Hermantown 5th and 6th graders move to distance learning on Tuesday

Fifth and sixth graders at Hermantown Middle School are moving to distance learning temporarily due to a rise in covid cases.

I think people really have come to expect the unexpected in this whole situation, and hopefully most people have a plan b from last year,” said parent Cyndi Frick.

Frick plans on working from home while her fifth grader attends class online in her office, giving her a chance to keep an eye on him and make sure he does his work.

“Some kids are way better behaved in school than they are at home when there’s a lot more distractions,” Frick explained. “I think that is difficult for certain kids like my son when it comes to distance learning.”

Frick worries about the effects that online learning may have on children.

“The more time that they spend at that lower age group out of the classroom, I think that it’s just more detrimental to their overall learning,” Frick said. “Just the structure of it all, which is really important. They need that in order to be able to do that on their own.”

As only certain grades are moving online, Frick’s seven year old will still be attending class in-person while his brother moves to distance learning.

“That is a parent’s minefield there,” Frick emphasized. “Because my younger one is the one that’s a little more volatile, so as soon as we found out, it’s like, let’s talk to him about it so he doesn’t have a freakout. It’s a challenge to try to explain to your children what’s happening and why it’s happening.”

Although having one kid attend in-person while the other moves to distance learning is challenging, Frick is thankful that school is able to be at home when needed.

“That’s what we sign-up for when we become parents is you kind of have to change your life on a dime for, you know, if they were sick, you’d have to be home.”