Editorial: Kids' greatest lesson from online learning

Let's stipulate that online learning isn't the education of choice for many students from kindergarten through grade 12.

It's not the education of choice for many parents whose multitude of obligations and talents might not lean toward U.S. history or long division.

It's not what teachers signed up for, with their hands-on learning techniques and tools reduced to two dimensions.

It's monumental, engulfing and baffling.

And yet, as the school year gets under way across the suburbs, some are approaching the challenge with amazing grace.

Just nine of 105 suburban public school districts are teaching fully in person, with 66 entirely online and 30 alternating students between school and online, as our Jake Griffin reported.

Thanks to COVID-19, thousands of suburban families are not sending students back to the classroom. Disgruntlement, anxiety and overload are common sentiments.

But not for the parents who post encouragement, tips and silver linings on the Facebook parents' groups formed around distance learning in Barrington Unit District 220, Palatine Township Elementary District 15 and elsewhere.

"I give Day 1 at Prairie two thumbs-up," a parent writes.

"Hope everyone survived the 1st day! Try to relax tonight. There is always tomorrow and even the next day to work out any issues!" another advises.

Not for others in the same groups who exchange knowledge about data speeds, internet boosters, voice-to-text options and how to use the Schoology lesson-sharing site, all while gently commiserating about the cacophony of online music classes and the wry realization that you can't yell at one kid for leaving a mess in the kitchen while another kid is live on Zoom.

Not for teachers like Jennifer Siegel at Grove Elementary in Barrington, who taught herself to make an interactive, cartoonlike classroom for her online second graders, or like Andrea Rodino of Frank C. Whiteley Elementary in Hoffman Estates, who runs, skips, hops and throws while teaching physical education online.

As wise people have noted, none of us can control the time in which we live; we can only control what we do with that time.

Schooling kids online is hard. Supporting kids' learning in the midst of other household needs and family obligations is hard.

But for many children, seeing how others step up to meet the challenges of this singular year might be one of the best lessons of all.