Teachers pretend to embrace the e-school. Students are full of work. The psychologist looks at it in horror

- We've had enough! Learning and contacting teachers via the Internet from 8 to 23? One hundred homework tasks ("so you don't get bored") day by day? Over the Internet? Frustrating and chaotic attempts to organize video chats? This is not normal learning. We are not robots - students are urging after a week of distance teaching.

Student appeal: "I don't have time for anything"

We received an email from a 3rd grade student of technical school, which we quote with the author's consent:

I write with helplessness. I want to announce the tragic situation of students in the country and persuade those responsible for this change.

I am currently attending the 3rd grade of technical high school. In the media for two weeks it was written that teachers are only to encourage us to learn and send materials for repetition. The truth was completely different. Every day we got homework with a short deadline. Me and many of my friends sat at night and got up early in the morning to be able to do the task for the next day at the set time. The teacher was able to leave a note such as "no task = bubble :-)" in the message. My friend had to record training videos for a PE teacher. Now, my school introduces the obligation to consult by video call.

The amount of homework you ask is just one of the problems. The inability to complete lessons as part of the standard lesson plan means that students spend all day in front of the computer. One teacher expects to attend a videoconference at 8am, another speaks with the tasks at 11pm. In this way, when confined to the house, students feel that they spend the whole day under the supervision of the teacher. The point on the day the school ends and the student goes home. This is another important stressor (as if they were low).

Today at 23 the teacher wrote to us that at 8 am he starts lessons. Most students rebel. Sleep is our only moment of rest, we are not going to shorten it.

My life for two weeks consists of doing homework. I do not have time for anything. I don't have time for my family, I don't have time to rest, sometimes I don't have time to eat peacefully. It's like a 24/7 school. And I remind you that leaving the house is almost completely limited. It is like a prison for us young people. We have to spend the whole day on computers or telephones because some do not have computers. Anyone who has planned this does not think logically. He has no idea how it affects the psyche or even physical condition. For a week, my head hurts constantly, my eyes are watering. My colleagues, the same.

I honestly admit that the tone of the author's statements recalls my recent experience as a parent of an eighth-grade student, a situation in which no one fully controlled the material or preparation for the mysterious eighth grade exams. The student ends her letter with a dramatic appeal to teachers:

He calls for someone to react to the drama that takes place among the students. We have a lot of stress at the moment related to the situation and learning and zero rest. We are not robots. We are people. We have our families that we worry about. My mother is in Germany now. I don't know when I'll be able to see her. Many people in Poland are in a similar situation. The most important thing now is whether we can survive. Will our families be healthy? And not to do dozens of tasks every day without a moment of rest to keep up with the program. We want to bring this school year to an end, but not in such a way. You can't live like that

Lesson suspension

From March 16 this year. classes in all schools in Poland are officially suspended. Due to the expanding pandemic of coronavirus infection leading to COVID-19 disease, the Ministry of National Education decided to close schools and switch to distance learning. Never before has a Polish school been interested in conducting classes with such a large use of the Internet, and now it had to go to them almost overnight. Students, parents and teachers faced completely new challenges.

Students confirm

Our reader's letter is not an isolated voice. On each side we receive information about what has happened in schools over the last week. Anna, a student of the 1st grade of a high school in one of Poznań's schools, informs that last Monday began with an e-mail from a mathematician who simply ordered the next day to complete 60 tasks the next day. On Tuesday, students were given another 40 tasks. Deprived of standard teaching tools, teachers replace classes normally carried out at school with dozens of tasks to be completed at home. Often, however, the number of tasks to be completed independently is nothing to do with how many tasks students actually complete during the lesson.

This situation leads to absurdity. Students who are forced by quarantine to sit at home, from morning to night try to do the next homework to be able to send them back on time.

Teachers between a rock and hard place

On the other hand, I ask a teacher from one of the several dozen thousand inhabitants in Poznań.

I work honestly with each class as planned, but I don't know which students are actually doing what I'm asking for. Online lessons are pure fiction, at least in large classrooms. As far as I know, no free program can handle this. More importantly, some students do not have computers at home. Some say that there is nothing to do - after all, no one will go to the student to actually check if he has a computer. School management leaves teachers a free hand regarding the choice of tools, and this guarantees total chaos in the school. Attempts to have a live lesson have failed for now.

What's more, teachers themselves also feel pressure from above. A biology teacher from one of the technicians, describing the current situation, speaks of a kind of dissonance.

