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America Needs to Just Cancel the School Year Already
Pretending that any real learning can go on during this time is just making life hell for parents and teachers alike
When I broke the news to my nine-year old daughter that we were going to be doing remote learning for the foreseeable future, she was horrified. “We’re going to have to do work while all this other crazy stuff is happening?” she asked incredulously. You’re telling me, kid.
It’s past time to call it: The school year is over. There is no real substitute for in-classroom learning. For kids who are in elementary grades, especially, continuing on as if they’re going to retain lessons under these circumstances is ridiculous.
Children understand what’s happening in the world around them, and expecting them to act as if we’re not in the middle of pandemic isn’t “normalizing”—it’s cruel.
I’m fortunate. My daughter’s school seems to understand that the best thing they can do is try to keep children’s brains nimble. We’re doing lots of math exercises and reading, and the school has offered suggestions for fun at-home science projects. But even that requires me to give up hours of my day when I should be working to supervise my daughter, and it means teachers have…
