My three kids did online school (middle and high) for a year while we travelled the world looking to learn if everyone was as crazy as Trump-electing America. Then they went virtual again during the pandemic. All did fine the first go-round. The oldest had trouble during the second, while trying to complete his second year of college. The two in public secondary school made it without suffering educationally, but they sure missed seeing their friends. I feel terrible that the crappy internet service available to the rural students around here made it much more difficult for them, but at the same time, there are on-line homeschooling companies advertising on TV with the word "rural" in the product's name. Our state is fine with pushing virtual learning if it weakens the public school system, while at the same time railing against virtual schooling along with masks and vaccine mandates if it interferes with "freedom." Maybe Leonhardt should spend more time looking into parochial school vouchers, thinning teacher ranks and the effects of bigotry and grinding poverty on the quality of learning among our school age children. The pandemic will pass someday, but those degradations are built in for the long haul and they're political, not epidemiological.
My three kids did online school (middle and high) for a year while we travelled the world looking to learn if everyone was as crazy as Trump-electing America. Then they went virtual again during the pandemic. All did fine the first go-round. The oldest had trouble during the second, while trying to complete his second year of college. The two in public secondary school made it without suffering educationally, but they sure missed seeing their friends. I feel terrible that the crappy internet service available to the rural students around here made it much more difficult for them, but at the same time, there are on-line homeschooling companies advertising on TV with the word "rural" in the product's name. Our state is fine with pushing virtual learning if it weakens the public school system, while at the same time railing against virtual schooling along with masks and vaccine mandates if it interferes with "freedom." Maybe Leonhardt should spend more time looking into parochial school vouchers, thinning teacher ranks and the effects of bigotry and grinding poverty on the quality of learning among our school age children. The pandemic will pass someday, but those degradations are built in for the long haul and they're political, not epidemiological.