Students Learn More, Not Less, During a Crisis
3 unexpected benefits of pandemic home-based learning
The first pandemic school year had come and gone. And what a school year that was!
I’m a college professor whose courses were abruptly moved to online when the lockdowns began in March 2020. At my daughter’s primary school, classes were suspended, exams were canceled. Teachers fumbled with sending parents quickly put-together home learning kits.
Eventually, after consultations with parents and teachers, everyone agreed to just add up what grades were already made and cancel the rest of the school year. For everyone’s much needed relief.
But at the university where I taught, classes carried on. On the job, I had to learn the tech and pedagogy of online teaching, so imagine my relief when I no longer had to worry about continuing my daughter’s schooling at home (for the time being, at least). I was, at that time, also mothering her brother, an infant. As suddenly as I had to professionally retool, I was made to stay home all day to work and care for the baby and his sister all day, too.
My husband, a chef, lost his banquet bookings lined up for the year when weddings and big events got canceled. With the restaurant industry generally down, he too had to retool, but since his…
