Remote Learning: Are Academic Standards No Longer a Priority for Children?
By: Fariha Neemai
Tags: Schools, Education, Remote Learning, Students, Parents

In navigating the numerous range of issues and life-altering effects of the global pandemic that have bubbled in and out of the limelight, the status of our students, primarily younger-aged children, have undeniably become a conversation that’s fallen blindly out of the radar.

At the start of COVID-19’s rampant infiltration in New York City, a wide range of social, economic and cultural problems made themselves evident to the public. Back in March 2020, the abrupt shift in our lifestyle to a remote structure, which remains unideal for many people, was deemed nonnegotiable as a security and emergency measure. Striking randomly amidst the school year, the pandemic left , for students of all ages confused, stranded and simply forced to follow the blatant precautions and orders implemented for the protection of everyone at large.

Teachers and educators were of the last employees to transition into an online model, upholding a mandatory reporting to school to teach the 25+ student classrooms that awaited their academic guidance. This of course meant that students were also obligated to show up to class and participate. Many parents made their own judgments on how to go about managing their children during a major health crisis despite the city’s lack of immediate activity in responding to the outbreak.

There was chaos revolving around parents and children in obtaining accurate information about the virus and how it works, how to cope with schools not closing during a time when other parts of the country were in full lockdowns, as well as frustrations with parents dealing with their own employment, health, shelter or resource concerns.

The incredibly late action from school administrations and their initial response to the pandemic inevitably pushed all members of the school communities to be unpreparedly driven to figuring out a remote learning method and structure, pretty much on their own.

At the forefront, employment and adjustments to aspects such as hours, wages, and school budgets seemed to be the initial concern. But putting aside the teachers and faculty, the students were ultimately placed in a position of having their education, and for many families, their access to necessary resources, unfairly negotiated.

A virtual platform involved the need for well-functioning internet connection, technological devices to learn on as well as the setting or environment at home to actually partake in the video sessions. This posed as an obstructive issue as each and every student holds their own individual situations and accesses.

Many students suffered through the gravest of financial and psychological times during the beginning of the pandemic, struggling to maintain class with the lack of devices necessary on top of the trauma that comes with internalizing a global health crisis. Many students also experienced the added pressure of anxiety that arose from the unemployment status of their parents and family members which transformed each underlying issue into one of pure survival.

As we now approach the new year, with the pandemic still wildly running its predicted course through our society, our children are safely learning from their homes, and yet a multitude of concerns remain unanswered, unaddressed, and mishandled. Though the last school year ended in a rather tumultuous manner, students continue to struggle in uniquely challenging ways.

Students in their most preliminary level of school, from Pre-Kindergarten to 5th grade, face an exceptional conflict and challenge with virtual learning. At the most basic level of school, in Pre-K and Kindergarten curriculum, learning the most fundamental and important skills are contingent on direct, contactual teaching. In these early years, from ages 4–6, the utilization of compassionate and proactive discipline in order to instill communicative, critical thinking, problem solving and independence skills is essential.

These are the years that a child ventures out on his/her journey to identify and master the most basic activities such as exploration of the senses, right or left-handedness, grappling with concentration and focus, as well as socialization. This time in a child’s life also entails primary abilities such as reading, writing, comprehension of text and images, alongside numbers and the conceptualization of numbers in its most fundamental form.

Beyond these earliest academic years, from 1st-3rd grade, students continue their development, perfection and enrichment of these skills through the introduction of more complex models and the ability to relate the academic realm to the real world. In fact, previously, by 3rd grade, students were mandated to participate in state-wide standardized examinations which, though it has it’s flaws, does promote a need for teachers and the school as a whole to practice proper qualitative pacing and teach in the most effective ways.

However, in seeing how remote learning, especially for these elementary level students has been playing out in the real world and real lives of students, it has become evident that a keen attention to attending to students and the actual quality of their education has not been at the forefront.

Though the online platform for students might sound easy, the translation of the in-school experience has not at all successfully founded in the remote learning structure.

For a lot of elementary school students, teachers have opted for less teaching and real assessments of student progress, and more fun-based activities that are used to pass the class time. Student engagement remains low, which is backed by the lack of accountability and responsibility by teachers that used to exist with in-school interactions.

It is undeniably difficult to manage classrooms of 25+ students on a remote platform which is why there is a need for more quality attention and restructuring implemented for remote learning. The very lack of knowledge about whether there will even be standardized state exams administered for this current school year is just one of the signs that demonstrate a lack of priority from administrators to provide teachers with more systematized teaching from home alongside holding teachers accountable for actually teaching students.

Elementary level students, a lot of whom are accepting virtual and online school as a standard as first-time students, are especially vulnerable at this time as their innocent, malleable brains are forced to learn the multitude of basic, fundamental and necessary skills through a camera and microphone. The socioeconomic differences between students within this age-range already makes this reality even more of a nightmare, with some families merely hanging by a thread to keep up with the disorganized system of online school and remote learning and the unjust, unfortunate realities they must face.

This critical remote learning model is inevitably a safety measure, but the efforts to drastically brainstorm, improve and acknowledge these issues for our youngest community members is of high priority. The lack of legitimate resources is only a byproduct of not classifying young children’s minds as an area that takes precedence over other aspects of society.

The curriculum, training and overall approach to our society’s youngest scholars and students needs to be ameliorated fast. As the world shifts to this online world, the actual psychology, mental health and mental processing of young children changes with it, and not in the most positive of ways.

Young children who need reinforcement in a more specified, nurturing, and individualized manner are in need of the virtual learning world to, bluntly put, do better. It is not the responsibility of already struggling parents to make the extra budget to afford extra tutoring or enrichment services. Nor should the education system be failing any of our students enough such that they would even need to contemplate it.

Perhaps trying to transfer the old methods from the non-virtual academic world is no longer an option. Perhaps it’s time for administrators, educators, and curriculum curators to approach the academic plane and standards for each level from scratch to ensure the utmost quality. It’s time to prioritize our children’s minds and learning, and put the quality of their development and learning process at the top of our list.