Should education be suspended?

[Cantteach]

I honestly believe that the most important area we can invest in is education. The ripple effect that a good education system has on every other area is immeasurable.

However, I am seeing increasingly on social media and through various conversations that parents are struggling with the home schooling set up. For many families their worlds are upside down. They are dealing with lockdown trying to protect their household while worrying about the health and safety of family and friends. Many families are also dealing with unexpected redundancy or wage cuts, while others attempt to work from home and look after their children. And as for the key workers who are doing an amazing job, picking up their children and then having to start school work, I don't know how they are coping.

We all know that there are some children who right now will still be receiving excellent education, while some are receiving none. For most in the middle it's a daily battle of feeling you should try, arguing with your child, tears, failing and promising yourself you'll do better tomorrow.

As the government needs to create a recovery plan for this missing term (please, please only be one term!) and virtually everything will need doing again anyway, aibu to ask that the government drop the pretence of home schooling?

No- the mental health of many children and carers would be improved if we accept we can't replace teachers and we all start a fresh when this is over.

Yes- even 10 minutes a day is better than nothing. Allowing parents to stop will make the issue so much worse.

That should say the curriculum should start where it left off once the kids return to school.

It must very much depend on your circles... the vast majority of parents in both my children’s state primary classes seem to be already working at a higher level and If they homeschool over the summer looking likely the majority will be coming back 1+ year ahead if we go back in September.... in which case teachers need to be preparing for the majority of children to be working ahead and a few that’ll be behind or on level, not a recovery term as that’ll be detrimental to the majority of the class! But perhaps a small group that are taken out, I remember being part of a small group for maths that was taught separately for a term as we were bottom of the class.

Ihate

Ha Ha, I left school with nothing but managed H.ed, you don't have to be a teacher, there are numerous sites to help and free resources.
Ok, not everyone has internet, but most do, even the poorest manage the latest phones for their kids.
I haven't worked to achieve anything, we're in the bottom percentage ito income, we have tc, and due to loss of earnings will have 13k to live on for the next year, maybe a bit more tc topped up.
You live within your means and if you have 2 incomes you can tighten your belts and do without one, change your lifestyle, cancel your subscriptions and look at needs not wants.
Of course this isn't possible for everyone, but it is for many.
I "have" very little, but am contented with not wanting more.

Ex primary teacher. Generalising a bit here. In my years of teaching, it was apparent that, regardless of income, status, even 'class', if parents, read with their children, talked to their children, informed and encouraged their children to question the world around them from an early pre-school age, those children fared better in school. They were more motivated to learn and explore independently and this was evident as soon as they started school, and continued, for the majority, throughout their time in education.

There will always be parents who didn't/ don't do this, who don't think it's important, or their 'job', or who may lack the time or confidence needed to provide this in the crucial early years. The children of these parents, unfortunately, encounter far more barriers to learning, and will now, during this time, be less inclined to choose to focus on their education. There will always be parents like this; there will always be children like this. It is these children that will suffer the long-term effects of this, but most, will bounce back in time.
It's a tough time for parents. You can't stop people from educating their children as, for most, it comes naturally, whether that be in line with the national curriculum or not. Vast differences between high and low attainers, highly and poorly motivated children in a class is just something that has always been there and something that teachers manage on a daily basis - when schools are open to all, that is!

ring that's what I'm saying. Give parents the opportunity to explore teaching new off curriculum stuff with their children by removing the fixed curriculum for now.

My2 I understand your suggestion but if half the class learn about a subject this term and the others don't, you can't pick up where you left off. The ones who already know it will be bored. Which means either not covering it again, or the work sent out this term has to be meaningless so some can't get ahead.

I think there is definitely an argument to pause and think about the long term effects of the quick decisions we are making now. On paper we are in the 'haves' but I'm sorry Devlesko, your proposition is not in our reach. How do you propose we feed our children and provide a roof over their head?

