New Roles for Parents

Anticipatory Set:

The Corona virus pandemic that sprang up in early 2020 has brought about huge changes to many aspects of our global, national, and local communities. Education in the United States is one of the most important aspects that has been greatly affected. The rapid transition in the Spring of 2020 left many families and teachers in a huge state of confusion and major changes in their daily lives. Since then, teachers and administrators have helped many families become accomodated to the many new rules and regulations that schools must now follow in order to stop the spread of the virus. Many parents feel that they have become overworked and stressed out because they have many more duties to perform now with their children being home all of the time learning instead of being in their classrooms at schools.

Takeaway #1: Understand how the pandemic has affected families whose children are in school.

Many families have been greatly affected by how the schools conduct their school years as a result of the pandemic. Schools have made many changes that in turn has left many students and their parents very confused. Some families and students were lost in the transition to online classes that occurred halfway through the Spring semester of 2020. Many teachers had to revise many of their lesson plans and this in turn left many families lost and confused because they did not know what assignments to work on and complete. Some parents took on the teaching role as their children attended school virtually and this idea is validated in an online article which states: "Additionally, some worked from home, while others traveled to and from to work, risking exposure to the virus and tasked with finding childcare. Others served as caregivers to aging relatives and attempted to minimize virus exposure risk. Thus, parental roles and responsibilities increased as caregiver resources (e.g., family physical support) decreased (Weaver)." Families also had to be quarantined in some cases from each other and this was a further toll on the mental health of students and their parents as stated in article that talks about the Pandemics affects on families: "Pandemic-related disruptions may also interfere with family engagement, including routines, rituals, and rules. The stay-at-home orders implemented caused shifts in family routines with children engaging in school virtually and parents working from home. Social distancing regulations affected routines, requiring families to make modifications (Weaver)."

Takeaway #2: Understand how the schools have helped families.

Schools have made online lessons and study websites more accessible to students and their parents. Any technical difficulties encountered by families are quickly assisted by teachers or by computer experts working in the schools. Guidance counselors are available for online meetings for any students who have become over stressed because of school work or having to be stuck at home during the pandemic. Parent teacher meetings online are also a common occurence in most classes this year. Many schools have been steadily reopening their schools so that in person classes can resume. Parents have become more thankful and appreciative of what their teachers and schools do to educate and nurture their children while away from home and is supported by a statement in Brookings.edu which explains that: "As parents struggle to work with their children at home due to school closures, public recognition of the essential caretaking role schools play in society has skyrocketed. As young people struggle to learn from home, parents’ gratitude for teachers, their skills, and their invaluable role in student well-being, has risen (Vegas and Winthrop)." The recent reopening of many schools in the Spring of 2021 has alleviated many parents from having to take care of their children and having to manage their education more closely because of the Pandemic. Although the returning class sizes are smaller and some students still have to stay home during certain days, the new in-person classes have been a great help to many parents and provides them with a sense that things are slowly returning to normal again. For students returning to in-person classes at their schools, new rules have been put in place to ensure the students health and safety with things such as: "Social distancing between the students and the teachers, wearing masks during school hours, plexiglass dividers between desks and tables, cafeteria tables spread out, music and physical education classes rescheduled. Sports games are changed, no fans and people have to stream games. Former principals and teachers are brought in to act as health inspectors to ensure that schools are following rules for pandemic (Personal communication)."

Takeaway #3: Identify the solutions to parents problems in education.

As a result of having to work from home and having their children study and learn from home, parents have become more directly involved in their child's education directly. They have had to ensure that their child is staying focused on their classes and are still studying in an effective manner. This in turn, ensures that the teachers are also instructing their students effectively. Parents and students have created new routines to determine when and how a student will study for their individual class subjects while also creating enough time for personal activites and free time. Administration staff and counselors help many families in a variety of ways such as "Counselors may work with families to brainstorm strategies for connecting with others (e.g., virtual connections with friends, joining an online parent support group) (Weaver)." Teachers have also created new lessons and came up with new ways to have interactive classes while still being in online classrooms. Some of the methods include having in class written assignments that are shown to the teacher and requiring to either write down or type their notes to ensure students are still paying attention in class. Teachers have sent parents the methods and resources to solve any kind of technical diffulties they might encounter with online classrooms like the internet connection. Many schools allowed cafeteria workers to prepare bagged lunches for the students. Ms. Telinde stated in our interview that "Throughout this whole time the cafeteria staff were making bagged lunches for the parents to come pick up. They also had buses delivering them to the communities that needed them (Personal Communication)."

Interview:

I conducted an interview with Mary Telinde. She is an instructional specialist with the office of exceptional children in Virginia Beach. She has worked at this position for many years and has worked at many schools across the City of Virginia Beach. In her position, she mostly works with elementary school students but has worked with middle and high school students in Virginia Beach schools. Mrs. Telinde works with special needs and gifted children in Virginia Beach Public Schools.

We discussed issues that parents and their families who have children in schools have encountered since the pandemic was declared in the Spring of 2020. We discussed some solutions that schools have developed in order to help students and their families to continue learning. As stated in my interview, Ms. Telinde explains “They’ve had to learn the students' curriculum, whatever assignments they may be working on, making sure that they are getting the kids on the computer at the right time, trying to teach that independence to their kids all while managing whatever they have to do for their own jobs (Mary Telinde Personal Communication).” Parents have had to become far more personally involved in their child's education on top of having to deal with their own issues at their jobs and their personal lives. We discussed how schools have started to make prepared meals for students and deliver them from the schools by using the school buses or having the parents pick them up from the schools. Many parents have become stressed and overworked from having to do additional parental duties and having to also work from their homes during the Quarantine. Families have become used to the overall environment of schools and education in the past year. Ms. Telinde points this out by stating "Then as we've progressed forward hopefully more routines have been established so that its a little bit easier (Personal Communication)." Many parents have also adapted well to the new curriculum of online schooling. In our interview Mary Telinde further supports this by stating "I feel like a good majority have fallen into routines and pathways of how they are going to do that. Many families have setup little study areas inside their house for the kids to work at (Personal Communication)."