Learning madness, or "There is another way"

Many daily newspapers report a very tense atmosphere in many families.

Quarantine and a sometimes large volume of school assignments have made the situation very tense in many places. But there is another way. We may quote a letter to parents from a Viennese school here.

Here is a letter that Pia, as a parents’ representative at a Viennese school, has made available to us:

(From: XXXXX XXXXX@schule.wien.gv.at To: “XXXXX (xxxxx@xxx-xxxxxxxx.at)” Cc: XXXXX XXXXX@schule.wien.gv.at

Date: 1 April 2020, 12:13 Subject: Letter to parents from XXXXXXXX before the 2020 Easter holidays)

Dear parents, we have now all been through almost three weeks of the corona crisis. I would like to thank all of you for supporting the school, the teachers and your children in this difficult time. Since yesterday it has been clear that the current form of distance teaching will continue at least until the end of April. How things go after that will depend on how the number of virus infections develops. Personally, however, I do not expect that we will be able to restore regular school operations before June.

We are therefore now moving towards establishing a learning situation for your children that is as professional and efficient as possible. This will depend on various factors and will not be organised in the same way in all classes. The aim is to ensure that as many pupils as possible take part in the learning process during this bridging phase caused by the corona crisis.

From now on, it is the responsibility of the teachers to decide to what extent new topics can also be covered.

In any case, however, we need the cooperation of all parents to ensure that the children can take part in the learning process. I therefore ask all parents, especially those for whom this has not worked so well so far, to keep in regular contact with the teachers (at least once a week) and to make sure that the children can actually complete the assigned work at home. After Easter, social workers will contact those families where we have the impression that the obligation of schooling or education may not be sufficiently fulfilled.

It is now solely your responsibility to ensure a balanced atmosphere at home. We know how challenging this situation is for parents at the moment, and I would like to express my very highest respect to you for managing it so well, as I have been able to see from many of the teachers’ reports.

Please also do not worry about missed class tests and exams. In times like these, such things move very much into the background and lose importance. However, we will certainly take the work currently being handed in and participation in activities into account as positive contributions in the final assessment of the semester.

After Easter, communication between school and parents will also be organised mainly via the Schoolfox platform. If you have not yet received a code or need help getting started, please contact (xxxxxxx or directly) me urgently. It is particularly important to me that we have a uniform school-wide form of communication that connects ALL parents and teachers and guarantees 100% reachability. (This letter to parents is also already being passed on via Schoolfox.)

For the necessary exchange of work on paper, tables have been set up in the school’s entrance porch where worksheets can be left. This area of the school is open and accessible every day (including during the Easter holidays) between 8:00 and 14:00.

We teachers already miss the children very much, because teaching is relationship work. So please hug and kiss your children from us and give them our very best wishes. We all hope that we will soon be allowed to see each other at school every day again.

Many thanks and kind regards, XXXXXXXXX

In addition, two PDFs to download We received these from a neuropsychological therapist (www.tilom-kosh.at, German).

EDUCATIONAL EXPERT REPORT (German) A DAILY PLAN (German)