Setting up a ‘learning pod’ holds lessons for parents
Ontario’s back-to-school plan is making many uneasy. But is opening your own classroom safer?
Like many Ontario parents, Brad Thorpe had never heard of learning pods — until the provincial government announced two week ago that students in the province would be heading back to school in September without reducing class sizes at the elementary level.
For many students, that would mean stepping foot inside a classroom with about 30 others — a big jump for those who have been quarantining and staying within small social bubbles since schools switched to online learning after March break.
Thorpe, like many other parents and teachers, believes the provincial government’s plan to reopen schools is unsafe in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why he sprang into action. So far, Thorpe has secured 600 square feet of space in midtown Toronto for the learning pod. It has a private entrance, a washroom fitted for people with disabilities, and a small kitchen area with a sink.
He hired a Ontario Certified Teacher and already has a cleaning team who will sanitize the classroom daily.
Now, he is looking for seven girls to join his 11-year old daughter Ty in a Grade 6 learning pod for $1,200 per student, per month.
“We’re in an unprecedented time in history where the school board can’t guarantee me my kid will be safe,” said Thorpe.
He acknowledged he is able to do all this because he already has a business and space in the city.
Thorpe along with his wife Colleen
McCay own and run a gym in the Davisville area. The two entrepreneurs are turning a room normally used for spin classes into a classroom.
Yet the past week has been an emotional roller-coaster for his family.
“I’ve been called cheap. I’ve been called privileged. I’ve been called exploitive. I’ve been called opportunistic,” said Thorpe. “I’m stressed as it is. My business has been closed for five months.”
Interest in so-called learning pods, where several families bring their children together and hire a private tutor for home-schooling, has exploded since the Ontario government announced a full-time return to school in September for students. But health experts warn pods are not necessarily safe while others worry about what an exodus of affluent parents from the public school system means for those left behind.
British Columbia faced a similar backlash from worried parents and on Tuesday that province announced it was backtracking on its decision to open schools full-time on Sept. 8, saying teachers need more time to prepare for a safe school year. The B.C. government has not specified a new start date.
But some parents in Ontario want to take their children’s schooling into their own hands.
One Facebook group dedicated to helping parents and teachers find each other to form learning pods has more than 5,000 members, mostly in Ontario. According to a survey conducted among members, motivations for forming a learning pod range from safety concerns about public schools to anti-masking sentiments.
Many families are looking to host pods in their own homes, according to posts in the Facebook group. Some parents are running the pods themselves, while others post in the group looking for a certified teacher. Outside of the Facebook group, tutoring centres have also picked up on the demand for alternative schooling options and are now offering learningpod style classes.
The Ministry of Education did not respond to the Star’s questions about learning pods. An Ontario policy memoon homeschooling states parents who intend to home-school their children must notify their local school board before Sept. 1.
Creating a safe learning space during a pandemic is not as easy as you may think, said Courtney Raponi, a former Toronto teacher who has a decade of experience as a public health inspector with Toronto Public Health and other health authorities.
Families forming learning pods need to take necessary precautions, she said. Whereas schools are regulated by district and provincial guidelines, learning pods “are essentially on their own,” she said.
“These pods are so new that there’s a whole lot of stuff that may not be considered.”
Families who form learning pods should set up policies and procedures just like a school would, said Raponi.
Will children stay home if they have a cough? Will they quarantine at home? If yes, for how long? Will children bring their own utensils to eat lunch? Will tables be sanitized after every use? Will children be wearing masks?
With flu season approaching, these are especially important questions to consider, said Raponi.
Ideally, the teacher and children should have easy access to a sink in order to encourage handwashing, said Raponi. Teachers should also have sanitizing products or alcohol wipes handy if children will be sharing learning materials, she added.
Raponi said she understands why some families want to take their children out of public schools. Before COVID-19-related measures shut down many businesses, Raponi worked as a consultant, conducting infection-control training in a multitude of settings. Many of her clients were schools.
Given the current class sizes, going to public school is a “big risk unless they have the proper protocols in place,” she said.
“Inevitably there’s going to be an outbreak — that’s a known. It just depends whether they are going to contain it and keep school running or if they’re going to shut it down.”
Raponi inspected dozens of schools during her time as a public health inspector. Health officials generally visit a school twice a year to check recordkeeping practices, health protocols and whether there were enough cleaning supplies, she said.
She recalls going into public school washrooms “hundreds of times” only to find the soap dispenser was empty.
“That’s a big problem,” she said. “If you have students walking around and they try to wash their hands and they can’t because there’s no soap, it doesn’t matter how many janitors are there cleaning the doorknobs.”
Some people are laying the blame at the Ontario government’s feet and say that learning pods will have long-term consequences for the public school system.
The flow of affluent families out of public schools means families in poorer neighbourhoods will bear the brunt of the risk, said Kelly Iggers, a teacher librarian with the Toronto District School Board. She started an online petition calling for reduced class sizes that garnered 100,000 signatures within days.
This change in demographics in the public school system is bad for the entire system, she said. Families that are able to will take their children out of the system and families that have no choice will remain.
“That’s a really destructive thing to do,” she said. “When you prompt families with privilege to opt out, you remove a lot of really powerful voices with the ability to advocate.” Voices like Thorpe’s family. Thorpe, who also runs a fitness-equipment company, and McCay, who ran a girls summer camp last year, have the business know-how to set up a learning pod in a week. And it’s not cheap. The pod, if they manage to recruit seven more students, will function as a non-profit. The teacher would be earning about $60,000 to teach five days a week, from September to June, according to Thorpe. The learning pod will pay $1,500 per month in rent to the gym. Hiring a lawyer to draw up contracts for parents and teachers to sign will cost a significant amount of money. Thorpe is also purchasing insurance for the learning pod.
“We are prepared to do whatever we can do to provide a safer environment than what (the government) is providing,” he said.
Thorpe said he wishes he could send his daughter back to public school, but that he does not feel it is safe to do so.
But putting your child in a learning pod is not necessarily safer than sending them to school, said Dr. Ronald Cohn, president and CEO of Sick Kids.
In an interview with the Star last week, Cohn a pediatrician, acknowledged that anxiety levels are high among parents, but urged caution to those considering creating learning pods. He said pods require the same public health measures as schools, such as masking, enhanced cleaning and physical distancing, to be safe.
“Maybe you have 10 kids in a small room and there’s no distancing — then it’s as bad as if you have 20 (kids),” he said.
Cohn said parents and educators teaching in learning pods should know that Sick Kids’ guidelines apply to them too. The guidelines recommend two-metres of space — and a minimum of one metre — between children.
“You need to make (pods) as safe as you make school safe,” he said.
Thorpe said students in his pod will sit in desks at least two metres apart and will be asked to wear masks as much as possible.
Each desk will have a bottle of hand sanitizer on it. Because the classroom is normally used for exercise classes, it has significant ventilation. Thorpe is also considering mandatory temperature checks, where parents in the pod will be asked to check their child’s temperature every morning before heading to class.
“If this is what the scientific community is putting forth, if we need to implement that, then that’s what we need to do,” said Thorpe. “If you don’t like that, then don’t join our pod.”