By Sam Madden
Due to Covid-19 and decisions by many schools to continue only online classes in the Fall, is very detrimental to our children’s growth, maturity and yes even the education they receive.
Now, it is totally understandable why these decisions are being made by some Schools and Universities. But I believe, that a hybrid form of education, with staggering class times, smaller classes, monitoring of students for social distancing, combined with online classes, would be optimal.
The students I have talked with (primarily College Students, since my daughter is in College), were very disappointed to hear that the University of Texas at Dallas will continue online classes only this fall. Many other colleges I have checked across the country haven’t decided yet. And some school districts are going to be open, while others haven’t made a decision.
Many of these students miss seeing each other, talking to each other in person, interrelating with their Professors face to face.
Doing a quick search on studies of online learning vs in class learning yields different results, due to differing data base samples that are used.
At this point without further research I can only conjecture that the studies that say online is just as effective, are encompassing a vast majority of adults in the workplace, that only have the time to do online classes.
https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/virtual-schools-parents-choice-performance-research/
https://www.utep.edu/extendeduniversity/utepconnect/blog/november-2018/is-online-education-as-effective-as-traditional-on-campus-schooling.html
I believe that most students that are not an adult with jobs who take online classes, for the most part won’t do as well.
The introverted type of Student, will probably do just as well, but the Extroverted Student may not. The kids in elementary school that are subject to bullying may do better with online only than the rest. Or the students in the inner city, where many problem kids are in the classroom which makes it difficult for those that are serious about their education.
The point of writing this piece is not that an answer can be presented here. There are too many variables involved.
But depending upon the type of education our children will receive this fall, we as parents must support them more than ever.
Sam Madden is a board member and consultant for the Center For Pluralism. He can be reached at [email protected]
