Why Remote Learning Was a Big Hot Mess
By: Laura J. Murphy
Tags: Education, Remote Learning, Mental Health, Parenting, Education Reform

This September, we started the 2020–21 school year fully remote and it only took three weeks for our family to breakdown and send the kids back to school on a hybrid schedule. I served on the re-opening committees at school, made suggestions, asked questions, and offered to help — but here we are — worse off.

Being an involved parent is an understatement in 2020. Aside from helping plan for the re-opening from brainstorming social-emotional learning ideas to inclusion, keeping on top of the kids each day while working remotely, and explaining to our teenager how to log into Zoom securely, nothing could have prepared us for this year.

And I’m left wondering — Why are our kids held to impossible standards during a worldwide pandemic?

It started on the first day of school when our son’s teacher posted a Zoom link to google classroom. He introduced himself while looking at the kids who attended in person, read them the book, wrote on the board while we watched, like peeping toms through a keyhole of sorts (Zoom). He muted his mic and then walked away and didn’t return. The next day, the google classroom remained unchanged, with no new links, no classwork, nothing.

The same happened on Monday.

Photo Credit: Canva.com

In another class, his teacher hit the mute button while talking and continued to talk for over twenty-five minutes while a dozen students sat there staring patiently at the screen. That same teacher has given him zeros for not completing work with vague instructions while he has no access to the textbook online.

And I’m not pointing the finger — I’m saying that we are all stuck in miscommunication limbo waiting for this cycle to end. But it isn’t going to end soon. Now that the flood gates of remote possibilities have opened, remote learning to some capacity is a permanent part of our lives.

A few mismarked absences and zeros later, our son fell apart. He fell apart before me.

He said he felt invisible after more e-mails about missed Zoom calls and classwork came. Eager to help him, I logged into his classes and saw for myself — vague assignment instructions and Zoom links buried under the announcements stream in unmanaged google classrooms. Teachers responded to his private comments with e-mails that went unread. It was like going on a scavenger hunt for information and none of us wanted to play anymore.

Remote only learning is a big hot mess because it requires parents and caregivers to be more present than any of us know how to be, or have time to be. We’re also asking teachers to deliver instruction to separate populations of students with completely different needs at the same time. On top of everything, we are asking kids to act like adults.

Our teenager has been silently struggling, not asking for help, upset about miscommunications with teachers he has never met in a school he has never actually stepped foot in while accumulating absences in the empty shells of his virtual classrooms. And it is all his fault, allegedly.

Why is it assumed that teenagers are mature enough to manage their own remote learning? Why are they left to fend for themselves in this sink or swim environment? This isn’t a job and they aren’t at work.

But their parents probably are. Not every student has someone at home to help them during the day. What they need are clear instructions for everything from logging in to meetings to assignment prompts. They need broken-down grading rubrics and reminders. They need grace periods and brain breaks. They need compassion.