Jana Coombs, a mother of a five-year-old kindergartener at a school in Coweta County, Georgia was going through her activities when she noticed her son was silently crying faced down. He was in the middle of a distance learning class when he started crying due to frustration with the system.
Coombs, seeing his son in pain, knew she had to do something to get the story of his son’s frustration with distance learning out. She snapped a photo of his son crying, while seated in front of a computer, in the middle of an online class, and shared it online on August 17th.
Coombs said that she just wanted to people to see what her son was going through and see the reality of distance learning. She continued by saying that after taking the photo, her son came to her and they hugged and she cried and empathize with him. She said that she hoped that the photo would raise awareness of the other side of the distance learning that was not being discussed and highlight difficulties some students are going through by not being in an in-person learning environment.
Distance learning in the US
Distance learning has become popular in the US in the last few months after the country started recording coronavirus cases. Since then, the country has recorded over 5.7 million cases, with over 180,000 fatalities according to data from John Hopkins University.
Coombs indicated that she believed that failure to report to in-person classes was causing her son, and many other kids to suffer. She indicated that it was not all about cramming of facts and logic for children as young as her son. Skills such as socialization and hand-on experience were also important for the development of kindergarten students, and distance learning was denying her son the opportunity to learn through other avenues.
However, she also indicated gratitude for teachers who had given themselves during this period to ensure students such as her son continued with their education. She said that they had gone above and beyond to make it possible for the program to run smoothly.
Featured image by Pixabay
