On March 22, 2020, Sunday, the country observes a complete lockdown due to COVID-19, the pandemic. The next day, the country wakes up to meet in the virtual world and the lockdown extends for an indefinite period. The rescue was unprecedented to save humans from the agony ofloneliness and FOMOs.
Life is known to acclimatize audaciously and humans top it up with their creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Online Education is the result of that creativity and audacity.
My personal experiences have been liberating and subjugating. The reason, of course, is my profession, i.e., educating tiny little lives.
Every single encounter-virtual one-with parents when I convinced them to enroll their children in online schooling was bringing varied experiences. The experiences that I feel are worthy to share with the world.
The parents who paid the fee in advance before COVID-19 got stuck with schools and agreed to online education willy-nilly. They realized it was a good decision and celebrated with me later.
The parents who luckily did not pay the fee took the chance to ditch the idea of online education considering it not worth spending money. From their perspective, it was better to teach at home with the help of YouTube and Pinterest. They are repenting for their mistake of not enrolling their young ones.
The parents who sat with their children in the online classes were of mixed views on all little and big things.
The parents who worked with their children at home along with their children’s teachers were able to yield the best of everything.
The parents who worked hard appreciated their children’s teachers and schools all the more because in online encounters they found out how much and how hard the schools had to do with their children for their education.
The parents who did not want to work in the name of education felt the teachers did not know how to teach their children and they criticized their teachers and schools and cursed their children’s schools for charging so much.
The parents whose children did not sit in front of the camera found it exhausting and online education is a bad way of education.
The parents whose children sat and interacted with their teachers and learned through the cameras were enjoying the process because they did not have to wake early, cook breakfast, and send their children to school.
The parents who were invested in their children’s growth and development in all situations whether online or physical education did not miss out on anything major even though the holistic experience was not available in online education.
For children, online education was like exploring a new avenue of life.
Virtual peek-a-boo, controlling their teacher’s pen, filling colors in pictures online, seeing virtual animals, partying with a virtual background as a pretend venue, dancing with their friends without getting distracted, saving time for chitchatting after their teachers logged off, uninterrupted dialogue delivery in their drama
And whatnot,
You ask them, they have something to share with you.
If I share my personal ‘personal experience’ where I felt liberated.
Playing with them was much easier than teaching and more impactful.
Techniques reached the parents to work better with their children
Explored indigenous materials from parents’ kitchens and dressing rooms and used them as optimally as expensive educational tools.
Children were ever ready to learn. It is just the teachers and parents weren’t ready or good enough to meet their needs.
And where I felt bad.
Meeting them and hugging them were restricted.
For parents who were not interested to spend time and money on their online education.
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Mehek
