Education During A Pandemic

As the world scrambles with the health and economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and educators are struggle to create safe and effective programs for upcoming school year. Solutions will range from all in-class schooling, to hybrid schooling (a mix of in class and virtual), to 100% virtual learning. Along the way, every aspect of the educational experience requires reengineering, from how classes are conducted, how meals are provided, and how students are transported.

For parents, the prospect of either partial or full virtual learning has a significant impact on their daily responsibilities of making a living, maintaining a household, and now supervising and tutoring of their children. Each family’s situation has its own unique challenges, based on the level of school district’s virtual learning, the parent’s job flexibility, family finances, learning facilities available from the school, a parent’s proclivity to teach, and the student’s ability to work virtually.

Just as each school and parent has their own unique considerations for the upcoming year, so too do the students, where academic and social needs might vary widely. We suggest the following five steps to help all students survive and hopefully thrive in schooling under the cloud of COVID-19.

Minimize Uncertainty

Uncertainty has always been a trigger for anxiety. When faced with the unknown, some are prone to negative ruminations, causing them to expect and fear the worst of outcomes. At the beginning of the school year you can help your child with an honest assessment of what school will be like; what will be the same and what will be different. Remind them that all of their friends are facing the same situations, and that you and their teachers will be doing whatever you can to help through the transitions. Help encourage your child to focus on handling their concerns one step at a time by addressing them as they arise. Finally, if concerns are not brought to your attention, make a point of asking if they have any by checking in with your child weekly. Establish learning schedules that will help to avoid any doubt about what the student will be working on, and when projects are due.

Create Routines

Parents, teachers, and students will all be scrambling to make sense of the new school year. Among all the uncertainty, any routines you can create will go a long way towards establishing a foundation for your child’s education, and keeping sanity in the home. Having set study times is important, along with times for socialization, physical activities, meals, sleep, and free time for the activities they most enjoy. A dedicated location for school supplies, and putting supplies away after each session will help avoid the clutter around the home, and minimize the setup time for each session.

While routines help keep students on task and provide a sense of normalcy, flexibility is the benefit of at home learning and helps keep your child engaged. Reading can be done curled up on the couch, the kitchen table might be the right place for science projects, and almost any subject can be studied outside to take advantage of warm, sunny weather.

Support Socialization

Socialization has always been an important aspect of education. Now within the confines of social distancing it becomes even more important to find safe alternatives for friends and families to gather. Consider building phone, Zoom, Skype, or social times scheduled into your student’s daily calendar, allowing them to regularly connect with friends.

Keeping Active

Whether it’s sports activities or simply a walk around the block between lessons, staying active is both healthy and is essential in helping the students focus on their learning.

Be Aware of Mental Health Concerns

When faced with separation from friends, concerns for family affairs (finances, parent’s employment, family health), a loss of their regular routines, and the loss of child and adolescent milestones (e.g. sports events, dances, graduations), it can be expected that students might show signs of sadness, anxiety, and depression. Parents should consider seeking help when they notice significant changes in:

  • Mood – irritability, hopelessness, anger, and rage
  • Relationships – stepping away from important friendships
  • Activities – no longer pursuing interests once enjoyed
  • Sleep patterns – unable to fall asleep, sleeping all the time, significant changes in sleep times
  • Eating – gain or loss of weight, never hungry, or eating all the time
  • Cognition – memory, thinking, concentration
  • Appearance – poor hygiene
  • Dangerous behaviors – drugs, alcohol, thoughts of death and suicide

Take Care of …You. Yes, You

This is not how many parents imagined their child’s school year to go, and it is certainly not what most parents and families are equipped to handle time-wise, financially, and educationally. Our children are precious to us, but many of us are not educators. For many parents, it is daunting to look into the future of this year and feel inadequate to provide their children with the tools to get an education that they are used to relying on professionals to give. It is okay to feel overwhelmed, fear, even some anger about this new responsibility.

Many parents are also feeling certain levels of grief and helplessness based on their children being robbed of life events and experiences that are normal in our culture (university “move in” weekends, homecoming, prom, ceremonies, etc). Perhaps the best thing to do for yourself and for your child is to do what you can to take care of your own mental and physical health.

At this time, it is ever so easy to cope with alcohol, food, lack of sleep, and checking out. Many parents are isolated from one another due to the same reasons that students cannot go to school in person. Keeping safe and healthy connections with other parents,friends ,and partners, staying as active as possible, creating your own routines, keeping some personal goals, remembering your own limits as a parent and giving yourself some room to figure all of this out is critical. Therapy can help you have a safe place to unwind, identify your needs, and structure some of your thoughts and worries that are floating around in your brain at this uncertain time in our country and world.

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* Stress and Coping, CDC
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html

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