Virtual learning might be the best thing to happen to schools

Yet experiences like Gomez’s show that our tenuous experiment with virtual schooling could have a silver lining: Some children may end up being more resilient on the other side of the pandemic. Innovating on the fly, navigating uncertainty, maintaining hope for the future, communicating effectively, and relying on networks of people and community resources to overcome challenges are just some of the skills kids are developing during this time. These types of competencies—ones that marginalized children have typically brought to the classroom with little acknowledgment—are part of what Tara Yosso, an education professor at UC Riverside, calls “community cultural wealth.” The pandemic could usher in an increased appreciation for what students who have faced significant hardships have had to master throughout their life: developing strengths from dealing with an untenable set of challenges.

For many students, learning from home can also be healthier than in-person schooling. Deepening one’s bond with parents, for instance, sets foundations for trust and empathy, bolsters cognitive development, and even increases one’s life expectancy. Gary Foster, a 33-year-old K–5 teacher’s assistant in Los Angeles, told me that spending more time with his 6-year-old daughter, Allison, means daily lunch dates and working together to design a space in their house dedicated to her learning. “I work far from home, and I leave home before anyone else even wakes up,” Foster explained. “So Allison wouldn’t see me until … oftentimes, 10 p.m., [because] I have night classes.” Another mother I corresponded with, Amy Light from Boston, said that her 8-year-old daughter “enjoys the nonstop snacks, being in her own room, hanging with her gecko, going to the bathroom when she wants, [and] chatting with me during lunch and breaks.” Research suggests that strengthened attachment to parents actually increases children’s self-reliance later in life, and both Light and Gomez observed that being in closer proximity to their kids made their daughters more independent.