Should schools bring back hybrid learning for kids in quarantine? | Pro/Con

One of the sectors of society that has been most disrupted by COVID-19 is schools. The pandemic has been hard on administrators, teachers, staff, parents, and kids. It may take years to unpack and undo the damage caused by COVID-19′s effects on learning.

Now that schools are back in person, the troubles haven’t stopped. The threat of COVID-19 is always present, so one sniffle or exposure can send kids home for days, leaving them cut off from their classroom and the ongoing lessons — sometimes up to 24 days.

Without a hybrid option, kids stuck at home for extended periods due to exposure or illness are missing a lot of school. Which raises the question: Should schools bring back hybrid learning for kids in quarantine?

By Nicole Miller

As our students have transitioned back into the classroom after 18 months of shutdown, new issues and questions have come to the surface. The latest debate is over providing hybrid learning for our students who must quarantine due to sickness. It is no secret that the pandemic and lack of in-person instruction has had a negative impact on our students. However, providing hybrid instruction is certainly not the best option, and may do more harm than good.

The problems with hybrid learning fall into three major categories: the burden on teachers, the burden on students, and the burden on families.

During the pandemic, teachers had to make a major shift in their delivery of instruction to students. Virtual teaching is completely different from in-person instruction. All of the tools, tips, and pedagogical experience that we hold in our back pockets had to be dismissed for this new type of teaching. But the pivot to hybrid learning was a new beast all in itself.

Let’s be clear: Hybrid instruction is very different from online learning, where every student is remote. With hybrid learning, teachers are responsible for teaching students in front of them, as well as those on the computer. This presented a major challenge, particularly for teachers like me, who teach kindergarten and other early learners. Trying to plan instruction for students in front of you, while simultaneously teaching students on the computer, required planning each and every lesson to be delivered two different ways. And after all that work for all those months, my fellow teachers and I saw very little academic gains from hybrid learning vs. all-virtual school, if any at all. In the meantime, the quality of the educational experience for our in-person learners drastically decreased: In my class and those of other kindergarten teachers I know, in-person learners sometimes had to be ignored so we could meet the needs of students on the computer, who required a lot of support to complete simple tasks, as they navigated learning on the computer.

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This leads us to the next set of problems with hybrid learning: the burden on the student. When working on the computer, my kindergartners were unable to complete and learn the most basic of skills, such as holding a pencil, as most assignments had to be submitted electronically. While students today are certainly digital natives, learning on the computer is quite different from gaming. It requires a level of stamina and attention that our students, especially those in the early grades, have simply not yet developed. The screen is a literal barrier to reaching our students in the creative ways that teachers typically can. Our students frustrate and shut down — both literally and figuratively.

Finally, we cannot ignore the burden that hybrid learning presents for families, particularly those that are economically disadvantaged. It’s hard for parents when kids are stuck at home, but having to support your child on the computer for six hours can make it even harder. Some families may not have internet access and have to struggle to find a place for their child to log on for the duration of the quarantine. This is an unreasonable expectation for our most vulnerable families.

“The screen is a literal barrier to reaching our students in the creative ways that teachers typically can. Our students frustrate and shut down — both literally and figuratively.”

On the flip side, some families could take advantage of the hybrid option for their own personal reasons and keep kids home for vacations or travel, not because they have to quarantine. If we allow this option, we open the floodgates to such situations, and our students’ academic success and progress will suffer.

There is no substitute for in-person instruction. We must explore other options for students who are stuck at home for lengthy periods due to illness or exposure. Hybrid learning is not the answer.

Nicole Miller is a kindergarten teacher at Evans Elementary School in Yeadon.

By Alison McCook

On Oct. 11, Emily Cheramie Walz’s sixth-grade son tested positive for COVID-19. Since then, her family has had to stay home, during which time her two younger sons have also gotten sick.

Needless to say, keeping up with their schoolwork is hard.

For one week, Walz’s sixth grader’s class went all virtual because of multiple positive cases, and it was “great,” she told me. But she’s dreading the time when her son has to keep up with the class via homework alone. “It’s much harder with him because he’s older, the work is more intense, and frankly, he doesn’t want us in the teacher position,” she said.

Every Monday, she picks up a packet of schoolwork for her second grader and tries to coax him to slog through it, while taking care of a 3-year-old, who can’t go to day care. Oh, and she works, too.

As the parent of an unvaccinated second grader, this is my nightmare scenario. But lately, I don’t just worry about COVID-19. Since schools reopened at full capacity and colds have surged, I’ve become afraid of every sniffle, sneeze, or sore throat. It’s not the cold itself that scares me, it’s the disruption caused by the cold — a burden that parents, once again, have to bear.

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One Friday morning, my daughter bounced out of bed with a sore throat and stuffy nose. That scratch in her voice killed my plans for the day — instead of working, I spent the day calling around to get the first available appointment for a COVID-19 test. Her pediatrician had nothing until the following Monday, but I managed to score a spot at our local Montgomery County testing site for later that afternoon. All weekend, I kept hitting refresh on the results app, until the magic word — “negative” — appeared on Sunday.

I had zero concerns she had COVID-19, or anything serious — she had spent the last three days doing somersaults and begging me to play tag, and her nose dried up in 24 hours. But I was starting a new job on Monday, and I needed her to go back to school.

“Let our kids dial into their classrooms during quarantines, so they can keep learning from their teachers, not their stressed-out families.”

I got lucky: She got sick on a Friday, so she only missed one day, not three. My kid’s friend had to stay home for 10 days after her vaccinated father got COVID-19; thankfully, he can quarantine in the Poconos, otherwise, she would have to be home for even longer. Her mother, who works at a hospital, had to take a week off work to stay with her.

I get that much of this is unavoidable. If someone gets COVID-19, they and their close contacts have to stay home. Vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11 are on the horizon, but they’re not here yet. And parents are exhausted.

For us, the pandemic has felt like one long marathon. Now, these extended absences due to cold symptoms or COVID-19 exposures make it feel like we were almost finished running, and someone told us we need to keep going for another 10 miles.

When my daughter’s school was all virtual last year, she logged into her classroom every morning and was occupied until the early afternoon, so I could work. I dreaded the weekdays when there were no classroom activities, and it was up to me to help her with her schoolwork and fill the rest of the hours.

Parents are exhausted. We are spent. We need a break. Let our kids dial into their classrooms during quarantines, so they can keep learning from their teachers, not their stressed-out families.

Alison McCook is a writer based in Wyncote.