This fall, Springfield Public Schools embraced a 100% remote schooling model. While safety remains a top priority, this shift in schooling style has placed an enormous burden on parents of school-age children –and they have stepped up to the challenge. “I applaud the parents,” Neal Creeden, twelfth-grade statistics teacher and math department chair at The Springfield Renaissance School said. “I’ve seen an uptick this year in parents advocating for [their children], wanting to check in to see how they can help, and staying up to date and clear on their assignments.”
Jackeline Colon, parent of two, ages 18 and 12, has lived at Liberty Hill Townhouses for six years. She has set up a space in each bedroom with a comfortable place for them to attend school, with a table, a chair, and a laptop. She makes sure to prepare lunches for her kids every school day at 10:40am on the dot, and snacks as well. Sometimes she helps with their work and homework. Marylis Correa, a Tapley Court Apartments parent, sets up a calendar for her 7-year old daughter, writes motivations on the wall, and even has a reward chart, to ensure that her daughter stays focused and motivated.
Katie Kruser, an elementary music teacher at Pottenger Elementary School on Carew Street says that the parents’ involvement with their children’s schooling has been crucial for her work to be successful. “Partnership is the only way to get through this whole thing,” she emphasized. “Parents are often in the background helping [their kids] and participating. It’s always encouraging to see parents getting involved.” She goes on to say that when the kids see their parents involved in the music activity, they think, I can do this too.
Colon and Correa are certainly two of those parents. Correa said that she does art with her daughter and chats with her during lunchtime. And when her daughter has individual study time (while online), she gets lonely, “She says, Mommy can you keep me company? I go in the room with my teacher chair, she does her math and her reading, the teacher checks in on her and sees how she’s doing.”
“There are many things that are problematic with this pandemic,” Creeden said, “but the fact that student support has been so great, has made it…way better than it could have been…I am grateful for parents’ involvement.” He went on to say that he truly feels that parent support and involvement is the silver lining in this pandemic.
Because of remote schooling, both Correa and Colon have schedules that have been turned upside down. But they take it all in stride. “I can’t leave the house and leave [my daughter] alone,” Colon said, “so I make sure to stay there until 2pm every day.” Colon is also doing extra cleaning in the home and making sure to keep everything is clean and germ-free in the house. And Correa has had similar changes. “My daily routine has changed. [Before] I could do things during the day, take care of everything while she’s in school. Now I wait until she gets out of school and we go and get groceries [together].”
While interviewing Colon and Correa about these changes and new responsibilities, neither one ever complained. “If things get better, I don’t mind them going back,” Colon said, but in the meantime, she prefers that they are home. “It’s tough,” she said, “But I don’t mind.”