hunter-killer
Member
By Alison Willis
As children learn from home, parents are effectively running two schedules – work and school. Some children may not be able to get through all the work their school assigns in the time they have, which can leave parents feeling guilty.
It’s important for parents to note they are not replacement teachers, nor is it possible to hold down a full time job while helping their children learn full time. Something’s got to give.
These are unusual times and schools themselves don’t expect children to cover all the content they provide, especially when it comes to children in primary school.
In a newsletter to parents the principal of Bondi Public school said:
Some days your children will submit outstanding work and other days they will submit nothing at all. I want you to know that this is OK. Our students very rarely work at the same level or at the same pace, so try not to compare yourselves with other families.
There’s more to learning than content
There is much more to education than just getting through content. Schools struggle to cover all content in the Australian Curriculum under normal circumstances.
What education provides is the skills to be able to pick up content, or catch up on it when need be.
I research children’s learning in conflict-affected contexts, where school is often disrupted due to disease, poverty or war, and the responsibility of education lands back with families.
This research has shown me that the children most able to catch up on content when they return to school are those whose families or communities promote literacy, numeracy and social skills.
More at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2020/04/students-wont-get-through-all-school.html
As children learn from home, parents are effectively running two schedules – work and school. Some children may not be able to get through all the work their school assigns in the time they have, which can leave parents feeling guilty.
It’s important for parents to note they are not replacement teachers, nor is it possible to hold down a full time job while helping their children learn full time. Something’s got to give.
These are unusual times and schools themselves don’t expect children to cover all the content they provide, especially when it comes to children in primary school.
In a newsletter to parents the principal of Bondi Public school said:
Some days your children will submit outstanding work and other days they will submit nothing at all. I want you to know that this is OK. Our students very rarely work at the same level or at the same pace, so try not to compare yourselves with other families.
There’s more to learning than content
There is much more to education than just getting through content. Schools struggle to cover all content in the Australian Curriculum under normal circumstances.
What education provides is the skills to be able to pick up content, or catch up on it when need be.
I research children’s learning in conflict-affected contexts, where school is often disrupted due to disease, poverty or war, and the responsibility of education lands back with families.
This research has shown me that the children most able to catch up on content when they return to school are those whose families or communities promote literacy, numeracy and social skills.
More at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2020/04/students-wont-get-through-all-school.html
