What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

Anyone’s kids do online school? (1 Viewer)

3 hour lunch

Footballguy
Our 7th grader is pushing hard for it next year. She liked remote learning and deals with some anxiety pretty regularly. I worry that it might send her in the wrong direction as far as friends, social skills, etc. Anyone else pull the plug on regular school?

 
My kid is sticking to what she had this year. 4 classes online. 2 at the the high school.  The high school classes, will be in person next year.  I’m happy that she is doing some work at school next year. 

 
7th graders needs the social aspect of school.  Is she going to hide forever?

 
Our 7th grader is pushing hard for it next year. She liked remote learning and deals with some anxiety pretty regularly. I worry that it might send her in the wrong direction as far as friends, social skills, etc. Anyone else pull the plug on regular school?
Yes. Our eldest struggles with anxiety, depression, and other issues. They could not do high school in person for numerous reasons. I think you are right with your concerns. Isolation and lack of friends is its own issue. We are very stuck right now. If you haven't already I highly suggest counseling. We are having a hard time there as well trying to get the right kind of assistance. I could go on and on but back to your original question. They are currently doing ASU Digital Prep. I think it's a pretty solid program and anyone can attend anywhere in the country. No issues with the program itself. I thiy every kid is different as far as what works for them. Good luck.

 
Anxiety is not about hiding. It's a serious debilitating complex mental health issue.
Also a lot of the behaviors in middle school are really negative. I kind of wish I had just stayed home and learned rather than go through middle school and I was pretty popular- it still totally sucked. 

 
Anxiety is not about hiding. It's a serious debilitating complex mental health issue.
And avoiding in-person school is not dealing with the condition.  If she skips 7th grade, what do you think she'll want to do in 8th?

 
With all due respect it's not that simple.
Not trying to imply it is.  But given the option almost any kid with anxiety would gladly not have to deal with real life if possible.  This is not going to make "real life" go away. 

If she has a diagnosis of anxiety she can get a "Section 504" to give her accommodations while at school.  I just wrote one this morning.  That may include breaks to go see the school counselor, school nurse or therapist (if they have one in the school - we are lucky enough to have a full time therapist in our school).  IF it is very debilitating she may qualify for an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) to have actual personnel there to help deal with her anxiety. 

From the many kids I've seen with anxiety over my 26 years of doing what I do - the worst thing a kid can do is avoid school.  It doesn't end well.

 
With all due respect it's not that simple.
It’s not that simple, but this is my fear, basically. Seems like it would be hard to go back. We do have her speaking with a counselor and she also utilizes the one at school occasionally. I’m guessing we will keep her in school but she’s really pushing for it.

 
Not trying to imply it is.  But given the option almost any kid with anxiety would gladly not have to deal with real life if possible.  This is not going to make "real life" go away. 

If she has a diagnosis of anxiety she can get a "Section 504" to give her accommodations while at school.  I just wrote one this morning.  That may include breaks to go see the school counselor, school nurse or therapist (if they have one in the school - we are lucky enough to have a full time therapist in our school).  IF it is very debilitating she may qualify for an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) to have actual personnel there to help deal with her anxiety. 

From the many kids I've seen with anxiety over my 26 years of doing what I do - the worst thing a kid can do is avoid school.  It doesn't end well.
I’d be interested to hear the outcomes you’ve seen. I don’t even know anyone that’s ever tried it.

 
Not trying to imply it is.  But given the option almost any kid with anxiety would gladly not have to deal with real life if possible.  This is not going to make "real life" go away. 

If she has a diagnosis of anxiety she can get a "Section 504" to give her accommodations while at school.  I just wrote one this morning.  That may include breaks to go see the school counselor, school nurse or therapist (if they have one in the school - we are lucky enough to have a full time therapist in our school).  IF it is very debilitating she may qualify for an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) to have actual personnel there to help deal with her anxiety. 

From the many kids I've seen with anxiety over my 26 years of doing what I do - the worst thing a kid can do is avoid school.  It doesn't end well.
This is very personal to me so it's best I stop engaging in the discussion. Thanks for your input.

 
I taught online (hybrid, really, with some in person, except for winter which was all online.) I suppose it could work for some kids, but for the vast majority, it’s massively inferior to in-person. I’m a believer in learning in a community so my bias is clear. Online ended up being worse than I anticipated. I sugar coat it when talking to parents as I’m at a private school and don’t want them to pull their kid. But it stunk. 

 
In homeschool land we have seen kids with severe anxiety be able to relax and deal with real life better than the stress involved in the artificial social setting of school. We have a lot of kids in our group in our small town. I’m sure there are many just like us where you are. My 8-10th grade students do online academics through a virtual school in Florida. Then they socialize with kids in sports/theater/4-H whatever their interests are. I highly recommend it. I can help you find resources in your area if you want. 

 
This is very personal to me so it's best I stop engaging in the discussion. Thanks for your input.
Fwiw...I'm appreciating both of your input. And fwiw, Im not reading Hovs comments as antagonistic or contrary to what you're writing.

