Charter Moms Chats: Inga Cotton, Founder and Executive Director of San Antonio Charter Moms, shares her thoughts and answers your questions.
For this episode, Inga was feeling kind of salty. She is a planner, and she’s trying to take back some control of this situation, but it’s hard because there is so much uncertainty.
Borrowing a phrase from Dr. Charles Cole, III of the 8 Black Hands podcast: “Fam, you are on your own.” For Charles, it’s advice to black families who have gotten a raw deal from our education system. We are repurposing it as advice for families who are adapting to distance learning, but still needing to look out for our children’s emotional needs.
Parents, you are seeing your kids’ curriculum up close now—maybe closer than you ever have, as Inga’s friend Colleen Dippel has noted. You are the judge of what’s best for them. If the worksheets don’t make sense, push back.
If it’s not good for your kids to be in front of a screen that long, even if it’s a Zoom call or Google hangout with their class, then you make the call. Let them go outside, read a book of their choosing, or do a project they are interested in.
Inga agrees with Robert Pondiscio’s advice in The 74 to talk to your kids about current events. It’s a real time lesson in civics, and will shape how they look back on these times.
