr 5, 2020 at 8:08am

Interesting confession. On one side my heart really goes out to you, man, that has to be tough. On the other side... I'm going to guess parenting is tough at the best of times, and I'm also going to guess it's going to get A LOT harder in the weeks and months to come.

With that being said... I have NO IDEA why people decide to have kids. At what point did you think it was going to be fair, easy, cheap, or NOT stressful? This is what you signed up for by having kids. The simple fact is SHIT HAPPENS including this Pandemic.

so many thoughts!

Apr 5, 2020 at 8:33am

I'm a high school teacher in Surrey, and I have spent the last week -9 hours a day-trying to sort out all the new platforms we are expected to learn and teach from and teach our students how to use. The systems are crashing due to overuse, the higher ups are changing permissions and settings constantly as they try to navigate what is appropriate and safe for learners, and it turns out this generation is a lot less tech savvy than we have been led to believe, lol. I'm completely overwhelmed and I'm dealing with the opposite attitude from the OP from a lot of our parents. They want to know why we have not got the kids working again-the implication that somehow we teachers are just sitting around doing nothing while this is all going down. So for anyone who thinks that-please understand HOW MUCH we are doing in the background. Something else to keep in mind is that your children's teachers are just responding to what they are being told to do, and because this is unprecedented, every district (and sometimes every school) is handling things differently.Surrey has put a strong priority on connection, mental health, and setting up systems for this first week, and I think most districts the expectations are drastically reduced for most classes/students. My suggestion would be to remember that your children's teachers are human beings who are also struggling (probably also struggling with trying to do all this and deal with their own children too), and let them know your concerns (in a polite way). Honestly they will probably be happy to let you know deal with it how you want to- I know my district is all about being flexible. These are unprecedented times for all of us-kindness, patience, and understanding are all key to getting through it. Reach out to your child's teacher. Talk about your concerns. and good luck!! We are all in this together and we are all struggling.

43 4Rating: +39

Agreed

Apr 5, 2020 at 10:14am

It is a stressful time. Trying to balance the start of home schooling when every part of our lives is being thrown off balance is tough. That's if you are still working. If you're worried about rent, mortgage or food all that stress just multiplies. Yeah. I hear you.

The first two comments..

Apr 5, 2020 at 10:39am

Have completely missed the point of the post.

17 7Rating: +10

Absolutely!

Apr 5, 2020 at 10:48am

I agree the demands are outrageous. We all are under severe stress and anxiety, risking our lives every time we leave the house. Its more than enough dealing with employers demands to adapt. I couldn't even imagine trying to take care of small kids educational needs as well as everything else. Parents need to speak up about this ASAP.

My parents

Apr 5, 2020 at 10:50am

grew up on a farm on the prairies . School was cancelled in Dec and Jan because it was too cold and not safe to travel with the horses. Despite this, most turned out just fine and went on to become doctors, nurses, teachers, civil servants, writers, counselors, construction workers, musicians, you name it. I think it would be fine to just chill out for a short while at least. Sometimes it's good for the "hurried child" to have some unstructured time.
As a retired teacher though, I know there is pressure on teachers and school boards to meet a
pre-decided curriculum which accounts for so many days and hours to complete. I think it's also good for all of us to set some sort of routine to do productive work. That work could include a child learning how to clean the bathtub and make more meals as well as keeping up
with intellectual pursuits and exercising, rather than playing video games. I do agree with your post that we could relax the schooling load a bit, but that would have to be a change coming from the education minister.

29 6Rating: +23

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