"I just can't do this." Harried parents forgo home school

[Ohiogal]

Frustration is mounting as more families across the U.S. enter their second or even third week of distance learning — and some overwhelmed parents say it will be their last.

Amid the barrage of learning apps, video meet-ups and e-mailed assignments that pass as pandemic home school, some frustrated and exhausted parents are choosing to disconnect entirely for the rest of the academic year. Others are cramming all their children’s school work into the weekend or taking days off work to help their kids with a week’s worth of assignments in one day.

“We tried to make it work the first week. We put together a schedule, and what we found is that forcing a child who is that young into a fake teaching situation is really, really hard,” said Alexandra Nicholson, whose son is in kindergarten in a town outside Boston.

“I’d rather have him watch classic Godzilla movies and play in the yard and pretend to be a Jedi rather than figure out basic math.”

https://apnews.com/a3e86445d1387ecd8d1df8f9f7743e1f

Hope this experience will dredge up some respect for the teaching profession....

[ProfessorGAC]

1. On Golic & Wingo...

...a radio show I listen to every morning.
This subject came up and the 3 guys had a consensus that (quoting Wingo) "What parents are finding out is that we don't pay teachers nearly enough!"

[unblock]

4. exactly!

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Even As A Sub...

...I see the situation, and I only started subbing 17 months ago.
They don't pay teachers enough and what they pay sub's reflect that.
You have to be degreed, pass background checks, and some small districts are paying $11.50 an hour.
We don't lesson plan, grade homework & tests, have parent conferences, or do extracurricular activities. The real teachers have to do that stuff.
And you know that sub pay is some % of what teachers are getting. I doubt it's 25%. Must be more like 50.
So teachers are making $150 - $250 a day. That's not a ton of $.

[dsc]

23. I have no idea what the formula for sub pay is

but a year 10 teacher in NC with a masters and national boards makes 54,900, with only masters 49,500, with only boards 50,400, with only bachelors 45,000. This is for 215 days 7.5 hours a day. Call that 1600 hours. so that is 34.31, 30.94, 31.50, and 28.13 an hour respectively. There are local supplements that help those figures though by at most around 20% and usually around 5 to 6%

Our subs make different amounts based on being certified or non certified. I think certified is a bit over 100 a day while non certified is a bit under. They pay hourly now.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. In IL, The Average Is Tough To Use

The school funding is far too dependent on real estate taxes.
So, the per pupil spending varies ridiculously.
Back in the 90s, a Masters holding HS teacher with 20 years was making $18,000 in Collinsville & $67,000 in Wilmette. The average would be $42,500 but the high number is an outlier so the actual average is far lower, and median pretty much the same.
Not sure the sub calc here either, but I get 80-125 per day, depending on district. The lowest ones are really near my town, so no problem. But, I do more at the bigger districts, so I average about $110 per day. If someone did it for the $, and worked 5 days a week, one could probably make around $20k.
Makes me believe that mid experience teachers are at $55k, plus/minus, at Junior High.
HS probably 10% higher. Then the district disparity comes into play. There are HS teachers in Chicago's North suburbs that pay in the 80s, easily. The highest HS salary in the state is $130k.
See what I mean?

[dsc]

25. yeah up north that is very true

here in the South not so much. In the South the state pays the majority of our wages while the district pay supplements. I am at close to the top of our scale at 61K which is what I would make in our lowest paying district. In our highest I would make 73200. My salary is 64965

[Hortensis]

11. Lol. Let's hope so.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Not Suggesting Any Big Changes

We've still got too many drones that chew on the "It's only 9 months a year."
But, awareness is a good thing.

[Hortensis]

19. And I won't be expecting many, not these days when

we can all read a couple articles and become qualified to critique educational techniques. Still, as you say, awareness is a good thing. Even greater appreciation for the "day care" function has to help.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Spot On!

Back at ya!

[More_Cowbell]

2. Those parents will expect teachers to catch their kids up next year

And still not want to pay them a good wage.

[llmart]

3. In addition to being expected to home school your kids...

many of these parents are working from home. Doesn't mean they're sitting on their butts doing nothing. My daughter is putting in an eight hour workday at home online and so is her husband, so just when are they supposed to be doing this "teaching"?

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

5. Exactly what I have been dealing with

Unfortunately, the career comes first because that pays our living expenses.

[avebury]

16. I know a couple who both work at the same

agency. The woman works during the day and the husband wrangles their 2 boys including home schooling. At 4 pm they swap places and he starts his telework time while she takes care of the boys.

[janterry]

6. Good for them, at that age unschooling is easier

Follow their interests and toss in some learning opportunities as you go. Do some cooking and use a few numbers (that's math . Figure out ways to incorporate some science 'walks.' Learn about the birds, leaves, or flowers.

I had my daughter home school for two years when she was younger. It's really about following them, reading a bit, and making the experience fun.

My daughter is in HS now and at home, of course. But at this age, she can work online (independently).

[unblock]

8. depending on the age and the school, some of these kids are going to be held back.

it's certainly an unfortunate situation all around. mini-unblock's school is counting his work as official school days, mandatory education. so far, at least, they're saying the usual criteria for advancing to the next grade level apply. if he were to blow off all his assignments (whether learning other things independently or not), he would fail his grade and have to repeat starting in the fall.

