The one thing that the Coronavirus has done is turn my family life upside down and all around. Every traditional routine that we have established is out of the window and will need to be reconstructed from scratch. My children have become bored with not going to school and extraocular activities, which has resorted in a lot of sibling rivalry throughout the house. Even bedtimes aren’t truly established anymore because every day is the weekend with the school year being over. You heard me right, Pennsylvania public schools closed indefinitely and they will hopefully return next September.
Our school district has fortunately resorted to home schooling utilizing Zoom which I am appreciative of to say the least . They are not concerned with grades, but they are focused on every assignment being completed properly. Good old education plain and simple without any federal government interference with pre-existing programs that are failures. Seems like this year every child is left behind and it is up to the parents to make sure their child is receiving a good education.
I have been blessed with children that have excelled in school and are in the top percentile of their age group, but I wonder about the kids who need additional assistance. How much will these current events affect their future? I sure do hope the school district has taken this into consideration, but it’s just hard to say what their concerns are these days. It feels like the entire educational system was forced to close this year.
I do feel bad for the young adults that were in their senior year of high school and college. Some memories cannot be replaced and Covid-19 stole those memories forever. And what about those star athletes that were hoping to be scouted during their senior year for college or professional leagues. Without a doubt, once in a lifetime opportunities have been lost.
I really can’t complain because my wife and I have chosen to sacrifice materialistic things in life so that she could be a stay at home mom. The decision to close schools has only been an inconvenience for us, while others have been forced to take drastic measures to find childcare. I can only imagine what it would have been like if both of us needed employment just to make ends meet.
As I stated in a previous blog post, things will never be the same. I truly think people will reevaluate how they choose to live their lives and will not take everything for granted moving into the future. In a weird way, I suspect the United States will be stronger mentally after this pandemic. Financially is another subject and only time will tell.
Pennsylvania Department of Education