Remote Classes and How To Protect Our Children During the Pandemic

The pandemic has brought a tremendous change on the lives of our young people regarding #online learning. Has these lessons been more positive than negative? This question was addressed in the series School Matters on the CBS This Morning news program featured by Anchorman Anthony Mason. During this story he revealed, “We’re looking at how the pandemic is effecting student’s education. School districts nationwide say two to three more students are failing classes this year. USA Today recently spoke with students about the challenges they face because of remote learning. “Students are falling behind in online school. Where’s the Covid-19 diaster plan to catch them up? Students are struggling, teachers are stressed, and more schools are online. But there’s still no grand plan to improve online learning,“ said Erin Richards of USA Today.

To discover the true answer concerning online learning, students were interviewed. One student explained his feelings this way, “I feel like this online learning is affecting my grades. And I’m really just, forget about the grades. l’m not learning as much as I normally would on a normal year. And I feel that it is so important to get an education. And when it’s so hard to get it and learn through this screen. It makes it really difficult.“

A young female student also gave her opinion by explaining, “It almost feels like I’m just learning material and taking a bunch of notes. And l’m taking these multiple choice quizzes. And then the second l’m done with quiz or test the information just slips off my mind. So l feel like l’m not really making any progress.” The calls for help are clearly going out regarding the educational process of online learning for our students. But is anyone listening? Can we find effective solutions that will resolve this problem? Some education specialists are trying. Let’s see what their suggestions are in the following paragraphs.

On the #CBS This Morning news program Anthony Mason did additional research into this area of students and the effects of online learning. He interviewed Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, the nonprofit organization offers free educational lessons online. This has been a really tough year for most students and their teachers. Both sides are struggling to get through this. How can teachers at this point help students as we said? So many of them have had a really tough time keeping up?“ With a definitive answer Sal explained, “Yeah. At this point it’s all about engagment in the stories we just heard. Those students were having trouble feeling connected. We know there is multiple layers of stress in the world right now. Covid being the top one and the economy. There’s a lot else going on and then on top of that students are expected to stay engaged while they are learning, primarily in these cases through a screen. And so there’s a couple things teachers are doing their best job. It’s a hard thing for teachers as well. But as much as possible, pull them out of the screen. Make the classes interactive. Give time for kids to interact with each other. Put them into these #virtual breakout sessions. Realize that the screen right now is students‘ main way to connect with other people socially. So use that class time. Use a little bit of it to also get some social connection because that’s more likely to drive students to real connection. And then when students are failing which they’re starting to do disproportionately. We need to give them extra choices. It can’t be you got a C, D and F on a test right now. And that’s your final grade on your transcript. When we get back to school you have a method to remake it.”

Anthony Mason went on to ask this intriguing question about the grading system, “Sal, do you think schools should even reconsider giving grades at all this year?” Due to difficult times based on the pandemic and economic problems Sal Khan responded, “Well I don’t think there is anything wrong with grades per say. It’s always valuable to know where you are. But I think schools really need to make sure and this is something we have always believed at #Khan Academy even before Covid. lf you got a C or a D or an F that shouldn’t be your final grade because then that gap persist and it becomes harder to learn more advanced things. This was true even before Covid. Now we know the situation is happening to even more students. And when you get that C or D or F, it hits your self-esteem. There’s a lot of evidence that it lowers your role of graduating especially in core class. And there’s always those stressors around. So you should always have the chance especially given the circumstances we are in right now. That when we get back to normal or before we get back to normal, you should have multiple shots in goal to improve that to a B or an A.“

Tony Dokoupil of CBS This Morning joined the discussion by asking; “Hey Sal. On the subject of getting back to normal, one of the big obstacles to getting back into the classroom is teachers understandably don’t feel safe there. That being the case, should they get vaccines that are now available on the early side rather than down the line?” Khan continues explaining, ”l’m a big proponent of that because we’ve seen over the last several months that teaching is such a linchpin. Not just for kids to continue learning and being able to engage. Especially families that make lower income and can’t afford other forms of childcare. My wife is a physician. She just got a letter from her hospital that they’re gonna start getting the #vaccine in the next month. She works at the County Hospital. I think teachers really need to be in that first or second wave as well.”

A question was asked by Anthony Mason concering income disparity, “Sal, how do you deal with income disparity with kids. l mean one thing that‘s very clear is that for some low income and minority kids, they’re less likely to have the appropriate technology they need for this. And in many cases they were already behind and they are falling further behind. And that’s a problem that’s very hard for teachers to address through a computer?“ Sal Khan agreed as he continued with a positive solution. “Yes. And what you just described has always been a problem that we’ve always tried to articulate that we need to help fix. One way to fix it and there’s a lot of layers to this is, more resources to keep students engaged. That’s even more important now above and beyond what we just talked about. How you can run classes in a more interactive way. We’ve seen some school districts successfully calling kids once a day, even for thirty seconds or for a minute. Making sure that they feel engaged. But we also know things like the digital divide are a major, major issue. Twenty, thirty, forty percent of some communities aren’t even about to access right now. Five or ten percent of the kids even when they can acess school districts, cannot find them right now. And so when we get back to normal, hopefully sooner than later. It truly have to be treated like a disaster recovery. We have to figure out mechanisms to fill in kid’s gaps. Ways for them to do remediation. Obviously, Khan Academy is working on that. I have a free, that is another nonprofit program called #Schoolhouse to give free tutoring. We have capacity for several thousands of kids now. So we do whatever we can collectively to make sure that we fill in thoses gaps and they feel supported.” Anthony responded to Sal Khan’s suggestion by stating, “That’s a good analogy Sal. A disaster recovery operation.”

