COVID-19 - an amazing opportunity for education?
In these unusual times when COVID-19 has suddenly made us all home educators, we’re reflecting on why this situation is so tough for many parents and teachers. Learning is a natural instinct after all and so is connection, so whilst home education usually doesn’t mean we’re inside together 24-7, on the surface it should be a reasonably easy transition.
However, for teachers suddenly moving learning online many are finding it’s actually really difficult. They’re used to a certain classroom structure and protocol for behaviour whilst learning, and now they’re suddenly tasked with engaging a class online – often when they can’t even see the students. They’re concerned about ensuring young people are learning, ensuring they actually log into the online system, and then ‘getting’ them to work. For parents with younger children who are not necessarily learning online, they’re struggling with how to engage them in learning when they don’t want to ‘learn’, structuring the day so the kids don’t run riot, or worrying about them falling behind when they get back to school. It’s a lot of pressure and not just for parents and teachers, for the children too.
Why is it so tough?
Because of what we currently value in education - results. When we measure a single aim of education – qualifications and test scores, then everything we do gets skewed to this goal. Children have to learn X, teachers have to deliver X, behaviour management has to enforce the teaching of X, and parents have to support the learning of X. This makes things very tricky and even more so in this unprecedented situation we find ourselves in right now, where we don’t have the enforcing structures of school to fall back on to help us ‘deliver’ education to children. It feels like their futures lie in our hands.
Time for a reframe
Here’s an idea: What if we see this situation as an amazing opportunity to broaden the values of education ourselves rather than wait for policy to do it for us?
What if, rather than creating schedules, delivering worksheets, creating ‘packets’ of education for children to do at home, focusing on ‘what we have to teach’, we reframe the purpose of education. When we change the goal away from qualifications and ‘keeping up’ and instead focus on empowering young people; their voice, and their choice, in their education, we can see a path forward. Right now although it might feel like it, there actually aren’t really any expectations on us, other than to keep children occupied until school starts again. So we invite you to shake off that ‘must deliver X’ mentality, and hand over the reigns. Just as with parenting, there is no ‘how-to’ guide (however much we might want one!), there is only your child and your (growing!) ability to read that individual and their needs.
Some top tips
Start with connection: Whether it’s connecting with friends, family, a class, it’s simply having a chat, listening to their ideas about their day, what they’re interested in, what questions they have that you could investigate together. Democratic school’s do this as a daily morning meeting – what does the shape of the day look like, for the individuals in it.
Follow their interests: What is of interest to them right now? How can you support that process? It might mean a bit of parent/ teacher research, it might mean offering some tips on a design, it might mean an online group or class collaborating on an idea. If for any reason there are no ideas forthcoming, then ‘seeding’ can help. At home leave some interesting books lying around, put some craft objects out on a table (this can be as simple as a bag of recycling and a roll of tape), show an interesting clip on Youtube, read a snippet from a newspaper, leave a bag of old clothes, a pair of scissors and a sewing box out. It doesn’t take much to pique a child’s interests. Leave them to it and be there to help if needed. Democratic education supports young people to find and pursue their passions.
Support academic skills if needed: For all of us, understanding the purpose of why we do something adds meaning and helps us to engage with it. Whether this is a teacher or a parent, ask the children – what skills do you want to get better at whilst we have this great opportunity? Ask how they’d like that to look – I can offer you a 15 minute lesson on speech marks, so it will help your story that you want to write. Teacher’s can run small break out skills sessions whilst the rest of the class are doing their own projects. Parents can do the same – I see you’re making an outfit for your toy – I can quickly give you a run through on measurement so that we can see how much of your old pyjama top you need. This is one way that The New School develops skills - we do run stand alone English and Maths sessions, but we also have enough free time in the day to run skills sessions for children to opt in to, and for teacher’s to suggest to individuals they could attend a session.
Collaborate: By nature we’re social animals. Collaboration is innovation, it’s about building ideas and sharing best practise. Education should not be about an individual, working on their own, in isolation. Online tools are a brilliant resource for getting children talking about what projects they’re interested in, bouncing ideas around, and then working on bits of this individually, coming back to discuss them as a group. Teacher’s can facilitate this and then leave the children to discuss and start work together. At home, this is also true. No one likes being ordered around, so how about a family meeting around the table – we all are in an unusual situation right now so how can we all help out? Who wants to cook dinner? Who is on the dishwasher this week? Given a voice, a choice and connection, young people are happy to engage. This is the essence of our school culture.
Ultimately, children don’t need education done to them. Education should be about values – connecting and building ideas with others, following our interests and developing skills, experimenting and innovating. These are the values that shape young people’s sense of identity and these are the values that our society needs in the future. COVID-19 has given us an amazing opportunity to practice.
