For people who say "school is not for childcare"...
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
So are you suggesting that the nation set up backup care for every kid whose parent works for the six hours a day that kids are usually in school, and pay for that so that it is available just in case? If not, what are you proposing? |
Anonymous
| If school is not childcare you’ll also have to add to the discussion that society wants UMC kids in public schools as opposed to private schools and this UMC dual working parent household would have to start sending their public school kids to private in that case. I’m already having to send my rising K to private K this year because I need the childcare while working - and I had been planning to send her to public. |
Anonymous
+2 |
Anonymous
Especially for K -2. It's moreso childcare than education imo. |
Anonymous
| Employers should provide childcare on site. It’s crazy that they don’t. It would solve the problem of the school day not aligning to the work day, snow days, teachers work days, summers off/school breaks, etc. and really increase productivity for working parents. |
Anonymous
|
"School is not childcare" is shorthand for "I am spoiled, entitled, and have no ability to understand the life experiences of anyone who isn't part of a wealthy two-parent family." When someone says that, I find I discount whatever else they are saying, as they lack the depth of larger societal awareness necessary to have a reasoned discussion.
I kind of like it when people say it, though, because it's quick differentiator as to whether I should consider their opinions as soundly grounded or not. |
Anonymous
So they can discriminate against hiring women of child bearing age so they don't have to pay childcare costs? Pass. |
Anonymous
That's a good idea. Obviously school is not childcare, as evidenced by how unfriendly the public school calendar is for working parents, with so many random days off, early dismissals,and snow days. I have reframed my thinking on this subject. School is not childcare, but unless parents have opted to enroll their children in online school, school as we understand it is receiving an education as part of a classroom in a brick and mortar building. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous. Online schooling is not providing the educational experience provided in a school building. In a discussion on another topic (one started by a negative and confrontation poster), there was a post from a teacher who works at an accredited online school. She was explaining how the expectations for her job, as an online teacher, involve far more work and personal availability than will be imposed on public and private school teachers doing distance learning. For instance, all work is to be graded within 48 hours. Emails must be answered quickly, etc. The model for her school ss asynchronous, but required significant interaction between teacher and students. The important point she made, which helped me to reframe my thinking, was that in the online school, parents must agree to be "learning coaches" for each student. The hours required for a learning coach vary depending on the age of the child, but the general expectation would be that the parent monitors each student's work on a daily basis to be sure that there is a schedule, that the schedule is being adhered to, and that the work is being completed. If a parent cannot fulfill these duties due to work schedule or other conflicts, a learning coach must be hired. What hit be about this description is that the learning coach is not providing childcare, but is a partner with the virtual teacher in ensuring student learning, participation, and cooperation, just as a classroom teacher would be. The model contemplates regular communication between learning coach and teacher to make sure the student is on track. And by regular, I don't mean progress reports and report cards. We are talking weekly or even daily communication.Learning coaches keep track of attendance, just as the classroom teachers would do in school. Learning coaches receive training to understand the expectations for their role. When you look at DL from that standpoint, it is clear that the DL teacher is not fulfilling the role that a classroom teacher is fulfilling. The missing piece is not childcare, the role of coaching students through the school day, school work, and verifying that the work is being completed. When teachers say that "school is not childcare" and that they can perform their duties as teachers virtually, they are ignoring the fact that they cannot do so without significant cooperation from parents at home. Students need parents to act as learning coaches, and yet schools are not explaining what this entails, outlining expectations, or training parents to perform this role. I realize that there are some differences if you are using a synchronous as opposed to an asynchronous model, but the necessary parental involvement isn't childcare. The responsibility for monitoring every aspect of learning, classroom management, completion of work, understanding, etc. on a day to day basis is now on parents, yet we aren't being honest about that fact. And even worse, with synchronous learning, that responsibility is now tied to a schedule over which the parent has no control. If I have an all day meeting, I have to find someone else to be the learning coach (not childcare provider). I understand why we want some synchronous learning, especially from a socialization standpoint. But this model is the worst of both world for working parents. They have to be learning coaches for their children with no input as to schedule. All of us need to recognize this. |
Anonymous
Its not like employers would be capable of accommodating the spikes in children they would see on teacher work days, snow days, etc. And transporting children from schools to employer sites would be a huge challenge, and simply not possible for many commuters. Expanding before/after care at schools would make a lot more sense. You'd still need to come up with a plan for summers, but schools could play a role there too. |
Anonymous
This is exactly what would happen. |
Anonymous
Kids should be able to stay home alone by 4th grade. |
Anonymous
|
I really hate how the phrase degrades the valuable work of childcare providers, who are nearly all women.
When teachers union leaders say this, it comes across as incredibly out of touch and degrading. I don't understand why they do not see how awful they sound when they talk like this. |
Anonymous
|
OP, I get what you're saying. You should be able to make other plans for your day/life because your kids are reliably out of your hands for a chunk of time due to school. No one should have to stay home for 6+ hrs every day on the off chance that school will not be open.
However, my take on this is that I don't like how school is being increasingly morphed to fit the needs of corporations, who want all workers there from ~8 - ~5 everyday, with little to no flexibility. We set up schools in this country to educate children, not as a place to stash them while parents go to work. The fact that you CAN go to work while your kids are in school is a separate thing. I don't like that people like Kamala Harris propose that school be open basically pretty much all day to accomodate the needs of working parents. I think in an ideal world, school AND work would be from something like 10 am to 4 pm, and the rest of the time during the day would be for families to hang out and enjoy each other. |
Anonymous
Agree. That’s another reason it’s cringey |
Anonymous
"School is not for childcare" means that while childcare is a benefit of public school, it is not the goal or purpose of school. So, the need for childcare should not be driving the decision-making for when to open schools. No, it is not spoiled and entitled. I am in a two-income working household and we are amongst those families who are struggling to adequately support our children in school. I understand the situation that many families are in, but I also understand that there are many families including many teacher families that have high risk family members and requiring teachers and those students to go into school buildings with the complete disregard for any health and safety measures is ridiculous. We need to invest a lot of money into getting safety equipment and supplies to the teachers in adequate quantities. But as is typical, we want schools to function but aren't willing to secure enough supplies and teachers are being forced to pay out of pocket to augment the school budgets that will not accommodate safety shielding, PPE, cleaning solutions and more. This is what teachers are being asked to open with to accommodate all children. And I have a lot of teacher friends who have sent photos of what their actual classrooms look like and it isn't that different. I especially feel bad for my friends who are teachers in NYC who every thinks is opening so safely. Their classrooms look like the worst of these with desks 2 feet apart, no space between students and teachers and no safety shielding. The classrooms are more dangerous than the hallways that were posted from Georgia. At least the students are moving in the hallways, but they are in one place with a large group for 45-60 minutes in the classrooms. https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-in-person-learning-looks-like?utm_source=dynamic&utm_campaign=bffbbuzzfeednews&ref=bffbbuzzfeednews&&fbclid=IwAR3tHvS2BHbLf1pFcMdwz1RPGTFSqFp7QL0PAHvK_cDbHWgyAzNNz-NTjnE |