I saw a Tesla with #BlackLivesMatter written on the back windshield the other day. It turns out that he is a parent who is picking up his son in a “pandemic organization,” which, if unfamiliar, is a small organization of families that joins their resources to rent a personal tutor, possibly a parent. These capsules are very popular with my California Bay neighbors. Nearby, I saw a YMCA, which offers child care and extracurricular programs. It stopped due to COVID-19.
I’m not the first to point out that groups are emblematic of inequity in education in the United States. It’s a win-win approach, with privileged, usually white academics, accumulating school and social gains and further separating our K-12 systems. This hypocrisy is the explanation for why Pod’s parents make me so angry. If black people’s lives matter, doesn’t that come with black kids? What about long-term blacks?
Capsules not only help some young people be more informed than their less privileged companions. They also actively dismantle the fabric of organizations that low-income academics and colored academics. By hiring teachers and public school staff from extracurricular systems and nonprofits, the modules divert resources from the network where they are needed to the fullest. In California, where capsule movements have taken off, 90% of young people enrolled in extracurricular systems are colored academics and 84% are low-income. While some organizations have turned to online programming, others have closed; many face budget cuts and have had to fire staff.
Proposals for fairer personal groups lose their meaning. “Sponsor” a student to register for a pod is a symbol. The style in which parents become pod teachers only works for those who have the privilege of flexibility. What about a must-have staff or parents with multiple jobs?
There are no smart features for maximum families, especially those with young children who want care. With a few exceptions, school districts have not presented solutions. In San Francisco, there will be “learning centres” for up to 6,000 young people starting Sept. however, implementing public modules while safely reopening schools will be for most districts.
The responsibility lies with parents, and I feel that those who can make personal pods feel they have no choice. I have two young women and a full-time job, the fall semester is intimidating and I’m already exhausted. The pods are a symptom of structural problems, coupled with the lack of child care trained in our country. COVID-19 has exacerbated these problems, which have a disproportionate effect on other people of color. Overcoming the lack of educational opportunities will require significant policy changes, adding access to generation and the Internet for all households.
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These pitfalls are real, but they do not justify the perpetuation of racism and classism through personal and exclusive capsules. Those of us who are privileged to choose how we teach our youth, especially those for whom the lives of black people is vital, will have to do better. Allyship demands day-to-day work and action, and in recent months they have shown that collective action can lead to faster replacement than thought.
I call on parents to help create more diverse and available communities of students online. We know that diversity leads to greater empathy and more avant-garde thinking. We also know that social aid and interactions of the rich are essential for education, as the capsule movement has shown. We can get that help through virtual environments that also extend social capital beyond island networks.
Video calls and virtual learning platforms help break down barriers to physical distance. These technologies can combine more varied teams of students, educators and mentors. They can also mitigate geography-like systemic biases. One example is that the least resourced wards want the most qualified educators, but on the contrary, they get the less experienced ones.
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Technology can help extend high-quality practical instructions. I propose to build on the infrastructure and experience of extracurricular systems, which have served underfunded families for decades and have a wide national reach. A foundation’s network of after-school activities serves more than 10 million young people through 100,000 extracurricular systems in all 50 states. The YMCA serves nine million young people a year and employs 20,000 full-time employees, plus 600,000 volunteers.
Extracurricular formulas are essential for a more equitable school formula and today they want resources to continue serving vulnerable communities in the fall and beyond. With the investment to retain and exercise their parent company, those organizations may be offering virtual live video sessions in small groups. And, with ongoing support, your first line can simply help other educators and parents adapt online formulas to be informed at home.
Learning to solve real-world disorders online can help relieve families while equipping students with the skills they want to thrive. I hear parents worrying that their children will get bored with online learning (i.e. modules in person), but the time young people spend the day on TikTok and YouTube prove otherwise. Children don’t miss being online; they miss the content. There are opportunities to smooth spreadsheets and unsystemate lessons.
Project-based learning can inspire young people to solve the disorders that affect their lives and communities. Hundreds of hours of project-based learning systems can be obtained online for free. There is more than enough content for academics to interact in meaningful learning until the end of the semester.
COVID simultaneously expands educational gaps and presents an opportunity to rebuild the systems that perpetuate these gaps. There is technology, experience and systems to start rebuilding. My call to action for long-term pod parents is threefold. First, use your skills, talents, and networking to share social capital with young people of color. Second, to increase the budget and promote systems that serve under-funded communities. Finally, sign me up to believe what is imaginable if we teach our young people with a forward-looking rather than a shortage.
We’ll all prosper.
Tara Chklovski is CEO and founder of Technovation, a non-profit educational organization. Follow her on Twitter: @TaraChk