The management directs teachers not to exaggerate with the material, but on the other hand presses to document everything, so that no one later says that we did not do enough. The information chaos does nothing. We receive information that we can use the epodreczniki.pl portal, but it turns out that this system is not integrated with our journal, so most of the options it contains are useless to us. An hour later, as a suggestion, we get instructions to whereby.com - but there, in turn, video chat is limited to 4 people. It looks like searching solutions completely in the dark. Everyone is trying to figure out something on their own. Some teachers use the computer freely, but many are those who know the computer medium or poorly. Even if someone writes a computer instruction for them now, they will have huge problems.

Contrary to appearances, teachers are also aware of the impact they have on their students. On the part of teachers, however, the situation is slightly different. Although they are well aware of the burden on their students, they must also meet the requirements of the management, school boards and the ministry. Teachers are also afraid of their positions and whether someone will suspect them of having done too little material, gave too few grades. After all, the instruction to return to the core curriculum comes in advance, regardless of technical possibilities. And it is from the implementation of this command that the teacher is then accounted for.

We also hear voices from parents who see that their children are being overwhelmed with tasks. Some misconception of remote learning arose in schools. Teachers ask too much for fear of someone upstairs saying they are not doing enough. Slowly, reason is running out of all this.

You can't pretend that you can normally conduct classes like a month ago. The epidemic has changed the situation of many students, but also teachers. A familiar teacher now has her own children aged 2 and 5 at home. Babysitters will not call them in the current situation, so when looking after children he has to run lessons on the computer using software he does not know. If such a teacher has schoolchildren, they need a computer (each of their own) to participate in lessons, and she needs her to teach lessons in her class. Each of these people should have a separate computer and a separate room to manage somehow. In how many homes is this possible? Not to mention children from rural areas, where internet connections can be of very poor quality.

Psychologist: we became prisoners, we have the right to be afraid

From the above examples, it is clear that all parties involved in the education process: students, parents and teachers, found themselves in a completely new situation that no one manages. Students get irrational tasks from confused teachers who, on the one hand, do not get any support from their superiors, which is why they have to come up with ways to remotely transfer knowledge, but on the other, they must do something and ask something so that no one suspects them of inaction. This situation is one big accumulation of stress at many different levels. I asked psychologist Anna Bochenek to assess this situation, who has been working with children, young people and parents for 25 years.

We became "prisoners" of our homes. It is something completely new for adults who face their fears, their anger and powerlessness every day. Not to mention children and adolescents who have developmental goals - being among peers. Now, however, they are locked in homes without the opportunity to play football with friends, without the possibility of going to the cinema. They sit and listen ... about the number of infected ... about the number of deaths. We can all feel scared. We all have the right to fear for our own lives and the lives of our loved ones.

Based on his experience, the psychologist clearly states that in the current situation in the country, the implementation of the curriculum is practically impossible. Fears about health and life, change of teaching mode, lack of preparation of teachers and students for learning via the Internet, numerous problems with equipment, computer connection - these are all factors causing a lot of stress preventing any effective learning.

In my opinion, there is no room for "normal" learning, for the implementation of the core curriculum, no longer commenting on assessing the tasks performed. What happens in the school topic is EXPERIMENT. Teachers, subject to the pressure of superior institutions (Curatoria, Ministry of National Education), outdo each other in sending material for implementation. Students sitting all day on these tasks, or not implementing material at all (because they are also). Nobody thought about technical matters that are not trivial at all, nor about the organization of the lives of all household members (the number of rooms to be distributed among family members, the number of computers, parents working remotely and commuters, siblings present at home). And certainly no one has ever thought about the possibilities for parents to explain the intricacies of new messages from the core curriculum. Parents are not teachers and this is not their role.

I have the impression that this vicious circle is caused by anxiety. Everyone is afraid of the consequences of not completing their tasks. And long-term fear will lead us to long-term stress. I'm afraid to think what this stress will lead us to, which in the current situation may be an additional factor in reducing immunity.

All the above information allows us to state what we intuitively feel. The current situation is not normal. On the contrary, it is the most unprecedented period in the last few decades. You can't pretend that the stress of uncertainty about the future of our lives and health does not affect us all, including young people. It is impossible to say "leave the epidemic to adults, and go back to science on your own". If we add the school's transition from buildings to the Internet without any preparation, we will understand the situation of education.

Perhaps it would be worth looking at the situation realistically and recognize that you can do very little online. Students should maintain their current state of knowledge, organize some repetitions, take their time, recommend them books or films that they can watch at this time, and postpone the implementation of the standard core curriculum until everything returns to normal.

Teachers pretend to embrace the e-school. Students are full of work. The psychologist looks at it in horror