Stupid Together

[Newman]

Not All Philly Students Have Computers or High-Speed Internet So School District Cancels Remote Learning

The Philadelphia School District will not offer remote instruction during the coronavirus shutdown, the superintendent announced Wednesday, citing equity concerns in a city where many students lack computers or high-speed internet at home.

School districts nationwide have been wrestling with the same issues as they explore ways to keep children engaged as classrooms are shuttered for weeks or longer.

In Philadelphia, where some teachers had been offering forms of optional remote instruction on their own, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said at a City Hall news conference that no students will be required to log on to a computer or submit assignments.

“If that’s not available to all children, we cannot make it available to some,” Hite said.

Thread title is from the old song by the Turtles, almost.

[Gingersnap]

They can probably come up with pencils and old grocery sacks.

Most of them need to practice basic arithmetic and the standard 5 paragraph essay anyway.

[scott]

This is leftism. Take it away from everyone because someone doesn't get it. But if it's one of their pet programs, well then it doesn't matter if everyone can't get it (like health insurance).

[Celeste Chalfonte]

What it really is: the one-size-fits-all approach to pedagogy.

Some kids don't have computers and internet. OK, realistically, those are not kids who are planning to start college in the fall. Offer the college prep classes, especially for seniors, online. For little kids, have drive-thru worksheet pickup.

One year, all 3 of us were quarantined during the school year for chicken pox. We missed 2 or 3 weeks of school (except Nova, who wasn't in school yet). Because we got lots of educational input (informally) at home, we were so far ahead of most of the class that there was no need to do schoolwork at home during quarantine, although I have no doubt that we did more reading, writing, and perhaps even arithmetic on our own than our classmates did in our absence, because "playing school" was one of our favorite things.

This time of year, most schools are just preparing for the annual standardized testing anyway. Missing that BS for one year won't hurt anybody.

The schools could issue computers and Comcast (or somebody) could provide internet for free and many if not most households with school-aged kids wouldn't take advantage of it. Some school districts do this. If the parents aren't home or don't supervise, technology does no good at all. Even at HRH's excellent private elementary school, there were kids whose parents thought education was entirely the school's job; who were "too busy" to help with homework or even supervise to ensure it got done; who delegated their parenting to 20-something nannies or au pairs; and who were in total denial about their kids' learning problems and therefore did nothing about them. HRH got a vastly different and better education than several of her classmates, despite the fact that many of their parents could have bought and sold us out of their pocket change.

We can equalize educational resources until we're all blue in the face. We can't equalize the quality of the families kids come from.

[Newman]

My D-I-L is a middle/high school English teacher in Philadelphia. She uses the internet to work with her students (in ordinary times) far more than I ever saw even 5 years ago. She was working on internet lessons to apply in this shut-down but was told to stop. She knows, though, that all of her kids have access to Instagram ("all" being the key word) so she has limited and re-worked her plans. In effect she's organizing a book club.

[Gingersnap]

There's not much content in the average school day despite the insane amount of busy work kids plow through and bring home today. Kids will be fine.

The most important thing parents can do until Fall is make kids read out loud if they aren't natural readers and drill them a couple of times a week ALL SUMMER on times tables and fractions.

Those two skills will do more than 6 months of normal school.

And if you have to get a kid to read, don't get kid books. Kid books are boring, especially for boys. Get something exciting - suspense, horror, adventure or whatever. Try Mark Twain or Jack London if you're mining your library. Get a Harry Potter book. Anything but the standard 1-6 reading material and get the phonics game and play it. There are a ton of phonics games online.

I don't teach reading but I talk with those who do.

[Tom Servo]

Some kids don't have computers and internet. OK, realistically, those are not kids who are planning to start college in the fall.

Why do you say that?

A determined — but poor — student would be down at the library using their free internet and computers. Those are closed now, at least here. So those kids are S-O-L if they don't have their own computers.

What is stupid about this is that a school district like Philadelphia couldn't figure out who needs a computer and/or internet connection and at least get those a laptop to use temporarily, with a hotspot if necessary. I don't remember where it was, but one school district was doing just that, getting LTE hotspots from Verizon or someone for kids that needed them. Another was putting wi-fi in school buses and parking them in neighborhoods where the internet was crap.

A resourceful district can make things happen.

[Lady Marva]

A resourceful district can make things happen.

IF thy want to. Easier is doing a whole lot of nothing.

[phillygirl]

My co-workers children are required to have a laptop for school. They're in public schools outside of Philadelphia. But I did ask her if she was set up for "homeschool" and did she need anything. She's a single mom, so resources are tight, but she seems to have what she needs. Her oldest is a senior and she's already gotten emails from a teacher that he hasn't logged on. Her youngest is in 6th grade and was panicked trying to do all the work in the first day. They're just different kids. And I remember as a senior, once I got that college acceptance I was a different student. Didn't really care what happened to my attendance and grades at that point. Even skipped taking a final because it occurred during senior class trip. The teacher approached me and said I was the only senior that hadn't made arrangements to take it (health class...most took it their junior year). it was pass fail and I knew I had enough credits to pass...and I was one of those "good, smart kids" and played the lottery that they weren't going to fail me on a pass fail class senior year when I was in the top 10 of the class. I gambled correctly!

[Celeste Chalfonte]

There's not much content in the average school day despite the insane amount of busy work kids plow through and bring home today. Kids will be fine.

The most important thing parents can do until Fall is make kids read out loud if they aren't natural readers and drill them a couple of times a week ALL SUMMER on times tables and fractions.

Those two skills will do more than 6 months of normal school.

