I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what education will look like post pandemic lately.
It seems to go without saying that more and more parts of the education puzzle will be moving to online instruction and student teacher interactions. In the ivory towers of the computer salespeople and the political wonks this seems to be a good idea. In the more well-off suburbs of the nation this also seems to be workable. (Other than reluctant parents that don’t want to spend all day with the children they chose to have. But that’s a rant for another day…) Down in the trenches things look a bit (OK, a lot) less rosy. The program I teach with focuses on people that are at the bottom of just about everything. A world of online education looks like this to them. View 1. One student dropped their phone recently and they do not have the funds to repair or replace it. While this student does have access to a computer at home, that computer is not connected to the internet. View 2. Another student had to pawn their computer to pay rent last month. View 3. Most of my students do not have a computer at all and the phones they have are generations behind. Some are lucky if they have a flip phone. View 4. Of those with smart phones, most are on throttled and/or pay as you go data plans. A single two hour live online class session could wipe out their access for the month. View 5. They may have a computer that is internet capable but live in an area with little to no internet service. All this is not to say that computers are evil and online education is impossible. Computers are merely tools. Tools can be very useful, but as great as a hammer is at driving in nails, it still hurts when I hit my thumb with one. We cannot blithely move forward with the idea that everyone has the same educational opportunities as we shift more and more to a system that does not have equal access for everyone. This is even more important to consider with GED students. By not having an educated piece of paper that offers career flexibility, GED students are somewhat by definition on the lower end of the economic scale. They are locked into whatever low paying job they can get. This offers a reality that sees internet access not as a necessity, but rather as a luxury. This sub-existence is something that many cannot conceive, let alone empathize with. This nation is currently looking at building a new education system that requires internet access as a backbone to travel on. Presto, you now have a two-tier education system that guarantees those in poverty remain there. As with most issues with education, it is a complex issue that most everyone hopes will just go away. I don’t have any solid answers. I do know that not having the conversation will not make the problem magically fix itself.
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As some of you have figured out by now, I am a teacher. Specifically, I teach GED for a court probation office. In other words, I am teaching in a small corner of a small world.
It is a corner and a world that most people know very little about. That's why I'm starting a new section of The Occasional Ravings called Dispatch from the GED Front. I hope to update it more often, and unlike my usual ravings that cover a wide range of topics, Dispatch will focus on GED stuff. Things like how government policies directly effect my students, things that keep me coming back to teach, and who are my students? To start with, what does the average GED student look like? Well, they look like you. I have students from poor families, well off families, and no families. I have young students. I have old students. I have motivated students. I have lazy students. Students that struggle with school as well as students that find school easy are in my classes. As I am teaching in a probation office, most of the students in my class are here because they were told to. Of these, some have a magical moment where they realize what attending GED classes can do to their future. I also have students that are looking for a better life. One of my favorite reasons for being one of my students is one of the many variations I hear of "I want to show my kids that education is important". Last year one of these students in my class not only celebrated the high school graduation of their child, but also got to brag about said child getting a full scholarship to the local state university. This is but one of the many stories from my classroom that I intend to share. Stories that illustrate the power, and the frustrations, of adult education. Stay tuned! This morning I investigated an online high school diploma at work that turned out to be fake. Looking at what the student bought in to, I thought I'd do a quick list on things to look out for when selecting a school.
The website in this case, Stanley High School, is set up to hook people and can look legit. Lots of pictures of smiling students, official sounding terms like accreditation, and a nifty seal complete with a Latin motto are plastered on every page. This helped convince the client to spend over $200 for a useless piece of paper. So what are some red flags to keep an eye out for?
There are some real online schools out there, that is what makes this a difficult issue. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much digging to find the truth. |
Step inside the mind of me.Hi. Welcome to my little electron of the internet, where you will find random comments about whatever pops into my mind! Previous mumblings
December 2021
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