As I write this post in my bedroom, which doubles as a work space, my husband’s voice bellows from below.
He is on the phone with someone from Portugal, in the tiny home office we carved out years ago amid the cobwebs and red cement floor of our mostly unfinished basement.
“Staying home is the only vaccine we have right now,” Walz told his fellow Minnesotans.
“Hello?” I hear him ask, before he dashes up the stairs and out the front door. “Is that better?” He works in the wine business and frequently gets calls from Europe. It is a challenge under normal circumstances, but especially so now.
My husband has exited the house, in search of better reception. My daughter asks me about a recipe for vegan cookies. I remember that I told her she could make cookies as a math and science project.
Today is the first day of online learning for her and her Minneapolis Public Schools peers, after three weeks off due to spring break and the sudden COVID-19 shutdown.
My daughter managed to log in to her class’s Google Hangouts session this morning, and excitedly so. It took one hour. There are many more hours to fill, in which her dad and I need to do our own work; that’s why she is attempting to make a batch of cookies on her own.
Just then it occurs to me that it is one in the afternoon, and my high school-aged son is still sleeping. I need to wake him up so he can get started on his own online learning.
Or do I?
We have, in our house, two computers: my old laptop, which crashes when it feels like it, and the desktop PC my husband uses. We also have a very ancient iPad that my mother-in-law gave us. She took impeccable care of it, so it is still functional.
But not functional enough for the slew of high school-level assignments my son will need to access and complete. So, if I let my son sleep a while longer, he can take over my husband’s computer in the basement.
My oldest kid is home from college, unexpectedly of course, and it turns out that she finds it helpful to read her biology lecture out loud. So our dining room—where she sits with her own Chromebook, thankfully—is playing host to lessons on gene mutation.
Meanwhile, I am monitoring the rollout of distance learning on social media, where my fellow Minneapolis parents are sharing tips, horror stories, and notes of encouragement with one another.
People with more than one child at home didn’t realize until today that headphones are a must for online learning, for everyone’s sake, simply because the noise from multiple kids working at once is overwhelming.
For those without an electronic device, Minneapolis schools will provide one although there is already a waitlist, even though the school year has officially restarted. If a family with multiple kids only has one iPad or Chromebook, however, they cannot receive an additional one from the district. There are simply not enough devices to meet the demand.
Last week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said schools across the state are unlikely to physically reopen this school year. It’s possible classes will not resume in person this fall, either.
On April 5, Walz gave an encouraging yet brief State of the State speech from the Governor’s Mansion, where he has been quarantined after being exposed to COVID-19. He praised Minnesotans for obeying the stay-at-home directives he’s handed down since mid-March.
“Staying home is the only vaccine we have right now,” Walz told his fellow Minnesotans, explaining that limiting contact with others can reduce the virus’s spread by around 80 percent.
It’s the right thing to do. But it presents a lot of downsides to families trying to support their kids through a sudden and glitch-prone transition to self-guided distance learning. There are downsides whether the parents work at home, or whether they are still going out into the world to do essential and possibly dangerous work.
My husband is now heading out the door on a quick errand, face mask and gloves in hand. I guess it’s time to rouse my son and impress on him the value, and luxury, of having a computer to use.