Tutoring Children in a Pandemic

Life and Learning in Our Community 


Leaders in our community are unsure of,  and continue to debate, the safest yet effective way for educating our children. To date, school-age children attend school one week while learning remotely on alternate weeks. Teachers must manage classrooms with both in-school and in-home students simultaneously. This type of setting was never taught in the Methods courses for Teacher Education. I sympathize with their challenges. But, I worry more (as do their teachers) about the welfare of the children. 

 Learning is hard even in ideal settings. Concepts, skills, ideas, and rules must be processed, understood, and applied to everyday life. It requires time for learning along with the scaffolding provided by a parent, mentor, or professionally trained teacher. These challenges are a reality in our pandemic world. Everyone suffers--those with many resources and those without resources. It is particularly hard in homes where parents are working, often in demanding jobs with heavy workloads. Moms and Dads with young toddlers and babies juggle childcare between bottles, diapers, and the "main idea in the paragraph". Homes with a special need child can be an exhausting and frustrating day-by-day challenge. 

 What about those homes where little or no English is spoken? Do these children deserve to learn and grow to become the best they can be?  This is my experience with children in our neighborhood. These parents love their children and desire the best for them. They want their child to succeed, to grow, and contribute to the good life in our community. 

 If Jesus Christ were to walk into our neighborhood, He would immediately call the children to Himself. He would encourage them. He would help them with math, guide their reading and practice phonics.  He would help them tackle times-tables and best practices to login to ZOOM. He would love do this and he would be very pleased if His disciples would join Him in this good work.

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