At-home learning is taking a toll

I have a first- and fourth-grader in Albuquerque Public Schools. Their teachers are tremendous and doing their best.

At-home learning has not been successful in our home. My wife and I work and have commitments to our employers but must be engaged throughout the day to ensure virtual classes are not missed and assignments are completed.

Our children had been in day care at their school, but it did not provide the individual attention required. I understand this is new and may improve some, but each morning I have to decide if I will be a good employee or a good parent. I can’t lose my job, so my children suffer.

We know many parents with similar issues who have taken their children out of APS. These were excellent students, and their parents were school volunteers. APS is losing good families, and the consequence will be felt for years to come.

I’m worried about the invisible physical and mental health toll. My son is on his computer all day. Assignments quickly completed in a classroom are time-consuming on a laptop, and he gets headaches from the screen time. He is gifted and completes work quickly in the classroom, but with the tedious nature of assignments on a computer, he has fallen behind. He is stressed he will fail, and now has insomnia — a 9-year-old with insomnia!

My son has children in the neighborhood he can socialize with, but my daughter doesn’t, and it has left her alone and isolated. Lack of healthy social interaction and play time is wearing on her.

I hope the APS Board of Education considers the invisible toll on our children and their futures. Science can measure how many people contract COVID-19 and its impact on the physical health of the most vulnerable. Science cannot measure what toll keeping children out of school is having on their physical and mental health. This can only be measured at some future time when the consequences are measurable.

I fear the consequences of keeping young children at home any longer will far outweigh the physical toll COVID-19 has had on our city.