Dr. Cheryl Pruitt and Dr. Marlon Mitchell COVID19 and Parents as the First Educator
Cheryl Pruitt and Marlon Mitchell together have over 50 years of community and education service.
The First Educator
Dr. Cheryl Pruitt said this year, COVID-19 forced its way into our global community. It has disrupted the world economy, our healthcare systems and is wreaking havoc on our educational systems. Its disdain for industry is like none other we have encountered. Its path is devastating, leaving sickness and death at our doorsteps. It has found its way into our homes and has forced us into confinement. Great leadership assembles the best talents to deals with major issues. The resultant condition of COVID-19 causes us to rethink how we educate teachers, parents, guardians and students about the very notion of instruction in this time of “Social Distancing.” This new normal has exposed the inequities in our already troubled system of American education, particularly in urban and rural communities.
Every home is a university, and the parents are the teachers. — Mohandas K. Gandhi
Dr. Cheryl Pruitt said the first educator that children have are their parents. Many new parents find themselves overwhelmed with the awesome responsibility of raising a child. Somehow, parents manage to persist improvising along the path to independence and adulthood. In our country, most of the children educational path includes extended stays 180 days a year in places called schools. COVID-19 was never factored into the equation of educating one’s child changing the formula to including them in the extended stay portion of the formula.
In an effort to slow the spread of the virus, our leaders have enacted hastily arranged policies, laws and guidelines. Indiana, along with 39 other states and US territories took unprecedented and far-reaching action to slow the pandemic by way of executive orders collectively known as “Stay in Place” imperatives. These orders mandated the closure of schools, colleges and universities directing them to use alternative means for educating students and conducting the administrative tasks in the education sector. The preferred approach for instruction is eLearning Dr. Cheryl Pruitt added.
This web-based approach to learning is not new. The development and implementation of eLearning has proceeded apace for decades. Other methods of distance learning have been in place for even long. However, the current crisis has thrown us into the proverbial deep end of the pool. eLearning is now everyone’s concern. Dr. Cheryl Pruitt said parents with young and adolescent children find themselves feeling like neophyte parents all over again. This time the task includes serving as the principle authority for providing education and instructional support for their children in the Digital Age.
Aneeta Brownfield, a caring, dedicated and resourceful parent, who is the primary caretaker for her elderly father and the mother of two children found herself in a difficult position when the school district in her community decided to close the schools and switch to eLearning for the remainder of the school year. She found herself in a dilemma because she did not have nor could she afford internet access. Aneeta stated, “I sent my children to live with their sister two hours away so that they would have internet access to complete their assignments. I wish that I could have got it for them. I just did see how I could afford it.”
Her issue is not unfamiliar to many in her community. Indeed, inequality is a hallmark of American education. Data published by the clearinghouse, City-Data far North Lake County, IN reported a burgeoning 10% unemployment rate and a median household income of $27,264. Approximately 35.3% of residents had an income below the poverty level in 2017, which was 61.8% greater than the poverty level of 13.5% across the entire state of Indiana. Taking into account residents not living in families, 23.3% of high school graduates and 47.3% of non-high school graduates live in poverty. The poverty rate was 20.3% among disabled males and 30.1% among disabled females. The renting rate among poor residents was 82.9%. For comparison, it was 45.9% among residents with income above the poverty level.
On average, 50% of school age children live at or below the poverty level. The public schools in the district like many others across the nation moved to an online learning environment. This action was done with the best interest of the students in mind. However, given the lack of resources and support for delivering instruction available to parents, our education system once again is failing our children. Parents living with extreme economic challenges are unlikely to have or be able to afford the internet access needed to engage the eLearning platform, further, the low educational attainment and literacy rates often accompanying poverty are critical factors for them staying poor. The internet has become essential for acquiring the education, employment, tools and resources critical to escaping poverty.
The tragic inequity in education laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic must be addressed systemically with innovative policy at the federal and state levels. We must view these challenges as opportunities to provide marginalized and underserved populations with the tools that will stimulate their growth and help them to become better parents who will raise and educate the next great generation of Americans.
