'Now 8 and 9 years old, their responses surprised and moved me — and reminded me that while they all had different experiences, we parents and teachers really did the best we could.'
What do America’s tiniest students recall about that switch to Chromebooks at the dining room table three years ago?Collecting my children’s bagged “personal items” from their school in a socially distanced line while wearing a homemade cloth mask is the most vivid memory I have of the entire coronavirus disaster.
the following school year. Many parents chose to delay school altogether rather than sign their kids up for what 2020’s kindergartners had gone through.actually remember? How does a 6-year-old’s mind process and hold an experience like that? Do my kids just remember the bad stuff, the times I lost my cool, the fear of getting sick or even dying? I asked them, along with others who were in kindergarten that fateful March.
“I also remember we had just gotten Charlie,” he tells me. “Having a puppy made everything about Corona school better. It sucked pretty bad otherwise. When I did get Covid, it was super bad. I felt like I was going to go into a coma.” Now, he tells me he loves school. “I am glad to be back. I missed my friends, like Brody. And my teacher now? His family owns the farm we went to in kindergarten!”
“I was scared,” says Alice about hearing that her school was closing. “I was worried about the effects it would have on my relationship with my friends. I was sad that I couldn’t have playdates and we couldn’t get to go in-person on our field trip.” “It’s hard to remember the beginning of the pandemic sometimes because I just didn’t like it and I felt worried, so I try to not think about it a lot.”
Calvin’s parents decided not to send them back when school reopened — at first, because of the lack of Covid safety precautions in Nebraska. Eventually, they realized homeschooling was a better fit; Calvin is happy with the choice. “I didn’t like doing school on Zoom, but when we started doing homeschool with my mom and dad, it was easier. I felt more calm and not just all over the place, like, ‘Oh, I need to do this or I’m probably going to get a bad punishment.
As for virtual school? It exacerbated learning differences. The boys, born prematurely, had a lot of extra supports in school that were difficult to replicate virtually. They both say they felt nervous to be on screen. “I was shy and I didn't like to be on the camera but I did like seeing my friends. It was hard to do all the papers that we got,” says Peanut. Butter chimes in, “I liked seeing my friends on the computer, but I felt a little shy.
Kai says when his parents were working from home, there were some upsides. “I liked that we got to definitely spend a lot of time together, but what I didn’t like was there’s a bunch of it. It was kind of boring and it was like we were just looking for things to do. We just constantly tried to find things that make us occupied for an hour, and then we had to look for another thing.”
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