The corona virus is all anything people seem able to talk about. For the first time ever, we have no sports or no large audiences to watch these sports. Parades, festivals, concerts, even Disney, is closed or cancelled. Spring breaks have been ruined, and the economy has taken a nose-dive. The never-ending conversation regarding school closures, deceased rates, age-risk zones, and the fact that every grocery store in America is out of toilet paper is leaving citizens scared, and with feelings of extreme uncertainty regarding our future.
Students are just as uncertain as everyone else. Their education hangs in their teacher’s and professor’s ability to communicate and teach effectively on the internet. Which leads me to ask one simple question: How prepared are American school systems to fully teach online? If we look at an article by Dana Goldstein from the New York Times that asks this same question, than we can see that American schools and its students are not equipped to teach and learn online.
The article says that although many health officials have not determined whether closing schools and universities will greatly aide in the prevention of the virus, thousands of schools are looking at closures, and others have completely cancelled this second semester. This epidemic has affected at least 20 million students. The article continues to explain that educators teaching online cannot be expected to provide an equivalent education to their students. The NY Times also takes into consideration that students who cannot afford the technology to be online for class cannot learn; and as I have learned in pervious education classes half of America’s public-school students live in some degree of poverty. Teachers who have had to teach online stated, “it is not unusual, educators say, for siblings to try and complete their schoolwork on a single cellphone.” This of course is less than ideal, but it also shows that students who are not wealthy will not have the same opportunities to succeed in schools. In fact, I know first-hand that the entire Milwaukee Public School System has shut down for the next 3 weeks, with no attainable plan to educate its students. In addition to hurting impoverished students, many students with physical and cognitive disabilities will struggle as well, especially without one on one and face to face assistance.
Lastly, the author ended with this quote, “If you think about it, the school is a city we provide to kids. . . when the city shuts down, no online learning platform can replace all the structure and vibrancy that is lost.” Educators and students must be brave and try their best. However, this epidemic needs to be a lesson to all Public Schools that their district must be prepared to teach online, because kids can’t afford to not be in school.
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