In the movie “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray plays a meteorologist who becomes trapped in time, stuck in Punxsutawney as February 2nd, Groundhog Day, begins each morning anew with his radio alarm blasting “I’ve Got You Babe.” His behavior becomes increasingly risky because he bears no repercussions for his actions; each day bleeds into the next, erasing the day before. He ultimately falls into depression and yearns for true human connection.
Most of us are living out that movie in our own lives now. We lose track of the day, the week, or even the month. The days stretch endlessly and repetitively, calendars wiped clean of significant events, such as concerts, sporting events, weddings, plane trips, and parties. Now that the public school system has announced remote learning for the first nine weeks of the school year, our time warp continues.
Pre-pandemic, our children were already under a lot of stress and anxiety, but their angst about school, grades, and résumés has recently been compounded exponentially. Many students share not only our economic and health fears – for ourselves and/or our community – but also fears of the unknown. What will the future hold for them?
Security is a critical prerequisite for readiness to learn, so we need to do what we can to make our children feel supported and safe, lest they too will resort to risky behavior that will serve neither them nor their futures.
Here are my recommendations for remote learning this fall:
· Connect. Children need real human connection, preferably with a carefully selected peer or two. Cultivating social skills will help our children ultimately to become contributors to society and to maintain mental health. Our children need a support network beyond family. Try to help them connect with a peer or two in-person safely.
· Promote life balance. Students should not expect, and you should not expect them, to dedicate more than six hours of each school day to coursework, including homework. With remote learning in place, their committed time to studying coursework should be trimmed, freeing up time to find life balance. They should supplement school work with real community service, whenever possible, and with a hobby that brings them joy. Our world is in crisis, and each person should, in his or her own way, attempt to make someone else’s day and his or her own day brighter.
· Listen and supplement. Take an interest in your children’s coursework. Be proactive. Enhance coursework by watching and discussing with your children documentaries that bolster classroom learning. Pull magazine and newspaper articles of interest to share.
· Adapt and innovate. These times certainly warrant adaptability, but they also require creativity and innovation. The children who will be best able to transcend remote learning will be those who truly think beyond their prescribed path. As parents, we must embrace the potential for such departures.
· Most of all, monitor mood and mental health. Watch for signs of depression, such as irregular sleeping patterns and increased isolation.
While we may be “feeling remote” now, we must remain optimistic about a future world where people can reunite physically and politically. Hope is a proven antidepressant. Rest assured, Bill Murray’s character found his happy ending.