Pedagogy and Pandemicology
Jul. 9th, 2020 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blogcutterSomebody once said "My education was interrupted by my schooling." Or words to that effect. It may have been Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw or Winston Churchill. Maybe it was none of the above. In any case, a better truism for this day and age might be "My schooling was interrupted by my education." An education in real life under a pandemic. A school-aged child might also say "This is the way my world ended. Not with a whimper but a BANG!"
Even families who had embraced home schooling to some extent in pre-pandemic days are feeling the strain. At CHEO, Alex Munter has joined the chorus of public health officials in proclaiming that keeping schools closed during a pandemic is much more injurious to our kids' health than re-opening them full-time with a few sensible safety precautions in place. I'm inclined to agree and so, it seems, are plenty of harried Ontario parents, especially if their kids have special needs.
Way back in the 1960s, schools were bursting at the seams. Every classroom typically had 40 students, often more. The schoolyard often had a little village of portable classrooms. When new schools could not be built quickly enough - think Canterbury, for example - plans were occasionally crafted to have two shifts a day (say, 7AM to noon and 1PM to 6PM) of students in one school until the new one was ready. Then after the baby-boomers graduated, schools closed en masse.
The issues facing educators today are a bit different from those of 60 years ago, but one thing remains the same: we don't have enough school-space for the number of kids enrolled. Back then, it was a matter of sheer numbers; now it's a problem of lack of the space required for physical distancing.
Could we not re-open a few schools that were closed for under-enrolment? Repurpose buildings that are currently unused or under-used? And even bring back portable classrooms and build new ones? It seems to me that if an outbreak were to occur in a portable classroom, it would be much easier to keep it contained. And cleaning could occur during school hours too - just move the remaining students to a different classroom.
Does anyone remember the days when every school had a nurse on site? Why not have the nurse located in a portable? Why not put testing sites in portables too?
Fewer kids in a classroom would presumably mean more teachers would be required, or perhaps other adults to supervise independent work or study. I don't think that's an insurmountable problem, though. After all, plenty of working parents have been struggling these past few months to telecommute, teach and look after their kids and look after all the household chores with no access to any kind of outside help.
We've been footing the bill for public education even during the lockdown and while I know most teachers are doing their best and have had their own lives and families and problems to deal with, is it really too much to ask that we get our kids back in real-life school in September?
Even families who had embraced home schooling to some extent in pre-pandemic days are feeling the strain. At CHEO, Alex Munter has joined the chorus of public health officials in proclaiming that keeping schools closed during a pandemic is much more injurious to our kids' health than re-opening them full-time with a few sensible safety precautions in place. I'm inclined to agree and so, it seems, are plenty of harried Ontario parents, especially if their kids have special needs.
Way back in the 1960s, schools were bursting at the seams. Every classroom typically had 40 students, often more. The schoolyard often had a little village of portable classrooms. When new schools could not be built quickly enough - think Canterbury, for example - plans were occasionally crafted to have two shifts a day (say, 7AM to noon and 1PM to 6PM) of students in one school until the new one was ready. Then after the baby-boomers graduated, schools closed en masse.
The issues facing educators today are a bit different from those of 60 years ago, but one thing remains the same: we don't have enough school-space for the number of kids enrolled. Back then, it was a matter of sheer numbers; now it's a problem of lack of the space required for physical distancing.
Could we not re-open a few schools that were closed for under-enrolment? Repurpose buildings that are currently unused or under-used? And even bring back portable classrooms and build new ones? It seems to me that if an outbreak were to occur in a portable classroom, it would be much easier to keep it contained. And cleaning could occur during school hours too - just move the remaining students to a different classroom.
Does anyone remember the days when every school had a nurse on site? Why not have the nurse located in a portable? Why not put testing sites in portables too?
Fewer kids in a classroom would presumably mean more teachers would be required, or perhaps other adults to supervise independent work or study. I don't think that's an insurmountable problem, though. After all, plenty of working parents have been struggling these past few months to telecommute, teach and look after their kids and look after all the household chores with no access to any kind of outside help.
We've been footing the bill for public education even during the lockdown and while I know most teachers are doing their best and have had their own lives and families and problems to deal with, is it really too much to ask that we get our kids back in real-life school in September?
