Chinanews.com, September 2nd, according to the US "Qiao Bao" report, a few days ago, New York City Mayor Bai Sihao announced the postponement of the city’s public school start time. Distance learning is scheduled to start on September 16, and face-to-face teaching will be postponed to September. 21st.
Many parents of Chinese descent said that their children lack self-consciousness in online lessons at home, which can easily affect the learning effect. However, the current back-to-school plan announced by the Municipal Education Bureau and schools is too general, worrying that the health and safety of teachers and students cannot be guaranteed.
Chen Janna, a parent who lives in Manhattan's Chinatown, said that her two children are in elementary school, their son in grade 4 and their daughter who just started kindergarten have been studying at home since early March.
For a son who is in the stage of preparing for further studies, there is still a big gap between online teaching and face-to-face classrooms.
The teacher mainly assigns exercises and homework, but the lack of communication and interaction will affect the children's studies for a long time.
Chen Janna said that her son suffers from a serious pollen allergy and can't help rubbing his face and nose every spring and flu season.
For this reason, she decided early in the morning to let her children study at home this semester, first to avoid the flu season, and second to observe whether the security measures of the Education Bureau are in place after school starts, and wait until November to decide whether to let the children return to school.
Chen Janna also bluntly said that she was able to take care of her children at home by stopping part-time work during the epidemic, but for many parents in need of work, sending their children back to school is the only option.
Wu Lihua's two daughters are in the sixth and seventh grades, and the family is now ready to send the two children back to school.
Wu Lihua said that anti-epidemic measures such as wearing masks are more difficult for young children to implement, but older children already understand the severity of the epidemic and know how to protect themselves.
She also often emphasizes measures such as washing hands, disinfecting, and wearing masks to her daughters, so that they can adapt to the new routine after returning to school.
At the same time, the middle school stage is also facing the pressure of high school exams. If parents choose to teach entirely online, a lot of important information related to further studies will also be notified by email, which is easy to miss for many Chinese parents with poor English.
Wu Lihua also said that the two children have reached the rebellious period, and the long-term online teaching lacks basic face-to-face communication, which makes the children rely on the Internet, reluctant to go out and make friends, and lose a lot of the fun they should have in childhood.
Wu Lihua also pointed out that the current virus detection efforts in various schools are still unreliable. Compared with the monthly random sampling, she believes that the school should increase the frequency of detection and cooperate with community organizations to provide safe and timely detection resources.
Zhou Lin, a parent from Queens District, said that online teaching mainly depends on children's self-discipline, which is a challenge for many parents.
Her son is currently in high school. As a parent, she often feels powerless to supervise and tutor senior students.
However, the current school testing and epidemic prevention details are still very general, and parents are also very conflicted. They hope that their children will return to school but they dare not take risks easily.
Mira Rubens, a public school teacher with 20 years of teaching experience, said that there are many Chinese students in his current school, and 80% of parents hope that their children continue to learn remotely.
She said that the age span of students in the public school system is huge, and the Education Bureau should adopt methods such as batch opening and class-based teaching for students of different age groups.
(Yang Chengyu)