Online School Widens The Gap

As I look out the window now, there is a woman with a bright orange safety vest part of a crew painting the building next door. During her breaks, she sits on a nearby park bench with a little girl next to her working on a netbook. 

​Now, my assumption could be wrong, but it seems clear to me that this working mother has brought her daughter, who is doing online school, to her job site because she will have no other supervision nor help at home while her mother works. It's hot outside, and the wi-fi there is spotty - not to mention the fact that she should be learning from a teacher, surrounded by her peers, in the comfort of an air-conditioned building.

This can't go on. The learning gap widens.

School has started, mostly online, and I can't help but feel such compassion for the kids whose parents have to go into work each day. While there is a very real concern about crowds of people returning to school buildings, we can't overlook the other side of this. Countless kids are basically having to teach themselves, many unsupervised all day long, in social isolation. Will these kids learn what they need to? Not just math, science, English, and social studies, but will they learn properly how to collaborate, face rejection, take a chance, make a new friend, learn to love others who are different from them, or stand up for themselves? 

We can only pray that the resilience of the American spirit is alive and well in our children and that the severity of the virus will wane. After all, they are our future.

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