[unblock]

7. try doing it with a kid that has adhd and austism spectrum disorder

mini-unblock not only gets the usual teacher in each class, but also there are "paras" who help him focus and and other special teaching assistants who work with him on learning strategies so on.

*they* have a tough time with him and they're trained for that and have plenty of experience.

we're just untrained parents, i.e., the last people on the planet he'll ever listen to....

[Iggo]

26. Yep. Yep. Yep.

We've found that the speech therapy on whatever zoom app we're using works pretty well.

But the occupational therapy just can't be done that way. Tried it. Didn't work.

[MyOwnPeace]

10. Not as easy as one may have thought...........

Some quotes from the battlefront:

"I'm telling my 6 year old about homeschooling for the next couple months and he asked if i had to do that when i was a kid and i said no and then he asked if chairs were even invented yet, so i think the first thing we’ll study is his fucking attitude."

Here is my toddler homeschooling schedule. Any questions?
8-10am: frozen
10-12pm: frozen 2
*lunch*
1-3: frozen
3-5:frozen 2
*dinner*
6-8pm: frozen
*bed*

"We’re having our own “Spirit Week” at home since there’s no school for the kids.
Today, we’re kicking it off with “Meltdown Monday”.

"Quarantine Day One [at breakfast]: SO HELP ME GOD, MOVE YOUR FOOT AWAY FROM YOUR BROTHER’S CEREAL BOWL OR I WILL FIND A SCHOOL IN THIS COUNTRY THAT IS OPEN AND DRIVE US THERE TODAY!"

"Our homeschooling curriculum includes: Honors Laundry and AP Vacuuming."

"The first hour of homeschooling started out strong, with some great reading comprehension exercises, and concluded with an epic tantrum over the fact that she can't watch Frozen 3 because it does not exist."

"No, you cannot suspend your two children for fighting."

“I’m teaching my kids how to bartend for me and tipping them in Goldfish crackers.”

From a 911 call: "No, we cannot fire your home-school teacher for drinking on the job."

[TeamPooka]

13. Forget distance learning, and programs that crash, the only thing the school kids need...

when they are home right now is an appropriate reading list.
Reading the right novels and nonfiction books about history while they’re home should be all the learning they need to do.
If your child is between 10-15 then give them these books:
JOHNNY TREMAINE
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK
FLATLAND
TOM SAWYER/HUCK FINN
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS
THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH
MRS FRISBY AND THE RATS OF N.I.H.M.
WATERSHIP DOWN
ANIMAL FARM
THE CAY
LITTLE WOMEN
BEFORE WE WERE FREE
CHARLOTTE'S WEB (then have them read SOME WRITER: The Story of EB White)
I AM MALALA

To do it right YOU need to read the books too and have a conversation with your child about it after they finish them.

If your kid reads all these books this summer I guarantee they will return to school smarter than all the other kids in their class, combined.

[Hortensis]

14. Took our son/DIL and daughter/SIL a bit to get their kids

to accept new routines. Both stay-at-home mothers were stressed. Our rather tight-wired daughter, with two sons, one of whom is always a challenge, insisted she didn't have a spare moment to chat for over a week. I imagine she had spare moments but those were all spent recovering. Fortunately, they all had habits of getting A's, and the kids themselves weren't happy with the poor grades they were earning at first.

One big problem was an elementary school teacher who was not settling into her own new routine, apparently finding it so difficult that after 2 weeks of no genuine lessons the principal or district had to step in and get her shaped up.

[MontanaMama]

15. We've had our share of challenges homeschooling

with my almost 15 year old son. He’s a really good student...aiming for his academic letter next year. He’s conscientious and a very hard worker. Google Classroom has been our nemesis. It’s set up for teachers to talk to students but not for parents to monitor those communications, unfortunately. Teachers NEED our help and we as parents can’t be involved in any meaningful way using that platform. As good as my kiddo’s teachers are, they don’t know enough about Google Classroom to support it. They send reams on information to the students through it and the kids are expected to teach themselves the info and then they’re tested on it. They’re not being taught at all. My kid hates it and it’s breaking my heart because he doesn’t hate school...he just hates this.

[world wide wally]

17. Here's one teachers rarely hear:

Thank you for your service

[cwydro]

18. I went to school just as any boomer did.

But I learned so much more at home from my mom and dad, who lived through WW2 in England and Wales.

My mother was an incredible source of information for any history question I ever had. She was my google.

[CottonBear]

20. Things Southerners Say during Quarantine Homeschool:

https://m.

LOL! I’m a native Southerner living in the South, and I’m homeschooling a fifth grader who is in online school.

I love It’s A Southern Thing! I’m in Georgia with Governor KKKemp who is trying to kill us all by reopening businesses where it is impossible to social distance or stay safe. So, I need some humor during my day.

https://m.

&t=8s

[LAS14]

22. I've been a mother and a teacher and I'm intuitively sympathetic...

.... to these parents. But I'm having trouble figuring out WHY parenting a child doing online learning is more stressful than teachin a classroom of 20 or more. One thing is that the teacher knows exactly what she wants from each lesson, while the parent has to be a student and teacher at the same time. Another is that the teacher is getting paid to do her job and has no distractions. The parent is very likely trying to squeeze this online learning in with their own online job. Or taking care of other children, etc., etc.

Other thoughts?

tia
las