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Joyce a young mother lies asleep in bed. Suddenly, she feels a piercing pain in her neck. Joyce awakens to find Jimmy, her six-year-old son biting her neck. She pushes him away with a pure look of terror as Joyce grabs her neck. "Jimmy, what are you doing?" Tears began to fill his eyes. "Mommy, I am a vampire and I am biting you so that you can live forever." Joyce could not believe what she was hearing from her son. She pulled Jimmy close with tears in her eyes. "That is so sweet that you want me to live forever. Where did you get such an idea? Jimmy looks at his mother trying to hold back the tears. "Mommy, I saw it on the movie you were watching and on a #television commercial. They said when vampires bite people and suck their blood, they become vampires who live forever. Mommy, I'm sorry if I hurt you but I just wanted you to live forever with me now that I am a #vampire."

Joyce embraces her son lovingly and then explain. "Jimmy, I'm sorry that I allowed you to see this type of movie that would cause you to think that becoming a vampire is real. Remember when we talked about what was real and what was not real? Well, vampires are not real." He now sits back within arms distance and stares at his mother in pure confusion. "Mommy, why would you watch something that you knew was not real and not tell me. I don't want you to die and when I saw those vampires saying they #live forever, I believed it could happen." Joyce drops her head in shame. "You are right. I had no right to watch such movies with you and not explain that vampires are not real and they cannot live forever. I realize now I have to be careful what I watch with you. If you see me doing this again, please #ask questions so that I can be careful as well. Please forgive me."

Jimmy moves closer, hugs his mother tighter and agrees that he will ask questions about things that are real or not real. He also told Joyce that those movies do cause him to have scary dreams so could they please stop watching them. She agreed to never do that to her son again.

This scenario could easily have happened to any parent that exposes their children to this type of entertainment. I remember watching these type of movies as a child and then spending many nights terrified that a vampire was in my room at night so I could not sleep. I would wear turtlenecks after seeing these movies to keep the vampires from biting me. Garlic, mirrors, and crosses became a protection for me from these vampires. I am so thankful that now I know and understand that these type of movies should be avoided by me and my children. Sure, the world is promoting these type of demonic films and they are making millions of dollars but does that make it right? What real effect are these type of movies having on our #young people or does anyone care? I know this is not a popular stance but the future of our children is more important than popularity.

Can Certain Movies Have a Negative Effect on our Children?

To prove this point, I asked parents who allow their children to watch such movies as, #Twilight." I then asked if their children have nightmares after watching such movies? The majority of the parents admitted their children had nightmares after viewing these films. Their sleep was interrupted for nights afterward. I then compared parents who do not allow their children to watch such movies nor do they view these movies themselves. Their children were not only sleeping better at night but when I talked to Gina, a seven-year-old, about vampire movies she said, "Vampires are #demons, my mom would never let me watch things like that and I don't want to." I then asked, "But don't you miss seeing these popular movies about vampires?" With a look of confusion, she said, "You know the devil make up things like that so he can confuse us. Parents need to be teaching their children that." Gina's serious look was intimidating. I humbly thanked her for a very good response and walked away.

Viewing television programs such as #Lucifer or when we view the evening news, it is impossible to watch without commercials of people committing violent acts or sexual promiscuity. New television series is filled with immoral values that are destructive for our young people. I have to immediately turn the channel or turn away. What is the world coming to when regular television must constantly focus on violence, sex, and more violence. My husband and I decided years ago to put a blocker for violence on our television to block out such programming. Now with such commercials and the eventuality of vampires and #demons on regular television, we will now have to continue monitoring that as well. The strong desire for money making once again becomes first over the morals of our young people. We wonder why some of them continue to be depressed, commit murder or suicide, take drugs and act disrespectfully toward their parents.

Lessons for Parents to Consider

We must remember as parents, "what is seen by the eyes, can mislead us." Eve proved that in the Bible at Genesis 3:2-6 where #Satan suggested her eyes were "bound to be opened" if she ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and bad. Her looking and longing for the tree caused Eve to disobey God and encouraged her husband to do the same. Violence came into the world through continuous disobedience not only just by satan but other angels based on what they saw with their eyes at Genesis 6:2 where, "The sons of the true God began to notice the daughters of men, that they were good-looking; and they went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose." (NWT of the Holy Scripture) Can this type of destruction by Almighty God happen again because of the strong desire of our eyes to watch and promote unnatural demonic ideas such as vampires?

A leading marketing expert in Europe made this comment concerning modern commercial advertisers and the age-old power of the eye appeal, "Sight is the most seductive sense of all. It often overrules the other senses, and has the power to persuade us against all logic." As parents are we persuaded against all logic by not seriously considering the possible detriment of movies and television programs full of violence, lust, blood, and gore. If the seven-year-old mentioned earlier is right then we must ask ourselves, is the devil confusing us as parents by allowing our children to view such movies? Are these movies really just innocent fun? The majority would say, "yes." Think and pray about it before you allow your child to see this next type of movie. It could not only save their lives but give them fewer nightmares. Our young people are not only worth it but deserve our protection from wicked spirit forces that may be causing harm to them. We must seriously consider, something is having an effect on our young people today.