Life is divided into three terms – that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future. –William Wordsworth We crave static and loathe dynamic, but today’s reality flips that paradigm on its head. Yet,…
Many are doing more with less, while living through the global, systemic retreat from “life as we knew it”, induced by a virus we cannot see. For some, though, doing the “same with less” is now their life’s maxim, having accepted substantial pay cuts to remain employed during the current economic upheaval. As Megan Casella…
Until mid-March 2020, parents and students each had defined roles and processes when working together to manage a student’s education. Yet, the COVID-induced closure of school campuses and the subsequent implementation of distance learning, upended a well-worn family dynamic. During a typical Pre-COVID school day, all students had a ready-made structure to manage their academic…
Reason #1,345,765 that applying to college is complicated by competing interests, in reference to the meme above, a parent’s intellect vs. a parent’s heart. The possible fear and excitement of the unknown, a new chapter separating parents’ and children’s lives by beginning college in the next twelve months, may be a bittersweet reward for decades…
On Friday, July 17, in response to the growing numbers of confirmed COVID cases statewide, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered all public and private K-12 schools in 33 of 58 counties, affecting nearly 80% of all Californians, to begin the school year with distance learning. As we discussed in Managing a return to normal in…
The 2020-21 school year plans of 1075 colleges, almost a third of all colleges in the US, as compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education While the pandemic shows no sign of abating, increasingly college administrators are wrangling with how to maintain the efficacy of their institutions in a time of crisis. As crowded school…
In mid-March 2020, due to lockdowns (shelter-in-place orders) implemented often helter-skelter throughout the nation and around the globe, parents welcomed their college students who were sent home to their childhood bedrooms. Back home, living under the same roof simultaneously forced the transformation of the parent-adult children dynamic (when the child is no longer a child),…
Leaders in the California Department of Education are proposing to reopen schools in phases, by grade level with elementary school students and teachers returning to campuses first. Elementary school students constitute the greatest number of K-12 students and the greatest percentage of schools in California, so prioritizing their return to school will serve the most…
As civic leaders seek to revitalize economic activity yet not at the cost of public health, many families are uncertain how to plan for the next school year to ensure continuity in their children’s learning. Adding complexity, on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 Senator Lamar Alexander also stated: Schools should plan for COVID to last at…
Amidst the COVID-19 health crisis disrupting educational and instructional continuity, students, parents, and educators are asking and being asked questions about the current educational process, which is also spurring discussions about the value of education. The following is a selection of education-related news stories from the past few weeks, offering insights about the shifts…
Many students, who while at college are “adults in training”, returned home for the remainder of the school year, finishing their studies online. Yet, the unintended consquence is reverting to childhood roles, letting moms “mother” them, as they willingly reliquish the independence they sought by moving away for college in the first place. One first…
