In light of the current situation in our Country .Is it far fetched to believe we will see an increase in kids now being home schooled to be remotely schooled for the remainder of their years ? Now that many parents have had this duty " assigned" to them.

We've been doing it for 3 weeks. 13YO has been doing about 6 hours of work on the dining room table every day. He has a couple of online meetings with his class each day. Fortunately, my wife stays home and is available because he needs constant reminders to focus. I think he expected some time off and wasn't planning to work from home. But, after 3 weeks, he's figuring out that the faster he gets it done, the sooner he can be done for the day. A good life lesson compared to school where it's over at 2:30 no matter how much effort you put in.

it's become our regular routine. He gets up at his normal time, eats breakfast, and sits down to do his work.

Students in Indiana will be doing remote learning for the rest of this school year.

Maybe, but I think most kids will go back to school. Most households have both parents working so home schooling won't be an option.

Good question. I've heard several debating that lately. No doubt some will make the switch permanent. Probably a low % tho.

I think it would be a good choice for parents to make for more reasons than this! I'm just gonna say that home schooling has paid off in spades and may even prove to be putting our kids a year a head of the competition this year!

Looks like everyone here will be repeating last school year!? Parents are begging for help from others to get kids educated this year on FB.

Crazy!

It's a far fetched idea in this house.

First off, students will not be repeating this school year over again unless they were already failing before distance learning began. This distance learning is a mere 1% of a students total K-12 education and around 22% of this school year.

Second, home schooling is great for some students and terrible for others. There are variables to this such as the parents proficiency and time to teach their children. One very important component to a child's education isn't just academics but rather social interaction. This is a component that is much more difficult to attain via a home schooling platform.

Third, distance learning is different from home schooling. Remember, home schooling involves the parents finding, familiarizing themselves with, teaching, and holding their child accountable to a curriculum. It's completely up to the parents to understand and teach to state and federal requirements and their child will be tested to ensure that this has happened. With distance learning, the curriculum and content taught is still coming from the school and teachers. The parents are simply teaching what's being sent home. In the current language of distance learning, if students don't meet standard requirements, it falls on the teachers and districts shoulders.

I'm delivering online learning to my students, mostly via Microsoft teams which has a bunch of features designed for such circumstances. I don't believe in my neck of the woods it would change the amount of kids being schooled at home full time, which is next to nothing to begin with. I do however see it changing the future of education to where it is a more commonly used tool. I also see it reducing the numbers of people like myself needed to deliver instruction. I won't say that is good or bad, as it could be considered both in many ways but it would indeed be different.

I got my kids signed up and working on Khanacademy.org which is free. The school district will now implement an online program next week.
Also, if you would like your kids or yourself to learn a second language duolingo.com is also free.

I think it's a good time to shut down the liberal driven public school system.. Take that tax burden off a public property taxes..
Couple wants to have children and educate them. Pay to send them to the school you chose and at parent cost. Simple fix school your kids the way you want. Think most all parents feel they know whats best.

Mac

Interesting take on education. Just curious Macthediver, do you have children? If so, did you home school them?

I think what it really comes down to is, what are we preparing our children to do with their future? Schooling children exclusively with an online format, home schooled, or in public schools could really alter the avenue they take in regards to a profession. What are we preparing them for in the real world?

My kids are both in their late 30s and I have no grand children..
I have friends and family that are teachers and work in the public schools. So I will admit there is much sarcasm in my idea of shutting down public schools.. But I have gotten very tired of listening to many people complain about teachers and the public schools.
I also find that at least a 3rd of what I pay in property taxes goes to our public schools.. So just how long am I expected to pay for the 12 years I spent in the school system and the 12 years my kids were in the system?? I hear people complain about paying for their low interst collage loans.. My daughter has one she is paying on..
I've been paying form mine and my kids public education since 1977. That is when I first became a land owner property tax payer. How much has my 12 years public schooling cost me?
I hear so many people pizzing an moaning about public school. I'm just tired of it...Shut em down I can use my tax dollars for something else.
Make people educate their own kids and if they end up dummies then it's on parents. Not my problem I'm just old and grumpy..

Mac

Do the teachers in the public schools even know what the future “real world” will require for a person to prosper?

Kahn Academy is incredible. Its a great study resource for college courses as well.

My daughter set up the online schooling for her grade, she said the kids are doing better then if they came to school, her biggest problem was getting the other teachers to step up and learn how to use it...

Yeah, socialization is important, but the kids get plenty of that in their off school activities, I'm thinking that if these online curriculums are reasonably successful , Home teaching will become even easier, just plug into a known working curriculum and the heavy lifting on the parents will be easier, and, once the schools figure out that they can successfully teach kids at home, they won't need as many teachers, just enough for the management of the program and for video check ins, etc. They'll be able to save millions.

As for getting them ready for the future, how many teachers actually can, or attempt that? They teach the same curriculum as was set up in the 80's, or earlier . If they can't figure out an online system that was easy and hand fed to them, what makes anyone think they can deliver an education that prepares them for the future?

These kids are very computer saavy, they eat and breath this stuff, it's like they have a different wiring system in their brains then us old farts,

I think you're right gcs that the current urgency for distance learning could lead to increased programs like it in the future, thus creating less of a need to teachers. I think education may be trending that direction anyhow with the lack of qualified teachers entering the profession. That said, is putting kids in front of computer screens really what we want? I guess there is an argument to be made that there are more careers that involve online or computer based interaction but how many times have guys on Tman said, "kids just don't get it these days! All they do is sit in front of a t.v. or computer screen all day, they never get outside anymore!" There's plenty of evidence that fewer and fewer young people are participating in outdoor activities, hunting, trapping, etc. And yet now we think that the answer to education is to force them to sit in front of a computer all day? Humans need face to face contact and interaction. It's true that kids brains seemed to have a different wiring system for technology today but that's only because it's what our society has allowed to happen.

As for curriculum and teacher capabilities, I can only speak for Minnesota and say that our curriculum are rotated out every 5-6 years. So there's no such thing as teaching curriculum from the 80's. it's been hashed over hundreds of times but the truth is some teachers are terrible and others are actually pretty decent. It's the teachers, not the curriculum that helps students succeed and unfortunately many students have been subject to teachers that haven't done them any favors.

*Disclaimer* I'm a public school teacher.

Mac, thank you for paying my wage with your taxes. You're welcome for my contributions to your social security check (There won't be much left by the time I can draw). I see both taxes for education and SS as our societies contribution to a more successful and stable future.

I would suspect that we will see a large increase in virtual education for youth, especially in smaller districts that struggle due to low numbers, transportation issues and not being able to offer complete courses in specific areas.
We have been seeing huge increases in college, university, and technical school online courses and many schools offer college courses online for HS students. How far down into the elementary grade level this will go we will wait to see. I know many parents with school age children could not wait to get their kids in school to save thousands per year in day care costs, so we will see if this is an institution issue, student issue or a parent issue. Most likely it is a combination of those issues and more.

Bryce

I dont think its good.How many kids are going to get their education out in the hood now?

China is teaching its k-12, after school classes, and college classes now all thru distance learning. In Wuhan, some company bought 9,800 IPad type thingies so every school kid had what they needed for distance learning.

Here, schools are getting into it. Poor families which don’t have computers may be hurt by it. It is a way to keep the kids occupied and give them something they need. I don’t see the need for repeating the school year. Like many have said, this is going to be a game changer for education in the future.