Why Can’t We Just Have Class Outside?
This month, Berkeley public schools, like many school districts across the country, announced they will not start the year with full-time, in-person school. Soon after, J Li, a business-innovation strategist who lives in the area, noticed moms in the local Facebook groups turn, like starlings at dusk, to one topic in particular: homeschool pods.
Reluctant to face more months supervising Zoom classes, wealthy parents are grouping together in families of three or four and hiring someone to privately teach their children, at a cost of thousands of dollars a month.
“So what are poor parents going to do?” I asked Li.
“I mean, get fucked,” she said, frustrated that the government hasn’t come up with a solution for everyone.
As the first day of school rapidly approaches, people across the United States who can’t afford this system of private governesses are desperate for alternatives to in-person schooling or all-day Zoom. Both these options, after all, raise thorny objections. Teachers, and many parents, to resume in-person schooling in the fall, fearful that children could have internet access, so poor kids Even if they can get online, having a 7-year-old stare at a computer all day is generally not seen as advisable by child-development experts.
