What would virtual schooling look like in 1992
From the terror on Capitol Hill to lock downs and curfews here in Canada, we’re all left wondering what on earth is in store for us this year. I read a quote saying that 2021 smiled at 2020 and said, “hold my beer”. With what’s going on in the world, it had better be a strong one. #thestruggleisreal
One struggle that is taking social media mommy groups buy storm that’s going on right inside homes all over our province that doesn’t involve a virus, unless it’s a virus on your computer – is the challenge of homeschooling their kids.
Right now, families all around us are doing their best to keep their sanity while working from home, hosting zoom meetings with jam-stained shirts and dogs barking – their kids in school from the comfort of their kitchen table yelling every five minutes about the internet speed or that they don’t understand new math. To add to this new "work-school eco-system" families are supposed to work together, eat together, play together, burn off steam together – all while finding time to somehow not kill each other, do the laundry, referee recess, cook, clean, and somewhere in there, sleep. There’s a great new streamed adult cartoon that helps parents cope called Peeno and Greejio Save the Day! I hear it’s best to relax and watch a couple of episodes in one sitting but to note that binging this show can lead to sleepless nights and a headache the next morning.
If the pandemic hit in 1992 when I was in my first year of high school, this is what would have transpired.
Nothing.
Just like today, we were not prepared for this. Sending kids physically to school was the anticipated way for them to socialize, learn, make friends and tucker them out.
Virtual schooling would have seemed like a form of voodoo back then. The internet was just starting to gain momentum with innocent IQC chats, email interactions and accidentally found access to dark web gateways. Never in a million years could we ever have envisioned the information highway that we were headed towards that included controlling everything from banking to workout tracking, and all forms of communication in between – all held in a little pocket computer we now call a phone.
For us in 1992, “working at home” for parents only worked if you were a caregiver, ran a home business or were a stay-at-home parent. Even affording a “family” home computer was a luxury, not a necessity. We got our first home computer in 1996 complete with a 250MB HD, floppy disk AND CD drives. Not only could I play Oregon Trail – I could listen to my Moxy Früvous CD at the same time. #mindblown
But there were three of us in school. There’s no way my single mom could afford for us to each to have a computer to handle the imaginary workload. And Mom was a teacher as well, so not only would she have to be teaching her own classes, but she’d also have to be helping the three of us with ours as well!
Right now, families all around us are doing their best to keep their sanity while working from home, hosting zoom meetings with jam-stained shirts and dogs barking – their kids in school from the comfort of their kitchen table yelling every five minutes about the internet speed or that they don’t understand new math. To add to this new "work-school eco-system" families are supposed to work together, eat together, play together, burn off steam together – all while finding time to somehow not kill each other, do the laundry, referee recess, cook, clean, and somewhere in there, sleep. There’s a great new streamed adult cartoon that helps parents cope called Peeno and Greejio Save the Day! I hear it’s best to relax and watch a couple of episodes in one sitting but to note that binging this show can lead to sleepless nights and a headache the next morning.
If the pandemic hit in 1992 when I was in my first year of high school, this is what would have transpired.
Nothing.
Just like today, we were not prepared for this. Sending kids physically to school was the anticipated way for them to socialize, learn, make friends and tucker them out.
Virtual schooling would have seemed like a form of voodoo back then. The internet was just starting to gain momentum with innocent IQC chats, email interactions and accidentally found access to dark web gateways. Never in a million years could we ever have envisioned the information highway that we were headed towards that included controlling everything from banking to workout tracking, and all forms of communication in between – all held in a little pocket computer we now call a phone.
For us in 1992, “working at home” for parents only worked if you were a caregiver, ran a home business or were a stay-at-home parent. Even affording a “family” home computer was a luxury, not a necessity. We got our first home computer in 1996 complete with a 250MB HD, floppy disk AND CD drives. Not only could I play Oregon Trail – I could listen to my Moxy Früvous CD at the same time. #mindblown
But there were three of us in school. There’s no way my single mom could afford for us to each to have a computer to handle the imaginary workload. And Mom was a teacher as well, so not only would she have to be teaching her own classes, but she’d also have to be helping the three of us with ours as well!
Our version of calling on Google to help us find information was the library, but with libraries closed, we would have to rely completely on our parents to dust off the Encyclopedia Britannica’s, Coles Notes (from Mom’s teaching stash) and calling our friends for more information.
Talking to our teachers was always done through letters back and forth between our parents and the school, or in-person parent-teacher conferences and phone calls. Not emails, Blackboard messaging, Duo classes or Zoom meetings.
I have no idea how parents are doing it. I’m in absolute awe.
The only thing that we can relate to is the need to be resourceful.
I remember in grade 12, Grace was in our production of Guys and Dolls and teachers went on strike mid-production. But the show must go on, right? We came together and sourced everything ourselves. Between marketing the show, making posters, selling tickets, leading rehearsals, safely building sets, designing and sewing costumes and all because of this unprecedented “Work-to-Rule”. And it was hard. There were tears, and stresses, and roadblocks – but like today, the challenge brought us together to achieve the common goal of overcoming adversity.
We’ve gotten through worse and we’ll get through this too.
Thank you to all the parents out there who have added yet another hat to their astronomically high stack of hats you already wear. You may feel like you’re hanging on by a thread but know that thread is made of unbreakable tungsten steel, perseverance and love. And thank you to all the teachers who taught us back the day (like my Mom), and who helped develop a new generation of smart, resourceful and adaptable teachers for today.
Love
Patricia
Patricia
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