Remote Students Double As ​“3rd Parents”

Reuel Masoperh was in the middle of an anatomy assignment for gym class when his 6‑year-old sister popped into his room. He lost his train of thought.

Masoperh has juggled his own rigorous schoolwork with being his family’s ​“third parent” since the Covid-19 pandemic closed New Haven schools in March.

“The reality is that most students don’t have a home environment that is conducive to learning,” said the Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) senior.

Leaving class to help a sibling with internet connection problems. Feeling glued to the school Chromebook and unable to take a break. Questioning whether to return to school and potentially get a family member sick … These are some of the experiences with remote learning Masoperh and other New Haven Public Schools students shared with Board of Education members during this month’s Teaching and Learning Committee meeting.

The feedback comes at a time when roughly 44 percent of NHPS students plan to stay remote-only, even when in-person classes are available starting Nov. 9. The other 56 percent will have some remote days as part of the planned hybrid schedule.

Oldest Sibling Responsibilities

Since March, Masoperh has attended ESUMS virtually from his home in West Haven.

He said that the transition to virtual classes was easier for him than for other students because he was already taking college courses at the University of New Haven (UNH). The 17-year-old had the skills to handle a heavy workload without much teacher direction or assistance.

Too much schoolwork is one of the most common problems students are reporting with remote school.

On a recent survey of 800 students conducted by the Board of Education’s two student representatives, around 40 percent of students think remote school is okay, not negative or positive.

The most common comment was that remote classes have too much homework and screen time, leaving students overwhelmed and unmotivated. The next most common was internet connection troubles.

Masoperh’s challenge is helping out his two younger siblings, aged 6 and 13, with their own virtual classes and technical difficulties. He helps them with unfamiliar topics in their assignments and rewords questions that they don’t understand.

His 6‑year-old sister in particular turns to him when she is hungry or bored with her classes. She never knocks, just comes straight into his room. If it doesn’t look like he is talking with his teacher, she assumes he might be done with class. He tells her she has to wait until the end of his class period.

His father, Solomon Masoperh, works two jobs, one in healthcare and one in hospitality. His mother runs the home and is in charge of household errands.

“I come home and am so tired. It’s hard to try to keep the 6‑year-old focused [on her schoolwork],” Solomon Masoperh said.

On Friday, a small, pig-tailed head peeked out of the window at the Masoperhs’ home in West Haven. Reuel’s little sister was supposed to be doing work for one of her remote classes. She was more interested in watching her brother get photographed by a reporter, though.

“It’s like being a third parent,” Reuel said.

Reuel is in the middle of applying to colleges. His top choice is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he wants to study chemical engineering.

Marangelie’s Blue Period

New Haven Public Schools administrators hoped that live virtual classes would make this fall of pandemic school more engaging than the spring.

According to eighth grader Marangelie Colon, they were right.

“This year is a major improvement from last year. We didn’t have live Google Meets. Teachers would upload the assignments and we would do the work individually,” she told the Board of Education’s Teaching and Learning committee.

“Kids didn’t know why they were learning things and they honestly didn’t care. It was more about worrying about your grade than the content.”

Colon is in her final year at Christopher Columbus Family Academy. She loves art. The 14-year-old has thrived in theater programs and has her own YouTube channel where she has started posting videos of herself playing guitar. She has wanted to go to Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School since third grade.

Virtual art classes have worked for her. For a recent assignment, her teacher asked the class to recreate works of art by famous Hispanic artists using items around their own home.

Colon chose Pablo Picasso’s painting, ​“The Old Guitarist,” and posed with her own guitar.

The inspiration (above) …

… and the result.

Colon said that having a guitar at home did help her choose that particular painting. The story behind it also resonated.

Picasso painted ​“The Old Guitarist” during his Blue Period, when he used only shades of blue and focused on themes like human alienation. It was also after his friend had committed suicide, Colon recalled.

“Being in this whole pandemic can get depressing. You can feel empty sometimes,” she said.

Colon is sympathetic to what her teachers are going through during the pandemic too. Her mother, Jacqueline Gonzalez, teaches fifth and sixth grade Spanish and social studies as part of Columbus Family Academy’s dual language program.

Gonzalez moved from Puerto Rico to New Haven when she was young and spent her teen years alternating between the two places to go to school. She graduated from Wilbur Cross as a young mother, holding her baby in her arms, she said.

She was one of 275 graduates that year and one of 14 that graduated with honors. She continued her education at Gateway Community College, then Albertus Magnus College, then UNH for her master’s degree.

“I got a lot to live up to,” Colon said, looking at her mother.

Gonzalez described a spring spent in endless calls, bleeding into weeknights and weekends, teaching her primarily Hispanic students and their families how to use the technology required for remote learning. Her students were second graders who did not yet use computers for school. Their families didn’t use that kind of technology in their jobs and didn’t know what to do.

After six weeks, Gonzalez finally saw progress. This fall saw a similar period of glitches that mostly smoothed out after one or two weeks.

Both plan to return to school when hybrid classes start. Gonzalez said she has been ready to resume teaching since before the Board of Education decided to start the fall with remote classes. It is frustrating to get her students to accomplish what she wants them to from far away.

“I wish I could be there to guide you through it,” she thinks regularly.

Colon is ready to shake off some her pandemic blues. At school, the distinctions between school hours and her leisure time are clearer.

“There is always something distracting you when you are in your own home,” Colon said.