The State of Remote Learning in 2021
COVID-19 has upended many lives and forever changed the way our society functions. This pandemic has flipped entire industries and systems on their heads and nowhere is this more prevalent than in our school system. In August, almost 93% of families with school aged children reported engaging in some form of distance learning, either online sessions with teachers and classmates, physical worksheets sent home from schools, or a combination of the two. This means that families now have to utilize what resources they have in order to create a sustainable learning environment for their children, and depending on the circumstance, that may not always be as easy as it seems.
Parents with younger children, for example, face the dilemma of their child’s age when engaging in distance learning. Small children require a structured learning environment, as they are easily distracted, whereas high schoolers and college students are able to focus more closely on online material for the most part. This results in parents of small children having to direct more attention, energy, and money into their child’s education, which may not be a possibility for a single mother of three or a full time nurse. Due to a limited amount of resources and time to go around, many parents have had to rely on services such as Varsity Tutor in order to ensure adequate 1-on-1 learning time for their children. These additional costs only add to the already stressful financial situation the pandemic has forced many families into.
Engaging in distance learning can be very difficult for families with small children but there is another demographic that has been greatly affected by this change as well: students with disabilities and special needs. 12.8% of all children under the age of 18 have special needs and require more attention from parents and instructors, and some may even receive therapies at school that their parents cannot properly administer. This means that there are around 9.4 million children who have gone months without the proper attention and care they need from instructors and therapists due to the social distancing mandate across the country. Stress is already bearing down on parents as they are unable to return to work and their children to school, but they are now also being forced to play the role of teacher and therapist as well. Children who would normally receive speech therapy from licensed professionals at school, for example, are now having to work with their parents, who may not be able to provide the direction they need without proper training.
Though there are a few downsides to distance learning, there are some ways in which families have benefited from this experience. For example, when students have access to the proper tools and technology, they retain 25-60% more material from online classes compared to 8-10% in a traditional classroom. This is because students are able to move at their own pace when learning online instead of trying to keep up with the pace of a classroom, which may be too fast or too slow.
