Is your child succeeding in his Zoom classes? One disillusioned parent has created a petition to switch classes to phone only. What do you think?
By Mrs Chaya P. for Anash.org
Ask your child what he learned today.
He probably won’t know.
Parents are getting sick of of their children being stuck to a screen for so long every day, they see it really affecting the child, in his patience and increasing his edginess.
Besides for all the negative things on the internet etc, there are many other negative things that are being exposed to a child just through being on zoom…
Many parents want to put this zoom ‘school’ business to a end and just do it by a simple phone. This will help the child’s focus mental skills, social skills and enhance his learning and keeping her away from any harm. While other parents might not agree with this for the simple fact that they don’t know what is happening with their children, it’s not worth to wait till they realize!
The zoom app is a great tool, but we need to realize that it’s not for everyone, a child between grades 1-7 does not function in front of a screen like a adult, you can filter his entire device and only allow zoom, but at the end of the day he will be distracted the entire class swiping through the pages of zoom or looking at the names of the participants etc, and he won’t get bored of it even after a month!
Please give us your support and sign the petition so our schools will realize the importance and change class by phone, giving the “option” to use phone is not a solution because the children will feel excluded from their class.
Is your child getting more edgy, impatient an addicted to screens?
Is he davening like he did in school word for word out loud? Or at least the way he did that on a regular day?
Is the gain your child is getting from zoom school worth the damage being done to him?
I personally think the best way for a child to be successful in school in the current situation is by phone (not a smartphone), it’s simple and not too many features so the child can stay focused!
If you still think that your child is doing amazing on zoom, you either don’t know what’s happening with your child, or your child is really special.
Please sign the petition here.
Hard to see how listening to a phone would hold the child’s attention more than a visual / audio medium.
There are many concepts that cannot be properly taught to young children without visual aids. As well, there is an important social emotional benefit to seeing classmates and teacher live on the screen. Phones are much less engaging in keeping attention spans and so much easier for children to miss a word and misunderstand what’s going on without any of the visual cues to help him.
A child who is flipping through screens and participants is probably the same child that in class is staring out the window or doodling. As long as they are following along its not a problem and if they are not following along then zoom is not the issue.
It’s true that looking at screens for too long makes kids edgy and impatient. As a parent there are things you can do about it:
1. Give your child something to do like roll coins in playdough or cut papers with a scissors either during class or for a substantial amount of time after.
2. Make sure he has gross motor exercise between classes or at least once a day for 15 minutes. (The more the better).
3. Limit the amount of time he attends school by having him daven with you and not his class.
4. If you really feel that nothing else will help your child then have him call in by phone. It’s not the child that feels excluded, it’s the parent that feels excluded and it’s not fair to make the entire class lose out on valuable visual teaching unless all the parents in your child’s class agree.
Now is a perfect time to see how our children really learn in school- what their strengths and weaknesses are- and tailor their education the way a teacher of a big class cannot do.
Couldn’t have said it better. Thanks.
You can always call into zoom.
I know from experience that you put the phone down and walk off
And it is very hard to pay attention when you can’t see the teacher and the teacher can’t see you
In my family we have a 4 year old, a 7 year old and a 10 year old all learning by zoom and it is working wonderfully. They are fully immersed in the learning and are involved in what is going on. They are excited to go on every day. I really hope this petition does not gain momentum because that will be so bad for my family.
If you think that your child is not focusing on Zoom, he will have a much more difficult time on phone.
My kids’ school used phone calls before Pesach and switched to Zoom after and let me tell you, it was for a reason.
If you think your kid is a hard time focusing on Zoom how will they stay focused on a phone call when there is nothing visual to hold their attention?
These are weird times, everyone is adjusting, the kids, the teachers, the parents, this is hard for everyone. The best we can do is take advantage of all the tools Hashem provided for us!
Chazal say the world wasn’t worthy of gold and Hashem only created it for the Beis Hamikdash. Similarly, who knows if the world would have been worthy of a tool like the internet if it wasn’t necessary for allowing Jewish children to learn Torah?
Many families have more children in classes than phone lines… especially if you insist that it shouldn’t be a smartphone.
Not to say that the issues you raise are not issues, but not always is escaping the solution.
My kids did better before Pesach on the phone.
Also now I saw him watching some YouTube videos on the tablet that we gave him.
It’s a parents responsibility to make sure all devices are filtered!!!
As a student I can tell you that I experienced both phone classes and zoom classes and it’s a thousand times easier to concentrate in a zoom class. Yes I do sometimes spend half the class scrolling through the list of participants or doing work from other classes but those are in the classes that I would be spacing out in or ditching if we were in a regular setting. A phone class may not have as many buttons but it also leaves the student having to learn only through hearing and being distracted by everything they see around them.Most people need to have their eyes engaged in the subject matter in order to concentrate
אינו דומה ראיה לשמיעה
Why would such an article be published on a public forum?
It’s inaccurate, and hurtful to some.
Do we have to hear everyone’s boych svaras? Do better.
one of my kids used phone calls at the beginning of this, before pesach and let’s say he had five classes a day he showed up to maybe 1 or 2 (on a good day!) I am not saying there is no problem with zoom but it definitely is a LOT easier to focus as my son now shows up from 9 until 330 which is a drastic improvement
I’m not sure why this was published here. It seems like someone impulsively wrote this and rushed to send it; even the grammar looks very rushed. That being said, if the writer finds that Zoom is not working for her family, perhaps she should work it out with her children’s teacher or school. Why make it a big deal and try to change everyone?
I think we should give feedback to the zoom company and tell them that they should disable going on anything else besides for the class, only if the host lets you. That way, nobody can go on any other app and focus on the lesson. As a student, I know that it is much more easier to be able to see people; your teacher, friends etc. Before Pesach on the phone, I was very distracted and it was quite difficult.