
COVID-19 has proven to be more than a health pandemic. This catastrophic event has exacerbated many other social, economic, and human pandemics as well. As a single parent of an elementary student that is very active in the community and on social media, these issues have become a clear indication of the racism, classism, and ageism that has always plagued this country. But another key revelation derived from this experience is the questionability of the American educational system.
Dr. Stephen G. Peters, the former principal of Orangeburg-Wilkerson High School in Orangeburg, South Carolina stated in the Netflix documentary, American High School, that American schools are considered “failure factories”. As a parent through this crisis, one can clearly see how that might be applied. It was very noble of the local elementary and secondary schools to continue to provide meals to the students that need it. However, other key academic and ethical failures have competed with these noble gestures.
Almost all colleges demanded that students vacate dorms and begin to take classes online. Yet, there seems to have been little mention of ethically refunding room and board, parking, meal plan, and other fees that collectively are monumental and at this point will provide absolutely no return to these students. With the current application of technology in teaching, specifically online courses, the collegiate arena seems to have made almost a seamless transition to fully engaging distance learning. This is a very different story for elementary and secondary education.
As a parent, I saw my student’s school go into a complete tailspin. My child attends a Title 1 charter school in Cedar Hill, Tx, hereafter referred to as T1CH. First, there was the hurried gathering of “curriculum” for two weeks that consisted of over 185 worksheets. These sheets were to be completed within the time span of March 16th through March 27th. Yet these packets were not provided to the students until March 18th. These packets were given to students whose parents have full-time jobs, other children, and other obligations that are now having to ensure the completion of this overzealous amount of work as well. Additionally, much of this work was mere busy work. It is appreciated that the goal is to not allow the students to regress in learning, but there should also be a level of advancement as well.
Then there was the trial and error debate over which type of software to use. T1CH had to call upon another district to get guidance on technology. A teacher from this other district advised me of this exchange as the school that was called upon found it a total joke that T1CH could be this technologically challenged. Thus far T1CH has chosen an unkempt combination of at least three different programs to communicate with and educate the students during the shutdown.
Keeping in mind that T1CH is a title one school, and comparing to schools with significant income, the classism gap is glaring. Keller ISD is one of the wealthiest school districts in the Dallas Metroplex. This district was publicly lauded for their handling of this unexpected transition to distance learning.
“In six days, Keller ISD came up with an online plan that should have taken 18 months to create and implement. The plan was that we were going to do digital learning and create an e-learning platform,” said Sara Koprowski, Keller ISD Executive Director of Curriculum. “We have created a website to push out to our teachers that contain[s] around 500 lessons” (NBCDFW, 2020).
In addition to this Keller ISD offered technology training to the parents and is planning to service over 7000 requests for technology devices from students. Whereas T1CH is still trying to fully assess these needs.
Based on the variability of service levels, process implementation, resources, and overall academic process, the initial quote of American schools being considered failure factories could be considered accurate particularly when looking through the lenses of classism and the ability to implement change effectively and efficiently.
Dr. Stephen G. Peters, the former principal of Orangeburg-Wilkerson High School in Orangeburg, South Carolina stated in the Netflix documentary, American High School, that American schools are considered “failure factories”. As a parent through this crisis, one can clearly see how that might be applied. It was very noble of the local elementary and secondary schools to continue to provide meals to the students that need it. However, other key academic and ethical failures have competed with these noble gestures.
Almost all colleges demanded that students vacate dorms and begin to take classes online. Yet, there seems to have been little mention of ethically refunding room and board, parking, meal plan, and other fees that collectively are monumental and at this point will provide absolutely no return to these students. With the current application of technology in teaching, specifically online courses, the collegiate arena seems to have made almost a seamless transition to fully engaging distance learning. This is a very different story for elementary and secondary education.
As a parent, I saw my student’s school go into a complete tailspin. My child attends a Title 1 charter school in Cedar Hill, Tx, hereafter referred to as T1CH. First, there was the hurried gathering of “curriculum” for two weeks that consisted of over 185 worksheets. These sheets were to be completed within the time span of March 16th through March 27th. Yet these packets were not provided to the students until March 18th. These packets were given to students whose parents have full-time jobs, other children, and other obligations that are now having to ensure the completion of this overzealous amount of work as well. Additionally, much of this work was mere busy work. It is appreciated that the goal is to not allow the students to regress in learning, but there should also be a level of advancement as well.
Then there was the trial and error debate over which type of software to use. T1CH had to call upon another district to get guidance on technology. A teacher from this other district advised me of this exchange as the school that was called upon found it a total joke that T1CH could be this technologically challenged. Thus far T1CH has chosen an unkempt combination of at least three different programs to communicate with and educate the students during the shutdown.
Keeping in mind that T1CH is a title one school, and comparing to schools with significant income, the classism gap is glaring. Keller ISD is one of the wealthiest school districts in the Dallas Metroplex. This district was publicly lauded for their handling of this unexpected transition to distance learning.
“In six days, Keller ISD came up with an online plan that should have taken 18 months to create and implement. The plan was that we were going to do digital learning and create an e-learning platform,” said Sara Koprowski, Keller ISD Executive Director of Curriculum. “We have created a website to push out to our teachers that contain[s] around 500 lessons” (NBCDFW, 2020).
In addition to this Keller ISD offered technology training to the parents and is planning to service over 7000 requests for technology devices from students. Whereas T1CH is still trying to fully assess these needs.
Based on the variability of service levels, process implementation, resources, and overall academic process, the initial quote of American schools being considered failure factories could be considered accurate particularly when looking through the lenses of classism and the ability to implement change effectively and efficiently.