This pandemic has led to a new way of life in the education system. It appears everyone is trying to use technology to teach. My kid’s school is using the Google classroom forum. There are many teething problems in using the platform to teach children. Ignore the pun. Many parents struggle to use the forum and keep making frantic calls to teachers for help. “Teacher it has refused to turn in”. “Admin can we send the assignment on WhatsApp? Please help”. They forget that the teachers are also struggling to figure out how to use the system. I digress.
My efforts to teach my daughter have been epic failures. I was supposed to help her learn the sounds made by animals through a video posted online. Then record her and post the video. Two minutes into the lesson my daughter and I were frustrated and the lesson was over. There were two reasons for this. First of all, she was impatient and could not focus on the task at hand. Instead of imitating the animal sounds she focused on the fact that the cow was color black and the pig was color pink. Second of all, I was impatient and focused on the task at hand. I wanted her to learn the sounds; I record her and post the video. When it comes to teaching children, the online platform is overrated, too much hype.It can only supplement. We still need good old madam Salome.The CBC education system will not work if we expect parents to do the teachers work. In fact, I think it may end up escalating the existent inequalities between the have and have nots. Knowledgeable and financially able parents will find a way of “beating the system” and improving the chances of their kids excelling in the preferred courses. Kids from poor backgrounds will be disadvantaged and will end up being labelled “talented”.
I have since given up being a school teacher to my children. When schools to open, I will gladly sign her diary. I will be her father someone else will teach her sounds. Let everyone stick to their lane. They call it division of labor in standard six social studies. If you feel that I am rationalizing my poor parenting skills. Trust your intuition. I have never read a bedtime story to my children. I don’t know how to tell stories to kids. I don’t remember my mother telling me any bed time stories. When it was sleeping time, we cut to the chase. In intend to keep that family tradition.
Fabio