Really the education authorities need to be discussing picking up from where they left off when schools closed, even if this means changing the school year around, we don't know if conditions will mean that schools will reopen again in September, even if they do some children will have missed at least four months education.

I think not setting anything and giving parents the opportunity to go off curriculum will make the problem worse not better.

The only thing you’ll have done is managed to move the children of parents who want to help but don’t know where to start or what to do into the group of children who aren’t receiving an education.

And for the most part, I think providing work is going to be beneficial for mental health as it provides some sort of structure.

There are going to be children hugely disadvantaged by this, but providing less education isn’t really the answer.

a daily battle of feeling you should try, arguing with your child, tears, failing and promising yourself you'll do better tomorrow

Reminds me of my life before I retired from teaching.

Give parents the opportunity to explore teaching new off curriculum stuff with their children by removing the fixed curriculum for now.

Which is fine for the younger age groups, but really is a non starter for secondary

OP: I’m guessing here, but are you thinking only if primary schools?

The education authorities still haven’t issued guidance on how BTECs are going to be awarded this summer yet. Nor have they made a final decision about year 9 or year 10 students who were due to sit exams this year.I think it will be a while until they give us any indication of what is happening for 2021 exams. Until that stage, schools would be crazy to stop delivering GSCE and A Level content to year 10 and 12. I think it’s likely we’ll be back at school before they get around to thinking about curriculum arrangements for other year groups during the closure.

To be honest, the third term is usually the one with most interruptions, school tournaments, sports days, school trips etc. Teachers recap everything every year, even the brightest children need recapping on the basics after the Summer term.

People need to stop panicking, honestly.

This is the time when parents really do need to step up, it may mean tightening belts, working less, one giving up work or both going pt to educate their children.

I'm sorry, but that is absolutely stupid and ridiculous.

Most people in a society on the edge of what promises to be a pretty awful recession out to work less or give up work? Erm, no. That would be deliberately fucking up your children's lives.

Many people do not have the capacity to educate their children, and no, 'the poorest' do not have the latest phones for their children.

My mum tutors children who are struggling in school; long before this happened she saw many children whose parents were not equipped to help them with pretty simple and basic lessons. It is much more common than you would think, especially after primary school.

She also sees quite a lot of parents who blithely imagine any fool can teach, including themselves. That can do a lot of damage.

Teaching isn't something you can learn to do by reading a couple of websites with 'resources' and giving it your best shot.

Carnt teach it's far better for a few to be bored going over work set online than for huge amounts of children missing out on chunks of the curiculum.

You're also not factoring in the schools that are open as hubs for the children of keyworkers.

Our local secondary is one - the children have exactly the same work as those who are working from home. So what happens there? The children of keyworkers get a 'better' education because they have to attend and everyone else has no school work to do? In which case you'll find a number of people cheating the system (and thereby social distancing rules) by getting their employers to say they are keyworkers. We saw some of that at the beginning of all of this.

Or those kids who have to attend a Hub being asked to sit around twiddling their thumbs because all the other kids at home are. In which case discipline breaks down with bored kids.

Our school has just said do your best. They will catch the children up.

We're not pushing DS all the time. There are days when he'll fly through work and others when he just can't be bothered. As long as it's all done by the end of the week we're not stamping on him.

What we are doing, though, is watching things like Horizon, Blue Planet, history programmes once or twice a day. DH and I are working from home and DH gave DS the task of working out an excel spreadsheet for him. I'm getting him to help with leaflets for the project I'm doing at work. He reads the newspaper, watches the news, we discuss the virus and work out the stats. So it's not curriculum, but it's learning.

I did not choose to home school my child with SEN. I am not a teacher and have no learning support training. Home schooling is causing daily tension but it's so important to try my best, to show our child that education is important and that we must follow routine

Give parents the opportunity to explore teaching new off curriculum stuff with their children by removing the fixed curriculum for now.

