Reply to For people who say "school is not for childcare"...

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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