Learning at-home challenging
Elementary schools closed to in-person learning until Jan. 25
A health-care worker and mother from Douro-Dummer Township is concerned about the extended closure of schools to in-person learning as there isn’t enough technology in her home for all three of her children to learn virtually.
DeeDee Burke, a personal support worker, said she’s essentially had to choose which of her children’s education is more important right now.
“It’s not a choice that should have to be made,” Burke said.
Limited technology available in their home hasn’t been the only challenge. Because of her job, Burke said her 16-year-old daughter has had to take on a parenting role with her younger sister while trying to learn virtually and doesn’t have the time to help teach her siblings in addition to completing her own school work.
“It’s not my teenager’s responsibility. She is the one that’s home with them, but she has to focus on her school and I’m OK with that because she’s in Grade 11 now. She’s focused and she’s got goals that she’s set for herself. I’m not about to turn around and take that away from her,” Burke said.
“Her education right now is much more important than whether or not the two can count. I will deal with that later if I have to deal with that. They’re not behind in anything which is good, but obviously it’s something that I’m going to have to play catch-up with.”
Even with the temporary wage increase PSWs are receiving, she said if she didn’t have her extra sources of income, she wouldn’t be able to provide for her family while living in the Peterborough area.
“So, there’s no way, even if I tried, that I could bring somebody into the house to be able to sit with the other two and home-school them or watch them during the day. There’s no way. There’s no extra money to do stuff like that. So, what do you do? You get put between a rock and hard place,” Burke said.
As a health-care worker, Burke said she understands the extended school closures.
“I get it because our numbers right now are ridiculous. Christmas holidays did not help. Just from a home care perspective, I know first-hand that people were coming from Toronto to see their families, to get haircuts, and to go do their
Christmas shopping. These are all things that I’m very wellaware of and these are things that continue to happen. We have no control over that,” Burke said.
But on the other hand, she said the continued closure of schools (the province announced Thursday that all schools will stay closed until at least Jan. 25) is impossible for single-parent households and in households where parents work shift work.
“It’s absolutely impossible. It’s not sustainable to be able to have the kids online doing schooling,” Burke said.
Students living in these types of households should be able to attend school in person, she said.
“They should be able to send them back in small groups. They (teachers) should be able to do their online stuff from the classroom and have a handful of students in the classroom if they are coming from singleparent households or households where the parents are on shifts and they are not able to do home-schooling. That make sense to me,” Burke said.
“How many kids are being put into a position where they’re too young to be at home on their own, but the parents don’t have a choice because they have to work?
“This is one of the reasons why we’re short staffed right now because we have staff members calling in saying guess what, I can’t work I’ve got to homeschool my kid. Then who’s going to pay the bills? It’s such a huge ripple effect.”
Marissa Lentz is a staff reporter at the Examiner, based in Peterborough. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email: mlentz@peterboroughdaily.com