How we fu**ed up the biggest opportunity to change the educational system

Seeing how schools were operating before the lockdown, you would think that the internet was not yet invented. Technology was seen as a disruptive activity from preschools to high school or used by teachers to fill out time and reward them with free play. Schools are still sending the kids to the library to borrow books that most of them never opened, asking them to look up words in heavy dictionaries and pretend that they do not know what that googling is.

Lockdown hit!

We were surprised to find out that generations of kids who grew up on phones, Ipads, and technology could not log in and use the basic functions of a laptop or Chromebook!

It turned out that generations of teachers have no idea how to make a presentation, follow a step-by-step video, and follow and learn from tutorials. So they failed their students and blamed it all because they had no “online teacher training,” and some teachers gave up before the event started.

A lot of precious time has been wasted! A time when teachers could just put their hands up and tell their students that they need their help. Ask the students for help! Showing vulnerability does take courage, but it also builds a strong connection between the parts.

These all demonstrated what today`s educational system lacks: trust, information exchange, leadership, lack of communication(communication is 2 way, sending out emails with directions, that is not communication), and empathy.

We were surprised to find out that most of the teachers were still trained to command and not lead!

So it started a race for going back to so-called normal. Instead of focusing on making changes and listening to student needs, simply everyone was preoccupied to “survive the pandemic” a few weeks here and there and go back and continue where: continuos struggling, behavioral issues, “labeling,” decorating walls, and throwing unprepared students into testing sessions!

While private schools filled up with parents who wanted their kids out of their homes, and somehow miraculously, they find the source for paying the ridiculous money for the fees these schools charged, with the clear intention that once public and charter schools open up, they can hop back on the wagon.

It started a race to saving schools and the educational system that is already dead for the last 20 years, and it is by now endangering our society future as it does not prepare learners for the future, dividing kids into grades, zip codes, and giving teachers a fake sense of importance!

Opportunities immediately took advantage and set up overnight micro-schools.

Micro schools were the next in education, wherewith smaller class size and putting the learner into the center of interest would have started to bring in the so needed change.

So, overnight several “entrepreneurial's minds” saw an opportunity in setting up micro-schools that they called also learning pods, and there they immediately compromised the idea that was not on the way to challenge the system itself.

To clarify: learning pods are not schools. Learning pods are just a place, somewhere in a room where an adult supervises kids following distance learning from the school.

Micro Schools are. or at least they were supposed to offer personalized, project-based, and skill development for small groups of students lead by an adult that is either teacher or a lead learner.

Yes, I know some parents would like to have their kids learning in groups, wanting them to be supervised as they work outside the home, and yes, I agree that learning pods are a great place where kids can spend time and have social interaction and are safe. But don`t call these MICRO SCHOOLS!

Many of the people who invested and made these learning pods and micro-schools knew that parents would bring back kids a free-of-charge and “approved” educational institution once school will be back.

So the chaos only grows! The “entrepreneurs” willing to make more money in a short time under continuous pressure and the school system stressed by the number of kids that left the system, weakening the financial stability and all-knowing that once school opens, they will face the same problem. With less funding and fewer teachers!

The other problem is that some of the young teachers have found workplaces where they are paid better, there is more stability, and they see a safer and brighter future. Old style educators who do not want to adapt stay with the system and expect the system to support them for their loyalty and stubbornness!

Dividing now in teachers who feel confrontable working online and who want only to survive and go back to ”normal.”

The control freak system had panic and mandated more restrictions on how teachers can teach online and what they can use.

Teachers were now under serious and tremendous stress as parents could observe how they teach their kids! Parents realized how their kids are falling behind day by day as they had no interest in learning.

They blame it on distance learning. They never experienced that their kids in schools get over the day, a place to run around and play around.

Educators realized how much they are behind, felt ashamed, and of course, they thought the best way to hide all these is to attack and focus on attacking the change.

We had the chance to change all these instead of playing blame and stress games and jeopardizing the education of the next generation.

Hey, there is some great news!

Now, kids are back in hybrid, and educators teach on laptops as most the kids get used to this by now.

Bad news!

Some of the kids and parents developed absolute hate for anything that is technology.

Now they are talking not about limited screen times but about no screen times for kids.

Because that was another crazy fact: educators are paid by the minutes of teaching, they made the students spend 5- 7 hours in front of screens to complete their hours with no regard to student well-being. It is insane and absolutely ridiculous.

I had a 5 years old learner that was absolutely brilliant, and we had 45–50 minutes classes Monday to Friday, and she was learning at light speed.

Then her dad decides to enroll her in a public school, and of course, they went online; and 6 months later the Mother, was begging me to take her back at least 2–3 hours a week, and she did not learn anything at school.

Also, she becomes distressed and apathetic. It took more weeks to get back her attention and focus and love for learning. She told me at the beginning she wanted to show her teacher the interactive apps that we used to learn, but her teacher was talking and rarely engaged them online.

She soon discovered that the teacher actually does not see what she is doing, so she just was 1 of the 22 students present on the screen and started playing and disengaging in the class sessions.

There was and is no accountability in the teacher's work. Grades do not prove enough data for anything to be accurate.

In a system, there is no daily accountability for teachers and students. That one moment of testing proves nothing.

This year teachers had the time and opportunity to change this. Instead, they are now saying that online testing is not realistic as kids can cheat at home.

CHEAT by googling the answers! Well, if they can google, that means they can type, spell, read, and decide which of the answers is good and matches their question.

It means they know how to use copy+paste and other computer skills. It means that they understand the process of questioning and how to optimize their learning! So let them CHEAT!

What is the real problem that they can't read and mostly comprehend the texts, they can't spell and are not allowed to use correction programs that would actually teach them spelling, and they did not develop any learning skills that would open their minds and engage in learning.

All this above could address; differently it depends only on coming together, and instead of focusing on what we can’t do, we should focus on what we can.

So there is the LAST chance! Instead of organizing summer schools where the same techniques are used to make students catch up, there is nothing to catch up with.

This summer, organize sessions where students can lead the way and show you how they really catch up with the skills and knowledge they really need for life.

Why? Because they know what they need, we have to support them with our experience and keeping them aligned with their goals.

Let go of the past for the greatness and goodness of the next generation.