During this past year of pandemic, much has been written about the inadequacies of distance learning. Criticisms have included that it doesn’t work well for younger learners, for special needs students, for children without access to quiet areas or a suitable Internet connection, and so on.
But parents who have been working closely with their children this year at home are discovering another issue: pacing. As an independent homeschool consultant, I have been hearing comments like this:
“This math skill was introduced only 2 days ago! Today she and I really worked together on it and she’s just beginning to get the hang of it. But now I see there’s a test tomorrow and then it’s time to move on to a different topic. Was she really supposed to have mastered it in only 3 days?”
“My child has such a difficult time getting his thoughts down on paper. Ideally, if we could take 2 -3 days to brainstorm and then discuss together what and how he is going to write before he had to start writing, he would do so much better.”
These types of concerns are not unique to distance learning. They represent the very real problems that can arise when 30-40 kids (whose only trait in common is birth within one chronological year of each other) are put together in one room and expected to learn the exact same skills by being taught in the exact same manner at the exact same time.
If you have more than one child, think back to each one learning to walk, swim, or ride a bicycle. Did it happen in the same way for each one? Or did one need more practice while another seemed a “natural”? Think about how we as adults learn. I prefer to read about current events while my husband likes to listen to news or a podcast. We each process information quite differently even though we often draw similar conclusions from the data.
So, then, why does each student get the same number of math problems for homework when one has already mastered the skill, while another is still struggling to learn it? Does it make sense that ALL 4th graders are expected to read the same science text, even those who are are still stumbling to comprehend written material? Why do we expect children who have barely turned 5 years old to have handwriting skills similar to those of their peers who are nearly 6?
Distance learning has brought a whole new set of problems and issues to the world of public education. But not all of the concerns are new. Not every learning problem experienced by your student over this past year can be blamed on Covid’s effect on education. Since the past 20 years have seen efforts to “standardize” the education our students receive across this wide country (such as Common Core and No Child Left Behind), perhaps it is finally time to recognize that children are individuals and don’t always fit neatly into projected timetables of learning!
However, while the fact that our children are individuals should be obvious, individualized education can be time consuming and expensive when dealing with large numbers of students. So I’m sure we can expect the public school juggernaut to continue standardizing whenever and wherever possible in its efforts to cut expenses and become more efficient.
Yes, distance learning hasn’t worked well for all students. But I would go so far as to say that standardized education doesn’t work well for all students either. Some of the issues you may be observing as your students have struggled during this past school year are new to your purview, but they are probably not new to your child. If a large class at a fast pace doesn’t work for your child, I encourage you to investigate alternative education — such as homeschooling, pods, or microschools.
One-size-fits-all rarely works for clothing. Why do we expect it to work in the field of education?
A Penny and Her Thoughts 