Right now, parents in many countries around the world are trying to decide whether or not they can handle another week of homeschooling their kids — let alone another month, or even year — while governments and school boards are trying to figure out how and when it could be safe for schools to reopen properly.
There is no right or wrong in this debate, but simply a whole lot of weighing pros and cons for options that all totally suck.
Though there is probably one thing many of us, teachers included, agree on.
Parents who chose to homeschool in the before times are crazy.
Crazy and totally impressive for managing it, but if we’ve learned anything from this pandemic, it’s that teaching kids is hard . Especially when it’s been decades since the parent has needed to know how to find a common denominator.
And don’t get today’s parents started on Common Core.
They’ve already spent years struggling to help their kids with math homework, and now they’re expected to teach a system they were never taught? Yeah, no.
If you’re struggling to keep up and aren’t sure if you could keep juggling work and school this September, you’re not alone.
If you’re afraid of the virus getting into the school and your child getting sick, or bringing it home to you, you’re also not alone.
There is no right answer to this problem. There’s only tens of millions of parents struggling in tens of millions of ways and making the best possible choice they can for their family.
That friend who tries to tell you that one choice is obviously the right one and makes you feel guilty for choosing the opposite?
They aren’t a good friend.
We are all making the best choices we can based on the information we have at the time, and that’s okay. The world is not normal right now, so be kind to yourself.
And when things do regain some sense of normalcy again? Remember how hard it was and show that appreciation to teachers everywhere.
