COVID-19 Or Modern-day Revolution: How Do Kids Cope-up With The Changing Education?
Does it sound weird? Maybe, but ever since the coronavirus pandemic hit us, it has somehow brought drastic changes in every sector of our life that too in no time. Whether it is about our basic indoor activities like eating, cooking, cleaning or even sleeping, or else about our extrinsic activities, working mode, communicating, you name them, it is there. Isn’t the definition of revolution states the same? The only difference is, in legit revolution, a certain set of people buys the change; here, that prestigious work is performed by a mere virus. The significant change or can say revolution, is seen in our working and education sector. Working from home and online teaching is the new normal. But is it so easy to adopt the change? Maybe working adults or senior students can embrace the changes. But let’s see how our tiny tots are dealing with it.
First, as Landon Parham said, life isn’t just about darkness; it’s about finding the light within the darkness. So, through this online teaching, there is a ray of light that we should focus upon. Students are asked to be on track regarding their syllabus via 'online learning'. Truth is spoken; this virtual learning has made students more independent and self-reliant. This is also helpful in making them aware of the nuances of the virtual world. But, at the same time, darkness should be addressed. This shift from physical to virtual learning has been quite stressful for the children because they are not accustomed to this new education side. Children as young as 5-6 years have developed symptoms such as headaches and dry eyes, but these are the attributes that can be taken care of.
But what about the psycho-social changes in pre-primary and primary children? Psycho-social attributes show the difference in their feeling, behaving and thinking of an individual upon interaction with environmental, social and cultural influences. Many children have started exhibiting behavioural changes such as stubbornness, bedtime fear, throwing tantrums, developed erratic sleep habits, having lower attention span, indiscipline and lesser interest in social interaction and outdoor games. On top of all these, they have to deal with the trauma of people around them getting sick, quarantined, sudden demise, disruption of their life and family's economic hardship. And the most noticeable of all 'anxiety' of not being able to connect in the classroom and with school friends. The most affected of all is online classes for nursery, KG, because parents are reluctant to online classes, saying that the creative attention is more important than academics as long as they have quality time at home.
Many parents have started working upon developing the kid's creative side. Kids are made to connect with their peer groups virtually, to make them feel them relatable with others, decreasing their anxiety levels. There has been an increase in parent-child interaction due to the pandemic and parents are looking forward now to look for games to play with their kids. This is very helpful in learning sportsmanship and developing intrinsic motivation towards outdoor games.
Other than this, this is high time for schools to realize that instead of turning a physical class into a virtual and making them sit through 3 hours session is not helping them.
Instead, a to and fro interaction in a 60 minutes class is more than enough to teach them. Rather than giving them tons of homework, schools should provide them with activities, make them active and challenge their cognition process. This takes their mind off from society's negative issues in these times.
This is the time of hardship, no doubt in it and the time to be a warrior as well. Our tiny tots are also trying to cope, but of course, there come consequences. And here, the consequences are the behavioural changes; need to be addressed at the very time. But we shouldn’t forget its not permanent, sunsets to rise again the next morning. What we can do is, wait. The whole of humanity is waiting right now for this revolution to end. So that we can be back to our regular; physically, mentally, socially, psychological fit.
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