Skip to main content

Guest Blog by Symphony (My Niece)

                                                 
             
                 Distance Learning
                        By Symphony, age 10


Distance learning has flaws, but it’s kind of the best we can do right
now. I’m in fourth grade, and I go to a French school. My class only
has three and a half hours of school each week, and this is a problem.
I’m not saying I’m a superfan of school, which I’m not, but because
my teachers don’t have enough class time, they give insane amounts
of homework. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but just yesterday
I had to do 6 or 7 things for school. (Some things I did procrastinate,
but still.) It took over an hour. 

I’m okay with the balance between class time and homework, but it’s
still sort of a problem. I understand the teachers’ job is to educate us kids,
but they don’t get the time to do so, so they give us a whole bunch of
homework instead! Just this week, I probably did over ten things for
homework! I can’t imagine the horror college students must be going
through. In high school and college, they already have about 3 hours of
homework a day, and with less time for class it must be around 5 hours!

My class had nearly 6 hours at school every day, and now when we’re on
Zoom with my class, it’s only 1 hour of French per day on Wednesdays and
Thursdays, and on Tuesdays I have 1 hour of English, and then on Fridays
I have half an hour of French reading. You’re probably asking yourself, “Why
is she listing her class schedule? I don’t care about that.” Well, I know that, and
I don’t mind. The list of my classes looks long, but it’s really not. If you do the
math, it’s only 3 and a half hours.
 
There’s not even really a website designed for distance learning, I mean there’s
Google Traslate and Zoom, which is what my class uses, but there is not
really one designed to video chat with your class. But most people use Zoom,
so it's a good enough platform.
 
In conclusion, distance learning has its flaws, but it’s doing okay. Sort of.




                                                                           Note: this is an opinion.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Volunteers

I had some of the most overqualified volunteers ever in my third grade class.  This may have had something to do with the fact that I shamelessly begged my friends to help in any way possible.  I think there were a few friends who I asked to come as soon as I met them, before I was entirely sure of their names.  Some of my volunteers included: -Someone with an MFA helping kids read -a PhD candidate in chemical engineering from Stanford helping with math -a PhD candidate in civil engineering from Cal helping with math -several PhD candidates in engineering from Cal teaching about construction (several years in a row) and helping with a field trip -my extremely talented brother bringing his drums several times -a friend from Pixar who got us tours three different years, once when they were no longer giving tours - and came to the class to sign the kids' toys from Cars . -a physical therapist (who I think has a masters') who helped the kids with reading -many athlet...

The Difference a School Makes

Update:   9/28/26: If you are reading this, the spoiler alert is that things got much harder for Jorge after this, and we kept in touch over the decades, even as he’s been incarcerated. He’s getting out of prison in early 2027 and I’m raising money to help him start his life fresh because everyone deserves second chances. Please take a look! Wow. I've talked before about the two kids that a friend and I mentor in a way. I'll call them Jorge (the older one) and Luis (the younger). I had Jorge in my class in third grade and he has had it rough. He's the oldest of six children and was born when his mother was 14. His mom is frequently in rehab or jail, although she seems to have been out for the last couple of years. If she's clean or not is anyone's guess. Jorge helped his grandmother raise Luis. He's always been super over-responsible, stressed out, and had way too many adult responsibilities. About a year ago, Jorge started to crack. He was 13, which isn't f...

Cinderella, retold (and much better)

A seventh-grade student rewrote Cinderella and I think it’s much better! The Dressmakers Once there was a girl named Cinderella whose mother died. Then her father married again, a woman who did not care for Cinderella. She only cared for her own daughters and her husband's fortune. Cinderella’s father made sure they were always fair to Cinderella but two years later,  her father died. Cinderella was left alone with her  stepmother and stepsisters. Cinderella was treated like a house maid but got no money for her work. She had to make the meals, iron the clothes and more. But on some things, like cleaning the windows and floor, Cinderella had to clean them five times per day or according to her stepmother, they will not shine as much as they should.    Cinderella would often cry by a tree by her parents' graves. In that tree lived a little bird who Cinderella would talk with. She would talk to the bird about her stepmother’s many chores and little love for her, a...