How pods hurt poor kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry no, I don't think it serves anyone to give my children a poor quality education. Is that what you mean by "stay and fight"?

No, the opposite. You aren't happy with the poor quality education your school is offering everyone so you bring it up to with the teacher, take it up the chain to the principal, get the PTA involved. Contact the chancellor. Someone at my school would get the WASH post involved. But not if they've mostly checked into pods and their kids are learning just fine.

I get people are tired. But think of how tired parents with fewer means are - don't leave all this work for them.

Oh, I will just tell the teacher and they will provide adequate DL! Problem solved! Come on. You know it will still suck even with a lot of advocacy, for a while at least. I agree that people should engage and look out for the needs of low income kids. But to purposely provide my own kids low quality in the name of equity? No. That does not help anyone. It just drags our school system further down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry no, I don't think it serves anyone to give my children a poor quality education. Is that what you mean by "stay and fight"?

No, the opposite. You aren't happy with the poor quality education your school is offering everyone so you bring it up to with the teacher, take it up the chain to the principal, get the PTA involved. Contact the chancellor. Someone at my school would get the WASH post involved. But not if they've mostly checked into pods and their kids are learning just fine.

I get people are tired. But think of how tired parents with fewer means are - don't leave all this work for them.

If you don't have a job, you do it. I'm busy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did it ever cross your mind that hiring some childcare to manage the DL would free up my time for this kind of advocacy?

Just join an advocacy group and stop hassling people. All we want is an adequate education and 30 seconds of peace and quiet to do our jobs. The jobs that fund the taxes and donations that pay for what you want. See?

This isn't about joining an advocacy group, it's about not checking out of your school and demanding your school does a good job.

Just a thought. I started this thread because I've been mulling in my head the answer to the question - how does getting my kids what they need hurt other kids. And this is how.

I'm not trying to make people do or don't do things, just to think about it.

[Anonymous]

We should just start for public education reform. School is already based on a system founded in the industrial revolution, so archaic.


Have you ever wondered to ask if maybe part of the problem is also parents?

Even if DL was excellent how many parents whose jobs AREN'T teleworking will be able to show up and help facilitate the lesson?

It may be grandma, or auntie who maybe isn't as invested or tech savvy. Or it may be the 19 year old brother too high to help their sibling.

How are we going to ensure parents will be able to help facilitate? That's the harsh reality of DL, there will always be inequities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all pods or even all pods who hire a nanny and likely not pods that rotate with parents in charge. BUT if you are paying someone to teach, then you aren't completely relying on the materials/teaching the school provides. If, as we all suspect, that materiel/teaching isn't very good, you aren't going to advocate as hard or as urgently for better because your kids will be getting what they need. Even if you don't hire a teacher but someone who helps the kids do their DL work, you won't demand that the activities are more clear or include enough support because you won't know. So your child's classmates who can't afford pods are then left to do this advocacy work themselves and make the demands themselves.

There is strength in numbers - stay and fight for the best DL for all.

I dispute your premise. You seem to assume materials and teaching won’t be good and you have zero basis for that.

Spring 2020

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did it ever cross your mind that hiring some childcare to manage the DL would free up my time for this kind of advocacy?

Just join an advocacy group and stop hassling people. All we want is an adequate education and 30 seconds of peace and quiet to do our jobs. The jobs that fund the taxes and donations that pay for what you want. See?

This isn't about joining an advocacy group, it's about not checking out of your school and demanding your school does a good job.

Just a thought. I started this thread because I've been mulling in my head the answer to the question - how does getting my kids what they need hurt other kids. And this is how.

I'm not trying to make people do or don't do things, just to think about it.

And you think this is a new idea unique to DL? Come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did it ever cross your mind that hiring some childcare to manage the DL would free up my time for this kind of advocacy?

Just join an advocacy group and stop hassling people. All we want is an adequate education and 30 seconds of peace and quiet to do our jobs. The jobs that fund the taxes and donations that pay for what you want. See?

This isn't about joining an advocacy group, it's about not checking out of your school and demanding your school does a good job.

Just a thought. I started this thread because I've been mulling in my head the answer to the question - how does getting my kids what they need hurt other kids. And this is how.

I'm not trying to make people do or don't do things, just to think about it.

And you think this is a new idea unique to DL? Come on.

Agreed. But accelerated and exacerbated. The "regular" kids will get much less than usual and the "pod" kids will get much more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did it ever cross your mind that hiring some childcare to manage the DL would free up my time for this kind of advocacy?

Just join an advocacy group and stop hassling people. All we want is an adequate education and 30 seconds of peace and quiet to do our jobs. The jobs that fund the taxes and donations that pay for what you want. See?

This isn't about joining an advocacy group, it's about not checking out of your school and demanding your school does a good job.

Just a thought. I started this thread because I've been mulling in my head the answer to the question - how does getting my kids what they need hurt other kids. And this is how.

I'm not trying to make people do or don't do things, just to think about it.

And you think this is a new idea unique to DL? Come on.

Agreed. But accelerated and exacerbated. The "regular" kids will get much less than usual and the "pod" kids will get much more.

I just don't think letting my kids fall behind is any kind of solution. The school system does not need even more kids who are below grade level. There are lots of sacrifices and donations I would happily make, but I have to think the tradeoffs are worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did it ever cross your mind that hiring some childcare to manage the DL would free up my time for this kind of advocacy?

Just join an advocacy group and stop hassling people. All we want is an adequate education and 30 seconds of peace and quiet to do our jobs. The jobs that fund the taxes and donations that pay for what you want. See?

This isn't about joining an advocacy group, it's about not checking out of your school and demanding your school does a good job.

