Stop the worksheets and worry about kids falling behind.... focus on mental health and compassion

Love this article. read the whole things here: https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/westheimer-forget-trying-to-be-your-kids-substitute-school-teacher-during-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR0kXSAgnTp-0xMpsq7NTnXA_7_Np1BW3T9VJ4hFp1Nhv5XYp_ZnpfsPWG8

It is 100% true... here is an excerpt:

I am really struck by the variety of media inquiries I’ve been getting about the impacts of COVID-19 on education, what parents should be doing at home, and so on. The interest doesn’t surprise me (I am an education columnist on public radio), but the preoccupation with whether kids will “fall behind” or with how they will “catch up” has. I see hundreds of stories, websites and YouTube videos that aim to help parents create miniature classrooms at home. Maybe some parents have folding chairs they can bring up from the basement and put in rows. Where’s that big blackboard we used to have? Is there a run on chalk at Costco?

Stop worrying about the vague and evidence-less idea of children “falling behind” or “catching up.” This is a worldwide pause in life-as-usual. We’ve spent the last 25 years over-scheduling kids, over-testing kids, putting undue pressure on them to achieve more and more and play less and less. The result? Several generations of children and young adults who are stressed out, medicated, alienated and depressed.

This is not a time for worksheets. This is an opportunity (for those of us lucky enough to be at home and not in hospitals or driving buses or keeping our grocery store shelves stocked) to spend meaningful time with our children to the extent it is possible in any given family.

Parents shouldn’t be thinking about how to keep their kids caught up with the curriculum or about how they can recreate school at home or how many worksheets they should have their children complete. They should bake a cake together. Make soup. Grow something in the garden. Take up family music playing. And neither school personnel nor parents should be focusing on how quickly or slowly children will return to school because none of us know. We should be focusing on ensuring that teachers are afforded the conditions they need to best support their students — now when school is out and later when school is back in.

Read the whole article here: https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/westheimer-forget-trying-to-be-your-kids-substitute-school-teacher-during-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR0kXSAgnTp-0xMpsq7NTnXA_7_Np1BW3T9VJ4hFp1Nhv5XYp_ZnpfsPWG8