The Marriage Between Education and Childcare Isn’t Working
The marriage between education and child care is not working
My school system went virtual for three days at the beginning of the semester. It was probably a good choice; Tons of people, particularly staff, have been quarantined over the holiday from exposure. A quarter of my students are still absent because they or their families are ill and giving everyone a few extra days at home to recover or get tested was a great plan. I was there as a teacher.
As a parent, I was desperate. The district office didn't call until Friday evening, when classes were supposed to start on Tuesday. Rumors circulated that the semester would start on Zoom, but no one knew for sure.
Do I have to teach while supervising my own children's online school? "Virtual" and "Pre-K" are not words that belong in the same sentence, and Daniel Tiger can only babysit so many hours a day! Who could we babysit, where could everyone do their jobs and would our internet support more people working from home?
The thought of school closures strikes fear in the hearts of every parent I know.
The vast majority of parents in the US, like me, rely entirely on education for childcare. My husband and I both work, and we rely on a cadre of amazing, dedicated, underpaid women to keep our children alive eight to nine hours a day while I do the same for other people's children at school. With schools closed, we have to settle for less-than-ideal options, like Disney+ marathons and making our fifth-graders' parents our five-year-olds when he's not in Zoom class.
Of course, like basically every other problem in our society, this stress is not evenly distributed. I teach at a school with many wealthy families. When one of my students has a cold, their parents usually keep them at home and use a stay-at-home parent or a flexible job with home office options. Is it easy? Definitely not. But it is possible because these parents are able to adjust their work hours or pay for a babysitter to help them through the day.
An inconvenience for wealthy families can be devastating for economically disadvantaged children.
It is often impossible for low-income families to take the week off. Missing work means losing a day's wages at best and possibly losing your job. Wi-Fi and computer access are often shaky even when school equipment is available, and virtual learning is a particular challenge for students whose parents don't speak English. Add to that the fact that over 30 million students depend on free or discounted lunches, meaning missing school can mean going hungry.
This leaves the parents with an impossible choice. Do you send your sick child to school because you know it could put others in danger? Can you miss work and jeopardize your family's income and financial security? Are you leaving your young child at home alone hoping that they can stay safe, feed themselves and do their chores?
The experiments of the last two years with the virtual school have helped us to learn so much about our students' learning and their social and emotional needs. While most kids were pretty miserable working in isolation, some kids thrived. There were kids for whom school is a social minefield who absolutely loved online school. Personally, I have learned that my child finds it much easier to work from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. than from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. We also learned that a lot of school is wasted time; If you don't have to stop to reroute students, take bathroom breaks as a class, and do a fire drill, you can finish a six-hour school day in two and a half hours and then go outside and play soccer.
But as long as education is the only reliable childcare option, we cannot make the big changes our students need.
Would my students learn more and experience less stress if we split them into morning and afternoon blocks and taught them in smaller groups for shorter periods of time? Absolutely. Would virtually every high school student be happier and get better grades if they could go to school later? You bet. Would some kids feel safer and more successful if they could go to online school indefinitely? Surprisingly yes.
But all this is not feasible for a large number of students because we depend on schools for full-time babysitters. Parents have to work, so children have to go to school. If they are sick, if it is bad for their sanity, if much time is wasted, so be it. Our entire economy relies on free childcare within the public school system.
So how can we fix it? The answer, as usual, is money. Pay teachers enough to make the career choice a viable career choice, then hire more teachers. Offer alternative school plans for children who would benefit. Provide safe learning spaces — the YMCA, the library — with qualified adults who can help children when schools are closed. Provide flexibility for working parents and require employers to give parents time off when their children are sick.
If we are to create an education system that works for families, both during Covid and beyond, we must make it an economic priority.
We need to invest in the people and infrastructure that make our education system work. When schools first closed almost two years ago, communities experimented with alternative learning spaces for children who couldn't stay at home. We could use these spaces to extend the school day for children who need extra help, an alternative schedule or after-school care, and to continue to provide study spaces when schools inevitably close due to staff shortages. Schools facing staff shortages have also hired teenagers to help with staff shortages; That kind of creativity and flexibility could help us respond to the needs and opportunities we see in our schools.
Teachers are an amazing source of support and innovation for our students, but teachers are also currently busy and understaffed. Society as a whole needs to stand up for students and enable every child to get the education they need and deserve.
What are your thoughts on the way we use education for childcare? Share in the comments below.
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