Testing students’ will and parents’ wallets
Families face trials of COVID virtual schooling
When Kel’c Greene last hugged her father, it was the last time.
“When he passed, she was in his arms,” said her mother, Tanya Banks-greene, whose husband, Kevin, died of a heart attack in 2019.
At the time, Banks-greene was struggling with lupus. But also, at that time, she knew that it was up to her to stop grief from causing her children’s hopes to wither.
“It got really bad for us, because I was sick. I was in a wheelchair,” Banks-greene said. “But I said I couldn’t be sick because my children needed me.”
So, Banks-greene decided she wouldn’t be.
She recovered from her illness and began working to get a job teaching math. While Banksgreene, Kel’c, 13, and her sons Tyler, 17, and Kaleb, 10, had to move from Lakeland into subsidized housing in North Memphis, some light was finally beginning to pierce the pall left by Kevin’s death. Then COVID-19 closed in.
And Banks-greene joined that statistic of single mothers forced to delay entering the workforce, or to leave it altogether, to be at home with their children as they learn on computers instead of in classrooms.
That side effect of the pandemic has, according to the Pew Research Center, caused the share of single mothers in the workforce to drop by 9 percent – more than any other group.
“When COVID hit, I was going back into the classroom. I was starting my life over as a single mother and a widow,” Banks-greene said. “That was Step 1 of my major plan, and then COVID hit…”
But as Banks-greene, as well as single mothers like Starkisha James, struggle to adjust to educating and feeding their children during a pandemic
that has tested their will and wallets, Kel’c and Terry James, James’ 13-yearold son, are trying to figure out how they feel about it all.
And they have lots of feels.
Struggles at home
“My teachers have been doing a great job in teaching because they try to make learning fun even though we are virtual and not in person,” Kel’c wrote in an essay at the Memphis Education Fund’s virtual learning center.
MEF now operates the virtual learning center at The Life Church’s Dream Center in Raleigh.
“Even with school being virtual my teachers try their best to make the learning fun by letting us do an educational Kahoot or a Nearpod [interactive learning games] before a test.”
But Kel’c, who attends Humes Middle School, also wrote this: “I feel like the Superintendent and the School Board need to know that some kids don’t have their lights on in their house or their power is off.
“I feel like kids that have something like that going on in their lives, instead of their parents getting sent to court because of the child’s absence, the family light bill should get paid because they may not have the money to get the light bill paid.”
At one point, Kel’c was almost one of those kids.
“We haven’t had our lights turned off, but I’ve run into the situation of having high light bills, and I have really run close to having them turned off,” said Banks-greene, who said she had to seek assistance to pay them.
“The light bills for me now have been ridiculous.”
Family responsibilities
Terry, who attends Colonial Middle School, wrote: “I feel that I am learning well. I have been taking classes that are rigorous and will help me become a person and a better young man. All of my teachers are teaching very well. Everyone is learning and everyone is gaining knowledge that will help them in the future.”
But Terry also wrote, with a bit of adolescent drama: “Staying home with six people and three dogs every single day was the worst thing that could possibly happen to me. Walking dogs make me late to class and having to cook food makes me even later.”
James was home at first, after she quit her teaching job when the pandemic struck because the uncertainty of it all loomed large.
“I’m a mom of four, and mentally, there was too much going on,” said James, whose children range in age from 16, 13, 12 and 6.
“I had to choose my personal babies first this time.”
But James, who teaches fourth grade math, was able to get a teaching job at the MEF’S virtual learning center. That meant she could bring her children with her to work.
So, James caught a break.
“I miss the consistency of the (school) teaching job, but at the virtual learning center I’m getting a livable wage with my master’s degree,” James said.
Still, struggles with uncertainty continue.
Banks-greene must still provide one-on-one attention to Kaleb, who has a learning disability and relies on an individual education plan. That means she can’t take a job outside of home anytime soon.
And while Banks-greene and James would love for their children to return to in-person school, until the rate of the spread of COVID-19 slows in Shelby County, that won’t happen, they said.
Their children understand.
Determined not
Banks-greene and James are determined to not allow trauma and upheaval to fail their children. And in reading what Kel’c and Terry wrote, they are determined not to fail.
Determined – in spite of the fact that they were failed, and continue to be failed, by those in higher places.
They were failed by the Trump administration which, according to the latest Lancet Commission report, provided “an inept and insufficient” response to COVID-19, which is killing Black people like them at nearly four times the rate of white people.
They’re being failed by Gov. Bill Lee, who is insistent on forcing Shelby County to open its school buildings without prioritizing vaccinations for teachers.
After pressure from him, Shelby County School Superintendent Joris Ray announced that teachers will be returning to school buildings on Feb. 22, with students returning in March.
And they’re being failed by a state which sits on a $732 million surplus in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families funds that could be used to help families like Banks-greene weather the pandemic.
Maybe at some point, those who are failing families like Banks-greene and James, and their children will finally see them through the lens of their potential and apply policies that uplift them.
Instead of clinging to those that perpetuate their suffering.