And if you have to get a kid to read, don't get kid books. Kid books are boring, especially for boys. Get something exciting - suspense, horror, adventure or whatever. Try Mark Twain or Jack London if you're mining your library. Get a Harry Potter book. Anything but the standard 1-6 reading material and get the phonics game and play it. There are a ton of phonics games online.

I don't teach reading but I talk with those who do.

And remember that reading, in any medium or format, is still reading. Manga (much as it pains me to concede this), fan fiction (likewise), comic books, Goosebumps, Wikipedia (as long as you make sure they know it's not as reliable as a real encyclopedia), sports magazines, tech manuals, cereal boxes - it's all READING.

Nova and I were both incredibly lazy students, but it never mattered, because we skated clear through college on the fact that we could read, write, and do essential math. I never actually studied until law school, and that was hit or miss, depending on the demands of my job. If you can read and give it back in an organized written form (there's not a lot of difference between a standard essay and the IRAC format), you'll do well at 'most everything.

[80zephyr]

And remember that reading, in any medium or format, is still reading. Manga (much as it pains me to concede this), fan fiction (likewise), comic books, Goosebumps, Wikipedia (as long as you make sure they know it's not as reliable as a real encyclopedia), sports magazines, tech manuals, cereal boxes - it's all READING.

Nova and I were both incredibly lazy students, but it never mattered, because we skated clear through college on the fact that we could read, write, and do essential math. I never actually studied until law school, and that was hit or miss, depending on the demands of my job. If you can read and give it back in an organized written form (there's not a lot of difference between a standard essay and the IRAC format), you'll do well at 'most everything.

Lol. My mom bought us kids a shit ton of comic books. My dad asked her why she was spending money so foolishly and she replied "because the kids READ them.

Mark

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Why do you say that?

A determined — but poor — student would be down at the library using their free internet and computers. Those are closed now, at least here. So those kids are S-O-L if they don't have their own computers.

I say that because I've both taught high school and been the parent of a student in a rigorous college prep program (International Baccalaureate). There were poor kids in that program, as well as in the low-income high schools where I subbed. They did not use the library computers, because the time limits on those are not conducive to serious research and writing college-level papers, which is what seriously college-bound high--schoolers do. Or to taking an entire online lesson, with sound and whiteboard activities. They got loaners from the school, shared with friends who had computers, got used computers from the IB Boosters or the Kiwanis, got jobs and bought inexpensive computers...you get the idea.

Kids in advanced programs have to have a graphing calculator. They can't use those at the library. If the program is important to them, they or their parents found a way to get that calculator (minimum, about $100) before school started, not when the lockdown occurred.

Frankly, I thought it sucked that it costs over $200 up-front (not including the cost of a computer, which we already had) to buy HRH's school supplies for IB; I did think it probably excluded some poor kids who would have done well and needed the scholarship that came with successfully completing the program. If I were in charge, the expensive equipment would be available at school and used during the school day; Ginger's correct that most of the homework, even in IB and AP programs, is massive quantities of busywork. HRH and I were both very disappointed at that. Other than reading, writing, and (for younger kids) spelling and basic math practice, I would eliminate all homework.

Nonetheless, realistically, high school seniors who are hell-bent on going to college have figured out a way to either acquire or share the necessary equipment. The more things change, the more they're the same. Only the tech is different. In college, we were expected to type all our papers. I was a lousy typist. I had a portable typewriter in my dorm room. Never typed a paper; kids who needed a typewriter traded typing my papers for the use of my typewriter to do their own. If you want something, you figure it out, because life ain't fair.

[80zephyr]

In my city, a local big business bought a computer for school use for every student in the district.

Mark

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Lol. My mom bought us kids a shit ton of comic books. My dad asked her why she was spending money so foolishly and she replied "because the kids READ them.

Your mom was a wise woman.

Honoria and I were never into comic books, but we just read actual literature - children's classics that had belonged to our parents and sometimes their parents, plus Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, and Trixie Belden, and whatever regular novels my mom brought home for her own pleasure. I read all the Williamsburg novels, all the "Little Maid of..." novels, and everything Louisa May Alcott and Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote before I was out of elementary school. This wasn't work, it was fun - winters were long, and all year long there was plenty of time to read AND ride bikes, climb trees, sled, build forts, swim, rollerskate, play ball, etc.

I don't remember if Nova read comic books or not; to this day, he reads almost exclusively non-fiction. I know he loved the Richard Halliburton books, and for years, until there was internet, he and I couldn't have an argument without hauling out the encyclopedias. "Look it up" became "Prove it!"

I really hated spending money on manga, but when I bought one for HRH (who was also already reading Maya Angelou, Dickens, and Shakespeare), her 3 closest friends (all boys) read them too, including the one with dyslexia. Can't argue with that kind of success.

Reading is just essential. My grandfather read only westerns and the newspaper, but he read, and set that example. He read me the "funny papers." Everybody kept the Reader's Digest in the bathroom, even if they only read the "Laughter is the Best Medicine" section.

[Tom Servo]

In my city, a local big business bought a computer for school use for every student in the district

I bet that was quite the investment!

Our county school system got Macbooks for all the students a few years ago and it created a minor shitstorm due to the costs involved. Even with the "Apple CEO is from Robertsdale so everyone gets a discount" price, you could have bought 2 or 3 Chromebooks for the same price as one Macbook. And with 9,000+ high school students, it was a huge cost. I think they have even expanded the program to the middle school now.

Just the thought of each kid having a "free" computer for use during the school year is beyond my comprehension. I grew up back when luxury was getting to use one of the two dozen Apple IIe's in our school, even knowing that they were nearly a decade out of date.