History teaches us so many things, not least of which is the long evolution of education. A perfect and local example is the Clara Barton one-room school in Bordertown. In the Colonial period, children were taught at home by both their at-home parent (usually a mother) and hired tutors.
In 1852, an ambitious and high motivated young teacher came to Bordertown, New Jersey, from Massachusetts. Her name was Clara Barton. The community gave her a ramshackle little one room building to begin the first public school. On the first day six children showed up and they all pitched in to clean up and ready the school for more. Clara Barton's efforts eventuated in 500 students. She was so successful, that she was put under the supervision of a male administrator which outraged her, as it should, so she left to found first the registry of wounded and dead during the Civil War, and finally the Red Cross.
My point with this blog entry, however, is that there were models available to us to use as temporary solutions during the pandemic.
My idea is that a group of PTA type parents and retired educators could form a cooperative. If there were, say four teachers, on hourly tutoring wages, and a set of perhaps ten parents, A teacher could meet at the backyard of the Brown family on Monday and tutor in (if it were me) English, Art, and History. On Tuesday the small group of 5 to ten students could meet at the Green family backyard for Math and Phys Ed. Whys Ed could be croquet, while ball, bad minton, and if there is a pool, swimming and pool safety.
On Wednesday, a parent volunteer and chauffeur could help the tutor take the children on field trips to, for example, Red Bank Battlefield for a history lesson, Bivalve for a science lesson, Funny Farm for a lesson in science, the planetarium (I think there is one at Glamssboro) for astronomy, There are literally hundreds of small museums and historical societies and nature centers like the Palmyra Nature Center, that could be used as learning destinations.
I think this could actually be done with three tutors! Possibly even with two! I know I, personally, could do History, Art, Literature and Language Arts, and probably lower level Science. A Science tutor could perhaps handle pays ed.
The Home Schooling folks could teach everyone a lesson in how to do education on your own. Don't get me wrong, I think children are better off in school and that home-schooled children miss a o, including exposure to diverse cultures and personalities, however, in times of pandemic, home-schooling could offer us a way out of children not having any education.
And by the way, home tutoring was the only education until the 1800's. One room schools came next.
Some of the advantages of the home-tutor idea aside from safety from the danger of large groups confined in building which we know makes a perfect way to spread corona virus, would be children would have more one to one attention, and tutors with small groups would be better able to get them to wear masks! Taking temperatures could even be a way to teach health and science!
Heaven knows there are plenty of talented teachers who have retired who may be willing, on a temporary basis and hourly tutoring wage, to do such a thing. Detrimentals would be the fear of litigious and fault finding parents. There would have to be some legal involvement to begin with because there is always a parent who would become aggrieved over something or other who would see an opportunity to go to court like going to the bank.
The parent group would have to be carefully selected, as would the tutors. There would have to be some protection for the home-owners as well for the same reason. And there remains the bathroom issue. My suggestion would be a team of parent chaperones who could help with bathroom issues and lunch (although a brown bag from home would be best for this, especially in view of nut allergies and so on).
In the Sunday New York Times today there was an article on POD SCHOOLS which sparked my idea of home-schooling models. If the tutors were paid even a generous hourly wage, it could be supported by a contribution arrangement, so for example, a $50 an hour, could be covered by - well, I can't teach math and trying to figure out that cost per 10 families, for example, is already making my head tired. We would need a treasurer/accountant. If you had a truly cooperative group, probably most supplies could be individually supplied by the parents for each child and some plan for students who have low income families like a scholarship.
Needless to say there would be some risk for the tutors even with such small groups and if a teacher is retired, she or he probably is old enough to have some of the health concerns related with aging, high blood pressure and such. Lots of legal releases would need to be drawn up and signed.
Just an idea that creative and energetic parents and teachers might like to consider! I have always loved the one-room school model in education history, and I have done a bit of tutoring for enrichment, privately, as well as the full range of home-tutoring when I was still employed I did English as a Second Language, home-bound tutoring for students absent for medical reasons, and many community ed night classes as well as Lab School experience. One of my favorite courses at Glamssboro State College for my first Bachelor's degree was in ALTERNATIVES IN EDUCATION! Back in the 1970's this creative approach was very popular and many models for learning came from it.
Happy Trails!
Jo Ann
wright45@yahoo.com (my e-mail)
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