I don't think this would help in the slightest tbh. 'Exploring teaching new off curriculum stuff' would require at least as much ingenuity and effort as just letting the kids do the work set by the school. Besides, the more able and ambitious parents would still be getting their dc (certainly the ones in secondary) to do the curriculum work so that they'll be ahead and get good grades when the time comes. This could potentially create even more of an equality gap. Dh and I are teachers. There's no way we'd let our year 10 dd coast off-curriculum for the rest of the academic year. Or our yesr 7 ds, come to that.

London I am factoring in key workers. They are one of my main concerns. I have 2 friends who are both key workers so their children still attend school. Both the primary and the secondary aren't teaching, they are glorified day care. So after a long day doing a stressful job they still have to teach. Removing traditional curriculum will take pressure off them. I would use the time to explore things of interest that wouldn't be done usually so yes my DC would have more enrichment but in terms of curriculum they would all go back having done just as much.

My2 if no one did the work this term they could all do it when they return. No one would miss out and no one would be bored.

I totally get what you are saying OP and you have raised some really valid points but actually putting a structure including schoolwork into our day is helping to give my children some structure and routine which has been good for their mental health. We are both FT and we do have an autistic child so it is not without challenges but in our case keeping going as best as we can with school is helpful in the current situation.

lazy Can I ask a question? If, as someone did suggest earlier I think, the government decided that all children re did the year would you still expect your children to work this term?

And, I hate doing this harping back but I'm going to break the rule I set myself in this case.

When the second world war started my mum was 10 years old. Her school was shut, along with all the others in her area of London, for three months. No on line work, no TV to catch up on YouTube, no social networks.

School resumed, then the kids were evacuated and went to village type schools. Then they returned to the city, the normal school resumed. Then hers was bombed and teachers took groups of kids into their own home to set up mini hub schools - 10 or 12 to a house.

Both my grandparents worked. Mum was the youngest of 12 children, six of whom still lived at home in a three bedroomed house, so you can imagine the chaos - eight people in one house. Her dad was an air raid warden, her mum took in washing.

Mum still did well enough to be offered a grammar school place - which they turned down because they couldn't afford the uniform.

That state of affairs, school on/school off, went on for 6 years for many children.

My mum taught me how to read, how to write, how to do maths - she could work out the shopping bill in her head for the family of five whilst she went around the supermarket - she had to, she didn't have money to squander so what she had in her purse had to cover the shopping. My dad taught me to tell the time, how to work out angles using a protractor, how to measure things, how to do plumbing/wallpapering/woodwork. They weren't 'uneducated' people.

We're always saying how the older generation have a 'just get on with it' attitude and how most have a good, general standard of education. Many of them got that in the war years. They managed without many of the things we now take for granted and with bombs/fires going off, sirens, family members away fighting, rationing etc. Children were expected to knuckled down and learn however they could and they did. It wasn't ideal, some slipped between the cracks but the majority learned to read/write/do maths to a very high standard.

We're in the middle of the equivalent of those first few months in my mum's war. Things have been chucked up in the air and we're all trying to catch bits - just like my mum said happened at the outbreak of the war. They settled down - so will we. We'll, hopefully, be out of it a lot quicker than she was. We will get there and our kids will too.

London I think what you have written is inspiring. It must have been very tough for your family and I find it sad that your mother was unable to take up the grammar school place offered. But it also says that missing education for a period of time doesn't have a long term affect on achievement if you are supported at home.

I also think that attitudes towards mental health have changed massively since the time you refer to and many children probably didn't come out of that time as well as your mother did.

This time is very stressful for all. I am just raising the possibility of removing some of that strain.

We're always saying how the older generation have a 'just get on with it' attitude and how most have a good, general standard of education.

Who says that?

It's patently untrue. Plenty of older people were are are functionally illiterate.

The sad fact is that often, you don't know about people who don't get enough education to cope. At worst they end up really struggling in life, at best, they are embarrassed and won't talk about it. You'd be amazed how many people 'forgot their glasses' at the bank (ie., can't read or write well enough).

It's great that your family came through (and I know there are others like them). But it doesn't prove everyone coped ok back then, or that everyone will now.

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