Sun Valley Jose Mier Addresses Distance Learning
As you know one of our cherished neighborhoods in Sun Valley is Stonehurst. We profiled the Stonehurst neighborhood on the Sun Valley Jose Mier website before and one of the key features of this neighborhood is Stonehurst Elementary school.
Stonehurst, like just about every other school in Los Angeles County has begun classes for the new school year. However, like those other schools these classes will be held online through zoom meetings.
It’s an unfortunate situation that our youth are prevented from learning physically in a classroom and must instead learn while sitting in front of their computer at home. We know this is kind of an err-on-the-side-of-caution approach and that community leaders as well as the state government feels it’s best and safer to keep students away from schools. This may or may not be a wise decision given that it seems very unlikely that young children will contract the coronavirus. But there are other concerns.
Anecdotal evidence has shown that it’s more difficult to keep children engaged when they have to sit in front of a computer screen at home rather than being in the classroom physically. Some may not even log on at all. It also causes problems for parents. What does a parent do if he or she has to go to work but his or her child or children must stay at home to attend school virtually? This is an extra hardship on parents who may either have to forgo working to be with their children or to try to find some solution such as having another family member watch the kids or hiring someone to do it. That latter option may not be feasible since families may not want to invite a so-called stranger into their house for fear of the spread of the coronavirus.
Regardless, schools such as Stonehurst elementary are forging ahead with their online class schedule. For those whose children are enrolled at Stonehurst you can view their schedule and all the online meetings and classes on their website.
Sun Valley Jose Mier does not have a solution for all the difficulties online learning may cause but we think it’s important to point these out for the purposes of discussion. If you have a child enrolled in a local school and are dealing with the same problems we’d love to hear any input from you and any possible solutions. And let’s hope and pray that we see a tapering off or an end to the coronavirus soon.