You both seem to want what's best for the kid and it IS complex and not simple, so the more POV the better, imo. I hope you keep posting.

My opinion is more in line with Clownschools home school option. I fear for a child's development without social interaction, but if the anxiety is crippling enough, dealing with it in social situations that are more manageable is a better solution to me than sitting in front of a computer without any direct human engagement. 

 
Also a lot of the behaviors in middle school are really negative. I kind of wish I had just stayed home and learned rather than go through middle school and I was pretty popular- it still totally sucked. 
Middle school was easily the worst time I ever had in any school, and it’s really not close. I hated pretty much every second of it.

 
Middle school was easily the worst time I ever had in any school, and it’s really not close. I hated pretty much every second of it.
Same here and again I didn’t have any more anxiety than what is typical for that age (which is a lot) and I was popular. It still sucked because there was pressure to stay popular, to be friends with people you didn’t like and not be friends with people you did, people were constantly being mean to everyone and peer pressure turned me from model student who loved school to lots of high risk behaviors. If you would have asked me in 6th grade if would ever smoke or drink before I was an adult, I would have said no way. By 8th grade I was sometimes taking shots before school with my friends, stealing smokes from friends parents and shoplifting. 
 

Now like I said, I didn’t have anxiety and being social was never an issue for me so I get the arguments for being in school to build social skills but I also completely understand why reasonable kids wouldn’t want anything to do with middle school. 

 
I’d be interested to hear the outcomes you’ve seen. I don’t even know anyone that’s ever tried it.
Please take note that most of my experience is at the elementary level (pre-K through 5th grade) and I fully understand that middle school is a different world.  I myself had horrible experiences in 6th and 7th grades.  If I had been given the option to stay home and learn I would have.  I'm glad I didn't have that option as I would have never met a friend that I still have today.

We have had about 20 (out of about 90) students that have come back to in-person learning in January.  It has been a very difficult transition for about 7 of them.  Mostly social.  They feel alienated and drift into the shadows or feel they have to overcompensate and be the "class clown" - one had gotten violent and was expelled for 3 days.

That's just this year where parents had the option for their students to be on-line. 

In the past I've had several students (it always seems it's in 1st grade or 5th grade) that have had some pretty severe anxiety about coming to school.  A few the parents just gave up and "home schooled"  (I'm putting that i quotes because in my experience they were not prepared to actually teach their kid and it was more of a last ditch effort to make it all go away - I am in no way disparaging home-schooling)  Almost every time (I'd say 95%) the student will come back to us or enter school again in middle school/high school and they are not only behind academically, but woefully unprepared for the social aspect of school.

 
i don't really talk to anyone i went to high school with, let alone middle school.  i value the social skills learned, but as far as developing life long friends at 12-18 years old?  it's not part of my experience.  

with my 14 year old daughter, everything is SUPER important regarding her friends(drama).  i know that she is learning valuable life skills and has to go through some growing pains, but she's a happier kid, when she's not around the demon spawn, that are her friends. teenage girls are the worst.  imho, she won't even talk to any of them in 6-10 years.   :shrug:  

 
My 16 year old junior hasn't attended in-person school since the first semester of her freshman year, for a combination of reasons.   She had a 504 plan that just made things more difficult, since when she was in school it highlighted to the other students that she needed accommodations.   In middle school/high school, getting singled out can cause all sorts of social issues.   Also some teachers are really bad about following 504 plans, because when they have 25-30 students a class and 4 or 5 classes a day, taking extra time to deal with one student takes effort, and some teachers don't want to bother.   

Online learning has its drawbacks.   It's hard to track progress.   The social aspect of in-person school is lacking.   There is too much free time.   But if it's a better fit, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks if take time to stay involved and make significant efforts to address the issues.

She does plan on going back for her senior year.   

 
My daughter left in person school halfway though her Sophomore year and has been in online since. I have mentioned her situation here before She was diagnosed with anxiety and depression;.  She did extremely well the 2nd half of her Sophomore year and now all of her Junior year. She is ending this year with all A's or A+ and that is with classes like AP BIO, AP US History, Honors English, Pre-AP Calc,  This year also included a year long Japanese and a computer game design course. I have been so fortunate to have worked from home since March of last year so I was kind of her social outlet during this time.and we would go out and adventure during the week as much as Covid would allow. She has maintained several (not a lot) of friends, but she is starting to expand her circle slowly. I am happy to see this as she was extremely popular and outgoing when she left regular school, She is going back to regular high school next year. She is doing really well now that we have found the right balance of meds and professionals. 

The biggest thing about online schooling is, as a parent, you better be ready to make that commitment. Her mom and I are the learning coaches. We split the classes--she is the math and science person and I am the history and computer teacher--we both did English. There were nights and weekends we had to do hours of school work with her. Some of these teachers did live lessons. Others would offer recorded lessons. Some would just make themselves available by email. The rigor has been incredible. This last semester she had 475 assignments to complete. Some of these were like 15-18 page labs or 10 page research papers..She has 12 assignments left and 5 days.  For online schooling to work, your child has to be motivated and parents have to make the time for it and be involved. 

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top