Pods are about child care or outsourcing their child's education as they cannot or will not do it themselves. Teachers are right not going back. Families have been traveling and socializing all summer as they are selfish and COVID will be brought back here and rapidly spread through the schools. There was no way after quarantining all summer to stay safe would I send my kids back nor do I want to see any teachers get sick or die because of my kids going back. Too many parents rely on school as child care and didn't budget in child care when buying their million dollar houses. Funny as the rich families are the ones complaining. The rest of us figure it out.

It is true that COVID and distance learning will (like most crises and disruptions) hurt poor kids more severely than kids of means, although it won't be great for any kid. But I actually think "pods" (to the extent that they mean supplemental instruction) will benefit those classrooms as a whole. If some kids have outside support (from a parent or a paid instructor), then teachers are able to spend more time virtually assisting the students whose parents can't provide similar support. And, education research shows that students tend to regress to the mean in their classes (this is why, say, pulling out gifted students for *all* subjects--not just a GT hour--can hurt other kids, even if it benefits GT kids). So, when "meeting" in online groups, pods will, again, benefit the class as a whole because it's helpful to have students who are absorbing the material. I actually think having supplemental support for some kids will benefit the class generally more than the PTA sending angry emails (or whatever) would.

Of course, on a macro level, there will be more privileged schools with many kids receiving supplemental instruction. And there will be poorer schools where few do (and where kids face more basic challenges, like wi-fi connectivity, or assisting their younger siblings). That will contribute to achievement gaps, and it's not good.

But it's wrong to suggest that individual parents will fix the systemic problems by not forming pods and instead "advocating" more fiercely on the school-by-school level. That won't fix anything.

(Also, of course, this pandemic is an aberration. So, while existing structural inequalities are exacerbated, the new issues caused by this wild circumstance are symptoms, not the cause of inequality. It is good and necessary for people to want more equitable education systems. But individual parents--during a new distanced learning situation during a literal pandemic, no less--are not going to close the gaps. Right now, they are just going to try and get their kids through it.)

Anonymous wrote:There is no way to make this even, OP. Even if we just rotate parents we have a PhD chemist, an engineer, a lawyer, an English professor and an accountant as parents in our two family pod. We can cover a ton of subject matter without hiring anyone.

This.
It was never fair, even before distance learning and pods.

Why all this talk about pods? Are schools recommending them? I’m DCPS elementary parent and Ha gent heard about them except in the context of general play date quaran-pods.

Why do you think that it's likely that DL will be bad?

It’s a no for me, dawg!

I complained plenty in the spring. I complained to the teachers. I complained to the principal. At our Ward 3 elementary school, we were only receiving instruction from a teacher for 45 minutes to 1 hour per week. THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE.

So yes, I will be getting my kids a tutor. I wouldn't have to do that if DCPS was prepared to provide a robust distance learning program. Because of their failure, the inequities are amplified.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I think it's a fair point that people are too tired and so choose pods or that that DL can't be made to be very good, so fighting that battle is tilting at windmills. But I don't buy, depending on the make-up of your school, that it won't make a difference that some/many parents with the economic and social capital to have their voices heard by the teacher and principal don't feel the urgency to speak up because their kids are doing fine in pods. I think teachers would have to do better if they had parents reaching out frequently and complaining about what isn't working and explaining what their child needs. Not only will there be fewer parents doing this, but the ones with clout won't be the ones doing it. The teacher may even think she is doing fine since she doesn't hear much.

People are going to do what they are going to do. But it's unfortunate, IMO, that we aren't all in this together fighting this fight to get our kids what they need.

Complaining about “what’s not working” just makes it more likely that the teacher will pick on your child.

Signed,

BTDT

Anonymous wrote:Teachers as a whole, with few exceptions, are acting selfishly by refusing to find a way to open schools back up even a few days a week. LA Teachers Union even put universal healthcare on their list of needs before reopening! Their selfishness is forcing parents to act selfishly by creating these pods. I don’t blame the parents at all.

+1

I had to read that stuff about the LA teachers union in multiple places before I could believe it. These teachers unions are clearly political parties and they're holding kids and their parents hostage until they get what they want. And now we have the perfect opportunity to get rid of teachers unions once and for all, and yet nobody seems motivated to do that. It's astonishing to me.

I need a pod for my own mental sanity this fall. We are banding up with a few other families so that we as parents also have others to hang out with. Social distancing is hard on kids AND parents. We need other people.

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"?

+ 1,000

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I think it's a fair point that people are too tired and so choose pods or that that DL can't be made to be very good, so fighting that battle is tilting at windmills. But I don't buy, depending on the make-up of your school, that it won't make a difference that some/many parents with the economic and social capital to have their voices heard by the teacher and principal don't feel the urgency to speak up because their kids are doing fine in pods. I think teachers would have to do better if they had parents reaching out frequently and complaining about what isn't working and explaining what their child needs. Not only will there be fewer parents doing this, but the ones with clout won't be the ones doing it. The teacher may even think she is doing fine since she doesn't hear much.

People are going to do what they are going to do. But it's unfortunate, IMO, that we aren't all in this together fighting this fight to get our kids what they need.

Saying you are too tired is a lazy parent's excuse and they probably were not very involved in their kids daily life anyway and just let the schools and others deal with things. This has nothing to do with poor kids and pods are just a form of child care/nanny share so what is the big deal. Pods will keep covid going and keep our kids out of school longer.

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.

No. My first obligation is to my own child. There is no DL that will work for him in light of his ADHD. So it is pointless to "fight" for the best DL, because it will not matter to us.

"All in this together"? Please, explain again how under-serving my own kids is in any way helpful to anyone else. And how hiring some help is in any way incompatible with pushing the schools for better performance and more equity. Maybe, just maybe, me keeping my job and not being an exhausted wreck all the time, is what's going to enable me to engage in activism and also donate some of the vast quantity of money you delusionally think isn't going to be needed.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I think it's a fair point that people are too tired and so choose pods or that that DL can't be made to be very good, so fighting that battle is tilting at windmills. But I don't buy, depending on the make-up of your school, that it won't make a difference that some/many parents with the economic and social capital to have their voices heard by the teacher and principal don't feel the urgency to speak up because their kids are doing fine in pods. I think teachers would have to do better if they had parents reaching out frequently and complaining about what isn't working and explaining what their child needs. Not only will there be fewer parents doing this, but the ones with clout won't be the ones doing it. The teacher may even think she is doing fine since she doesn't hear much.

People are going to do what they are going to do. But it's unfortunate, IMO, that we aren't all in this together fighting this fight to get our kids what they need.

But what people think their high-income child needs is not necessarily the same thing as what at-risk children need from DL! And complaining just takes up time that the teachers could otherwise spend on the at-risk kids. Really, what exactly do you feel is the problem with DL that can be solved by parents complaining?

I am really skeptical that teachers are just going to up their game due to parent pressure. The problem here is MONEY-- way more money than even a wealthy PTA raises in a year.