Urgent Help Needed: Transitioning Pre-Pandemic Kids to F2F Classes

I wish my youngest incoming Grade I kid would’ve shared the same enthusiasm that a first day F2F (face to face) class could bring, but unfortunately it wasn’t the case.

The pandemic struck perfectly when he should’ve been in school trying to learn to socialize. That was the other edge of the sword that some of us had to deal with. Of course for fairness sake I have to admit that being “forced” to stay at home and becoming a more hands-on dad for more than a couple of years rocked more than it sucked.

But it hits differently for the little fella: he went around his room fluently reading all the visuals that he can read while his classmates were attentively writing their names on a piece of paper as instructed by their teacher. Not understanding the importance of staying still on his seat and writing his name as instructed, he became “unruly”. My educator wife could’ve argued to her heart’s content (she knows perfectly well what her and our kids’ rights are) when it comes to the “should’ves” of our kid who needs to adjust to the F2F setup. But we opted to talk to a private school instead.

I felt pity for the little boy. Some tears fell, and God knows how painful those tears were for me as a parent.

Learning opportunity out of the lost opportunity

Obviously, we had a pandemic to blame for the lost opportunity to teach the kid the basics of having classmates and authority figures in school. But because we’re trying hard to be rational, we also understand the importance of F2F and neither of us are against the implementation of which. We recognize however that this is a learning opportunity for school and parents alike to improve the kids’ F2F experience:

It should’ve been anticipated that kids with similar issues will flood the school –

– right at the start of the F2F classes, which will lead to the second part of my argument.

Something could’ve been done on the part of the school

Instead of the teacher giving my wife blank looks that say “it’s not just on you, it’s on us also but we cannot do anything at the moment so we’re very sorry. Go find help elsewhere…” It is obvious that there is either absence of set procedures that will supposedly address the said transition issue at hand, or if there are set rules from the top, it is not being properly implemented on the ground.

It’s fortunate that we can find help where we need them and when we need them. But just thinking how hopeless it is for other parents because of the kind of response of the teachers that we encountered, I can’t help but feel pity towards mine and other’s kids, and a bit of resentment to school authorities who obviously could’ve done better.