I recently got asked a question about the following scenario...
"I have a parent that struggles with keeping her child on task with work/play activities. Granted he is 2 years 7 months old. However, the parent wants tips to increase his time on task with virtual learning activities. Suggestions please and thank you!"
What are your thoughts?
Here are some of mine…
First, I love that this teacher wants to support the parent's goal for the child. Bravo!
With some schools/programs still closed due to the pandemic many teachers are offering online circle time, large groups, small groups, or other teacher-led activities via Zoom, Teams, or other video conferencing platforms.
So much so that at this point we could consider "virtual," "remote," or "online" learning activities for preschoolers and twos (even younger?) to be common.
These virtual learning experiences are being offered or even required so parents and families understandably want children to get the most out of the experience.
They want their child to pay attention, look at the computer, listen, do what they're asked to do...
Or, maybe the child is resisting or barely interested so they have a much more modest goal such as getting them near the screen, vaguely interested, or focused for just a few minutes.
Seems reasonable.
Maybe, you're the teacher leading the virtual learning activities and so you have similar goals.
...except, your goal is not just for one child to be on task with virtual learning activities...your goal is for 5, or 16 or 24 children to be on task with virtual learning activities
BUT, one or more children are not on task with those learning activities - happens during in-person activities too!
So, you and/or the families are struggling with keeping child[ren] on task with work/play activities, just like the teacher and parent at the top of this email.
It seems that the obvious question that follows from that is "how to increase time on task with virtual learning activities?"
But it's not.
As you may have already been thinking when I asked you about your thoughts at the beginning of this email...
Just because we are offering certain activities - just because they've become common and customary and expected - doesn't mean that children should be on task with them.
The answer to how we can best help families with concerns about children being on task for virtual learning activities is embedded in the astute description written by the teacher who asked for my advice.
"...Granted he is 2 years 7 months old."
BOOM!
In her heart, or in her gut, or maybe even front and center in her logic center this teacher knew something was off in the request she received.
Yet, she felt like she should help this parent with getting their child on task.
This is a problem, people.
If you are a center director, preschool owner, Head Start manager, or are otherwise in a leadership position who is reading this I am looking at you today.
Is this happening in your program?
If so, what are you doing about it?
What are you going to do so that no parent of a 2 1/2 year old is worried when her child is not on task with virtual learning? What can you do so that not one of your parents or families think that's an important goal?
...so that EVERY teacher and staff member knows this?
...so that every staff member knows how to proactively talk to families about the problems and limitations of virtual learning...even as you are offering such activities?
If you are in a leadership position, what can you do so that every teacher knows how to respond when a worried parent asks how to increase a child's time spent "on task" in virtual learning activities?
How can you immediately change the culture in your program so everyone in it knows this whole thing is completely absurd?
...what do you need to say? ...what do you need to write? ...what do you need to do?
How can you do it thoroughly and often enough so we can turn these concerns, this culture and these narratives around in our field immediately?
Because no 2 1/2 year old should have to sit and do screen-based virtual learning activities.
And, no parent should be worried if they aren't.
At least some of these young children SHOULD be "off task", resisting, avoiding, not paying attention.
Honestly, they should all be throwing giant fits (and so should you).
They are our truth tellers.
Virtual learning for 2 1/2 year olds is NOT developmentally appropriate.
It's not even developmentally appropriate for preschool and the older fours.
Heck, its a miserable and almost impossible set up for many a high schooler, some college students.
...and it might even be that virtual teaching/learning is not good for YOU, the teacher who's used to being on her feet all day.
Now, don't get me wrong. Some of you are doing a brilliant job at virtual teaching, and children are learning and enjoying it.
It is going better than we might have expected.
But just because there has been some success DOES NOT mean that this mother of a 2 1/2 year old should be focusing one drop of her precious energy on getting her child to be on task for virtual learning.
Virtual learning activities for 2-5 year olds is crisis management. It's doing something so parents don't dis-enroll and money is not lost. In the Spring it was to maintain connection and relationships. It's because we have to. It's because we can't do what we know is best.
So, I'm looking at program leaders...
What are you doing TODAY to ensure that every teacher and family in your program knows that there are a million and one things that are important for 2 1/2 year olds - and, for 4 1/2 year olds - and being on task for virtual learning activities is NOT one of them?
And, for you teachers - if you are working in a program that is currently having you provide virtual learning and what you all are doing is not grounded in an understanding that this is NOT how young children learn and that it will NOT be a good experience for some or many children and families...I'm sorry.
You are in an incredibly hard situation.
Young children learn best through child-directed play, one-on-one interactions with warm and loving adults, and playful teacher-led experiences that are ideally based on the children's interests. They need secure relationships with their teachers to learn. The classroom environment itself is a "teacher".
NONE of that is replicable over a computer. Or, by sending home activity ideas.
If the children are not "on task" (and some of them are) it's not you. It's not them.
This is a time in history to be a truth teller. To be an advocate. To not be complacent within the broken systems so many of us work in.
Everyone's presumably doing the best they can.
...and some people are creating policy and practice in a way that is not grounded in an understanding of early childhood development.
So we need to speak up and speak out.
What can you do?
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How is all of this relevant to non-virtual, in-person learning activities? I want to hear from YOU on that.
Please share your thoughts or questions in the comments below.