Educating kids in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

Disclaimer: I am neither a professional educator nor an expert in child psychology. I am only writing my opinion about schools reopening while the COVID-19 pandemic rages on.

TL;DR: I am suggesting a few alternatives to conventional classroom delivery while the pandemic isn't under control because remote learning may not be the appropriate approach for certain grade levels and school situations: 

(1) move classes outdoors if there is ample space on campus;

(2) assign grade levels to morning or to afternoon/evening shifts to limit the number of students plying the hallways;

(3) use public television as an alternative to video conferencing, particularly for children with limited access to the internet and to computers.

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In the USA, there is political pressure forcing states to reopen schools despite the established uptick in cases of COVID-19 and the potential that kids can contribute to the spread of the virus. The idea of sending children to school is definitely attractive despite the risks: It really is a difficult time to parent school-age children, particularly for low-income essential workers because they cannot afford to stop working to supervise their children's remote learning. Those who are a bit more affluent may also face challenges because it is difficult to juggle working-from-home arrangements and supervising their kids' education (and the deliverables don't slow down and the performance metrics don't change). I think that families already set up to homeschool are built to succeed in these conditions; but rarely are these families relying on both parents to work full-time to put food on the table, right?

I think that the infrastructure for grade school and preschool remote learning is being built on the fly: kids attend classes via video calls and thus, the method of lesson delivery has to change. How can teachers sustain their students' attention when they are virtual guests in the kids' homes? The rules of engagement have totally changed, so to speak. Teachers can no longer rightfully demand that kids not eat while attending class or sit properly... or even to dress in school-appropriate attire, because they are entering their students' personal spaces. 

Aside from these issues, I wonder: Is this approach (lesson delivery via video conferencing) sustainable for the families with young children? Particularly where kids learn via play... and they get stuck in front of computer screens these days. For students attending university through distance education, this mode of receiving lessons works with expected caveats, but for children whose attention spans may be much shorter, remote learning via video conference calls may be a big ask. Also, for a family with more than one child, this means that each kid has to have his/her own computer to be able to attend class. This is where income disparity rears its ugly head and shows that access to public education may be, at the moment, a privilege rather than a right:

Children of low-income families may not be able to attend class if they cannot afford to have their own computers. And then there's internet access. Not everyone has access to it. Before the pandemic, libraries are hotspots for free internet access; with most indoor library amenities closed to the public, parents are being forced to purchase internet subscription. I even encountered a news article reporting that parents in one state are actually being sued by the government for "virtual negligence": their children are absent from class because they don't log into their video calls. But what if the parents couldn't afford internet service and computers? What these government agents should actually do is assist these parents by delivering the kids' education without added burden to parents whose focus is keeping their kids fed and alive.

How about the children entering grade school for the first time? They can barely read and write (skills are some of the things taught at their level) yet they are expected to have their own email accounts and passwords, video conferencing credentials, and the ability to use keyboards and mice even before they have developed handwriting skills. Don't people see how preposterous such requirements are for these kids?

And so the argument for opening schools despite the dangers of the pandemic, so that parents can go back to work and inject money into the economy and put food on their tables, becomes an attractive option.

Why can't classes be held outdoors? When I was in grade school, there were rolling power interruptions in the Philippines, which forced teachers whose classrooms were left in the dark, to set up seats for students under the shade of a tree or on the basketball court. They were creative enough to change up the way they delivered lessons because blackboards on wheels were on short supply. But this is the luxury of studying in a small school in a province. For inner city schools whose space may not be enough to handle large student populations, they may have to resort to two shifts: some grade levels take morning classes while the others take evening classes. This is another practice already being done in big public high schools in the Philippines. If these suggestions are tried out and adapted for pandemic conditions, perhaps, social distancing protocols can be maintained, particularly in narrow hallways.

There's another alternative that hasn't been explored fully in the USA, I believe: the role of television in educating kids. Sesame Street, Batibot, Five and Up, and Sineskwela were popular educational tv shows in the Philippines back when I was part of their target audience. I know that Batibot and Five and Up are no longer running but Sesame Street still is. Sineskwela was airing reruns the last time I checked MANY years ago. The bottom line here is that these tv shows supplemented children's schooling because of the way information is presented. Why not develop something similar, though less formal than the classroom format, for children who don't have access to internet or to computers? And then air them in the evening when the parents have returned from work so that the parents can guide the children through the lessons? Alternatively, if the kids are at home with a hired caregiver, this person can tutor them through the tv-delivered lessons. Mass media is a known means of information delivery in developing countries and US-based non-profits have led some of these endeavours (again, Sesame Street aired in the Philippines is an example). Why can't the USA implement it on a temporary basis (if it hasn't already) during this crisis period?

One of the obvious answers, I think, is politics. There is an urgent drive to show people that the grave medical situation is resolving and things are going back to normal. However, the current numbers do not support such claims: deaths tallying by the thousands daily vis-à-vis images of indoor crowds of people not wearing masks and breathing recirculated air or beaches crowded by sunbathers forgetting to maintain safe distances... we are, quite frankly, still far away from pre-COVID-19 conditions. Another possible answer is economics. With several states issuing shelter-in-place orders to flatten the curve in the spring, economies shrank and a lot of people became unemployed. By opening up the economy, people could go back to work and bring money back home (and back to state coffers, which are used to cover medical insurance and salaries for government health frontliners).

Until then, I hope that the education department figures out a way to help parents educate their kids rather than burden them. Delivering information via the telly is one way.