Remote Learning and its Impact on Students and Parents

There is no doubt that this pandemic has created a universal bridge and disconnect between students and teachers, and students and parents. While remote learning experiences range for everybody, I believe it has essentially caused an overwhelming amount of emotions and obligations that we were forced to abide and conform by. I for one, have felt the battle between my school and myself, and the feeling as though they were not providing enough.

I have felt the lack of accessible resources and guidance through the last two months of online learning, and although I despised every moment of it, I had to push through. Many of my friends gave up, and I surprisingly do not blame them. It is challenging enough to stay inside a classroom and sit all day, but even more detrimental and difficult to try to learn the material by oneself and navigate information and adequate resources when the school has not been able to teach us or provide us those avenues of links. I know students from all over the world have struggled with the same issue, and as Summer vacation carries on, I expect school committees and school boards to bridge these gaps of insecure learning and assist students who are experiencing extreme difficulty. It had the ability to harm students’ mental health, learning abilities, and above all isolation emotionally and physically. It can also detrimentally affect the eyes of young children who are now resorting to increased screentime. With persistent use of screentime, children are vulnerable to computer vision syndrome or digital eye strain. Symptoms are dryness, burning, pain, or tearing in the eye, blurred vision, headaches, and neck or back pain. Young eyes are not prepared for the negative effects that come from intensely staring at a screen for a long period of time. Dr. Lari, a vision consultant, recommends using the 20/20/20 rule. After 20 minutes of screentime, take 20 seconds to focus on something 20 feet away from you to allow eye muscles to relax. Other recommendations include moisturizing the eye with eyedrops and spending time outside.  

 Remote learning is extensively difficult for those students who have not been taught or provided with adequate resources to navigate their workloads and got punished for those effects out of one’s control. The immense feeling of drain and lack of motivation became a clear normal. Students who have been introduced to this new style of learning and failed to operate it created an elicited understanding of remote learning as a useless and pointless avenue of education. I have seen a consistent pattern of the education system failing students as they reshaped their holistic approach to learning and began to push away from the potential that online learning could have provided if it were for the right resources and a premade plan for studying outside the classroom.

Parents have also been at the forefront of feeling the impacts of online learning. For children who cannot access learning on technology, kids especially, parents have become teachers themselves. The category of parents who are at home and raising young children have battled all possible complications including being a teacher. For older students, parents had the job of nagging and encouraging their students to stay on track and continue to the finish line to complete their current grade. There could equally be a positive and negative effect on students and parents. Personally, my parents are not too involved with my general schoolwork, and I navigated work by myself without their interference, but as for other families, the tension and uneasiness to make their parents proud during a time that is so complex for them is definitely overwhelming. 

Students and parents were encouraged to foster a new style of learning and the duality of emotions and expressions became clear to us. The intricacies were transparent, and I hope the 2020-2021 school year has adequate resources and provides accessibility for all grades, even during such unprecedented times. 

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Written by Kelly N. from Worcester, Massachusetts