There are many questions about the future of education in the midst of the pandemic.
Many experts report that the pandemic phenomenon is the greatest challenge to education worldwide after World War II.
In the face of this reality, there is fear and uncertainty among families about their children’s education. Many countries are now reactivating their spaces, but are schools safe spaces? This question has made many families look for alternatives to guarantee the safety of their children.
At Orange County American High School we want to share with you some roles of parents in the online education of their children.
Parents are parents and not teachers
In online education, it is very common for parents to want to take the role of teachers. This change of roles can be detrimental to the education of their children.
Teachers in virtual education have the role of orienting students and the work of parents would be to support that orientation by providing supervision, establishing study schedules, and designing the spaces that their children need in order to study.
Your children should know that you are there
Many believe that online education allows us to do homework without worrying about our children. This thought comes from traditional education, where you would send your child to an educational institution so that the teachers would take care of the education.
This factor changes within virtual education since it demands the effort of parents so that their children can know that they are there, that their children have everything they need to carry out their tasks and that they know that they are watching over them and supervising their development.
Flexibility and care
In this aspect, it is also important to define that the process of supporting and helping does not mean that you should sit down with your child to solve his questions forcing him to finish.
For this reason, it is necessary to establish family standards of care. For example, the time your child is doing the homework is a good time for you to do your family or work tasks. Therefore, it is important that you can tell your child that you will be doing your homework, even if it means that your child can tell you about his or her homework as well. When your child has a question in the middle of a task, don’t interrupt your work time, but teach him when to ask for help and vice versa. Don’t distract your children by asking them for a favor while they are doing their homework.
This is important so that there can be recognition of study spaces, development of commitment, and self-discipline.
Explaining an assignment does not mean giving the result
Many parents explain by giving the result of the assignments to their children. As we mentioned before, the parent’s job is to provide orientation support, therefore, you must motivate your children to solve it and even, if necessary, contact the teacher so that he/she can solve their questions.
It is important that the teachers can receive the assignments just as the students did, so that the teachers can determine the student’s progress.