Just a thought. I started this thread because I've been mulling in my head the answer to the question - how does getting my kids what they need hurt other kids. And this is how.

I'm not trying to make people do or don't do things, just to think about it.

And you think this is a new idea unique to DL? Come on.

Agreed. But accelerated and exacerbated. The "regular" kids will get much less than usual and the "pod" kids will get much more.

I just don't think letting my kids fall behind is any kind of solution. The school system does not need even more kids who are below grade level. There are lots of sacrifices and donations I would happily make, but I have to think the tradeoffs are worth it.

I suppose, in my optimism, that I believe if parents in a school stuck together and made demands, kids wouldn't fall behind because we'd get something better. It would cost the school more in time and treasure and innovation, but they'd have no choice if the influential parents, the ones currently joining pods, were making a stink alongside the non-influential ones. It's not the path of least resistance though.

[Anonymous]

Having my kids fall behind doesn’t help anyone else. I reject your premise, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not all pods or even all pods who hire a nanny and likely not pods that rotate with parents in charge. BUT if you are paying someone to teach, then you aren't completely relying on the materials/teaching the school provides. If, as we all suspect, that materiel/teaching isn't very good, you aren't going to advocate as hard or as urgently for better because your kids will be getting what they need. Even if you don't hire a teacher but someone who helps the kids do their DL work, you won't demand that the activities are more clear or include enough support because you won't know. So your child's classmates who can't afford pods are then left to do this advocacy work themselves and make the demands themselves.

There is strength in numbers - stay and fight for the best DL for all.

Have you actually looked at the materials? I looked at the materials during the spring, when DCPS released it in packets. It was good, for the most part. The problem is that my kids teachers couldn't teach it all, because of constant discipline problems in the classroom. Once DL began, my kid actually began to learn social studies, Spanish, etc., because he could focus on the curriculum instead of the constant interruptions in the classroom. And I didn't need to hire a tutor to do it. He did it himself.

Point being, if you have a kid who can focus, the curriculum and the free apps DCPS provides are plenty, and a good combo. It's not the materials that are the problem. It's either teachers that can't teach (which I've never seen in my EOTP school -- all the teachers are quite good), or a classroom which cannot be managed because of lack of support/not enough aides. That's where the real advocacy is needed. How can a teacher teach a class with constant disruptions and kids who are reading at both kindgarten and 5th grade levels in the same classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having my kids fall behind doesn’t help anyone else. I reject your premise, OP.

But I think they won't if influential parents demand better instead of checking out.

What if we compromise. Don't form pods till December and spend three months trying to get your school to deliver a good education to your kids (and everyone else's kids) If it doesn't work and what they are giving you, after all your complaints to the teacher and principal and PTA, is still things like chaotic weekly meetings, busywork worksheets, ed tech, and videos followed by poorly worded online quizzes, then form your pod and educate your own kids. But I really think they will figure out how to do it if they have to. But it won't be cheap so parents are going to have to stay and make them have to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all pods or even all pods who hire a nanny and likely not pods that rotate with parents in charge. BUT if you are paying someone to teach, then you aren't completely relying on the materials/teaching the school provides. If, as we all suspect, that materiel/teaching isn't very good, you aren't going to advocate as hard or as urgently for better because your kids will be getting what they need. Even if you don't hire a teacher but someone who helps the kids do their DL work, you won't demand that the activities are more clear or include enough support because you won't know. So your child's classmates who can't afford pods are then left to do this advocacy work themselves and make the demands themselves.

There is strength in numbers - stay and fight for the best DL for all.

Have you actually looked at the materials? I looked at the materials during the spring, when DCPS released it in packets. It was good, for the most part. The problem is that my kids teachers couldn't teach it all, because of constant discipline problems in the classroom. Once DL began, my kid actually began to learn social studies, Spanish, etc., because he could focus on the curriculum instead of the constant interruptions in the classroom. And I didn't need to hire a tutor to do it. He did it himself.

Point being, if you have a kid who can focus, the curriculum and the free apps DCPS provides are plenty, and a good combo. It's not the materials that are the problem. It's either teachers that can't teach (which I've never seen in my EOTP school -- all the teachers are quite good), or a classroom which cannot be managed because of lack of support/not enough aides. That's where the real advocacy is needed. How can a teacher teach a class with constant disruptions and kids who are reading at both kindgarten and 5th grade levels in the same classroom?

+1. My kid learned more on his own in DL than he's learned in 6 years in DCPS. Part of what made it good was that the teachers were able to form small groups at my kid's level, and actually meet with those groups more often than during in-class teaching, because like PP said, the amount of time wasted in disruption was way down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not all pods or even all pods who hire a nanny and likely not pods that rotate with parents in charge. BUT if you are paying someone to teach, then you aren't completely relying on the materials/teaching the school provides. If, as we all suspect, that materiel/teaching isn't very good, you aren't going to advocate as hard or as urgently for better because your kids will be getting what they need. Even if you don't hire a teacher but someone who helps the kids do their DL work, you won't demand that the activities are more clear or include enough support because you won't know. So your child's classmates who can't afford pods are then left to do this advocacy work themselves and make the demands themselves.

There is strength in numbers - stay and fight for the best DL for all.

NIMBY! Few, if any, will listen to you OP.

[Anonymous]

Whats your solution OP? What should we all do with our kids? Even if we assume your assumption is corrects and DL material is of poor quality, should I let my kid suffer, my home life quality suffer, fight with schools and and whats the guarantee then it'll be better? This is unprecedented time for schools and teachers. How much better can they make it? How long should we not form Pods to make you feel better? My kid, their health and education is not a weapon for making a point.