Encourage parents to do the best they can

To the editor:

My son attends second grade in the Mat Su Borough School District. The teachers, staff, and administration at my son’s school responded to the rapid changes in our lives with dizzying efficiency. They transformed the way education is delivered to my son with only a few days notice. Employing an abundance of caution and care they sent home his personal items, books, worksheets, spelling word lists, reading materials, assignment calendars, lists of electronic resources, and more. Since then they have set up video conferences with his class, produced videos, and communicate regularly via email. It has been an extraordinarily impressive response to witness. The value of these caring professionals to our children and community is cemented in my mind.

However, I am concerned somewhere along the education system chain of command people are feeling that they must justify this situation by increasing requirements on families. There was swift change from “do the best you can” to “you must do this.” The increased expectations coupled with a wide range of new tools, applications, web resources, and assignments is becoming overwhelming. I believe the intention is good but the people making these decisions, perhaps, are not considering the full range of impacts on our families as we adjust to changes and the economic outlook for the next several months. If not the rest of the year from the loss of income for those working in the service and tourism industry. My family is fortunate, so far, we have only lost one income. Other families have found themselves without any income. The technology making much of this possible has become a double edged sword for many of us as we try to balance the quality of internet connectivity, speed of our connections, or data caps. In our house we are rationing the internet to focus on work and school because of data caps.

Each of us is experiencing this situation a little differently and I recognize school district employees are not immune to the stress and challenges we all face.

Our children are stressed. Parents are stressed. In a matter of days, the excitement my son had for returning to his classroom and friends at the conclusion of Spring Break was shattered by an extended school closure and the sudden shift to school at home. His mother unexpectedly changed her routine to working from home. Our explanation for all these changes probably did little to relieve concerns he was harboring.

Teachers are experienced highly trained and qualified professionals. The biggest lesson I have learned is that no matter how many requirements and resources the district deploys we parents will not replace our teachers. Stressed parents attempting to teach stressed students is not going to result in a positive education experience. Parents and their children are doing the best they can under the circumstances. I worry that constant and increasing demands on parents will lead to negative outcomes for some students.

I would like to encourage a return to the “do the best you can” approach and for the remainder of this closure our family will operate as such. We will do school work as we are able but our focus will be on balancing our son’s educational needs along with the social, emotional, and financial needs of our family as well as stress reduction as this situation continues to evolve.

Our school district employees are a vital asset to the borough and it is imperative that we retain and pay them. I do not feel that we need to justify paying district employees during this time, if this is the case for increased requirements. Allow them the flexibility to balance their home lives with the educational needs of their students. I have full confidence in my son’s school that they will be an asset to us as we need them. As far as I know, the budgets for this school year are set and it would not be a burden to continue to pay district employees. The bulk of the school year is complete and I feel confident we can, at a minimum, retain the educational gains our son has accomplished this year. As he becomes more accustomed to school at home we will increase his workload to reflect the expectations of the district. We need to take a collective breath and allow relaxed and rational expectations to prevail.

Chris Hall,

Mat-Su resident