A Generation at Risk
The virtual learning experience has been an unbearable struggle for many students and families.
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Like many urban public schools along the East Coast and throughout the country, my district began the school year 100 percent virtually. In Baltimore City, our district partnered with community organizations and worked for months over the summer to provide laptops and Wi-Fi for students so that they would be able to login to access their daily classwork. After the first two weeks of school, it is clear that these worthy efforts to launch a virtual school will not meet the needs of our students and families, especially the most vulnerable.
In an interview this week, our district CEO mentioned that in the first week, only 65 percent of our students were logging into class on a daily basis. At my alternative high school for students diagnosed with emotional and/or behavior disorders, this number has been roughly 40 percent. Despite the improvements that my school and district have made since last spring in increasing virtual attendance, we still have a disturbing number of students who are missing. These types of alarming statistics and concerning consequences—which may result in 24 million students around the world potentially dropping out of school—are generally not found on the signs of the teachers unions standing in the way of school doors while protesting school opening plans.
Currently, high school students in my district are attending virtual school four days a week and can receive additional instructional support on the fifth day. Each day, students are engaged in synchronous or live instruction on Zoom with a teacher for five different class periods lasting 45 minutes each. A variety of online tools such as Google Classroom and Clever are used as platforms for students to turn in their homework and access classroom materials.
For those who have been showing up, the virtual learning experience has been an unbearable struggle for students and families alike. A student in my U.S. History class is often unable to hear what is going on in Zoom because he is holding his infant brother on his lap while his single mother is at work. Countless students are dealing with internet connection problems and unable to find one of their numerous links or passwords to make it in time for class. Family members overwhelmed beyond belief attempting to support all of their children’s various schoolwork while balancing their own work schedules.
In August, I asked for our school district to allow for the 14 percent of our special education students who needed in-person instruction the most to be allowed to return to school. My students who are easily triggered emotionally have repeatedly had aggravating experiences with virtual learning which resulted in them logging off in frustration. The school counselors and psychologists who are often called in to support students in these moments of crisis and to help students learn appropriate coping skills are unable to reach them as effectively as they once were. I’m worried for when my students are unable to handle the irritating difficulties of virtual learning and choose to give up.
The missing students and the complications with virtual learning is not necessarily a widespread problem across the country, it is typically only found in urban public-school districts who are almost all fully virtual. It is quite common to find private schools cities like Chicago, New York City, or Baltimore offering in-person instruction. Additionally, better resourced families are more likely to send their students for in-person instruction whether it is in school or in pandemic learning pods with hired tutors. For years, those who have rightfully advocated to fight the inexcusable academic achievement gap in our country between low-income and high-income kids are unintentionally expanding the gap by keeping urban public-school districts virtual.
Lately, I’ve been hearing from teachers unions and other so-called “progressives” that virtual learning is the “only safe option.” For the sake of our students’ mental and academic well-being, the only safe option would be to have students return to schools in-person so that we can prevent “a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities,” according to the United Nations security chief.
In closing one of our classes, I asked my students, “Would you rather be learning in-person or virtually at home?” The students’ responded overwhelmingly in favor of being in school. In Baltimore, where low-income students have historically been offered unequal educational opportunities, it is time to offer them the same in-person instruction that their more affluent peers receive. It is time to offer our students a classroom, rather than the unsafe streets which left a 14-year-old boy fatally shot during school hours this week. If not, we will lose a generation of our most vulnerable students.
Ryan Hooper (@ryhooper) is a high school social studies teacher in Baltimore, Maryland.
Photograph by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images.
Re: Ryan Hooper post: “What he said”. If schools are not opened for on-site learning immediately, the consequences are going to be dire for a long time to come. Everyone seems to be trying to pretend this school situation is not the disaster it is. For any parents who are able the choices now are to properly homeschool or private school (most private schools in our area are on-site). Most parents are not able to choose that option however, even if private schools could accommodate them. We are being so unbelievably short-sighted, and those who claim to care about education, children, and the poor are suddenly the most short-sighted and selfish. This isn’t about whoever is/will be President of the United States either. This is about our towns and neighborhoods; where we actually live, every day. It is time for our state/local leaders to step up, show some courage, and actually lead, and to set aside personal ambitions. We cannot allow fear of the present to hamstring us for the future. The threat of this current Covid-19 virus is real so we can do what we can within reason based on what we know about how viruses spread (wash hands, socially distance (but weighing even that against a particular circumstance), and wear masks for now (which I hate by the way and fight about continually in my head but do anyway). Open schools. Bring in student teachers if necessary. Place teachers who are unwilling or claim even a valid reason not to participate in doing their job on an unpaid leave of absence for 6 months with ability of school authorities to extend or recind as appropriate (healthcare could be continued, I’m trying to be reasonable here). I live in the Memphis area but it doesn’t really matter, this is a national issue. If we care about the people of this nation, and that’s what a nation is, the people, we can do this.
(Copy/pasted from a previous thread my comment got lost on, discussing this same issue)
Reading this article made me physically ill. Far too many Baltimore kids are already facing almost insurmountable challenges in their daily lives. Schools like the one where Ryan teaches exist to give them a modicum of support, to build skills that just might help them avoid becoming a statistic: shot, addicted, sick, jobless, exploited, homeless-- take your pick because Baltimore has it all. As a Maryland taxpayer, I've always seen our public schools as "the least we can do" for at risk students in Baltimore, Annapolis, and other areas with islands of extreme poverty. Literally, the very least we can do. Now we're not even doing that. We deserve what we're going to get. But, no child deserves to be treated the way counties, cities and towns are treating kids right now-- like dirty, disease-ridden people who must be physically isolated for the protection of their betters. I saw a "back to school" video from my hometown in Texas this week and the principal was hugging kids on their way into the building (masked). The teachers who run carpool at my child's elementary school wear masks and gloves, and hand sanitize the gloves between each car. (Not complaining-- whatever they need to do to stay open!) It's interesting to consider the spectrum of approaches being used right now: Masked hugs (suburban TX public school) --> Extremely hygienic non-contact but in-person instruction (urban MD private school) --> You're too dangerous for me to be in the same building with you (urban MD public school). What will the long-term consequences be for each group? For their communities?