10 Retro Classroom Photos to Put You in a Homeschooling Mood

With schools closed, parents are scrambling to figure out distance learning and homeschooling for their kids. It’s a huge challenge; but here’s proof that we’ve faced some even bigger ones, and made it through OK.

By Sunny Gold
March 24, 2020
Crisis Collage
Since schooling for kids first became compulsory in the early 1800s, American education has faced a whole lot of challenges. Today we’re enduring a new one thanks to coronavirus closures. As the classroom moves into the living room, many parents feel totally unprepared to take on the role of teacher. To build your homeschooling confidence and put this current epidemic into context, here are five crises in education that you may have forgotten about—and five inspiring ideas for keeping it together during this one. We made it through those trying times, and we’ll get through this, too.Getty ImagesWhen an outbreak of polio hit the country in 1944, many schools delayed the start of the school year to slow transmission. Kids were encouraged to take “audio lessons” broadcast over local radio airwaves in some areas, like the Chicago children in the photo above. Today, as coronavirus closes schools all over the country, Audible has made hundreds of kids’ titles free to stream at stories.audible.com. Teachers are also broadcasting lessons, stories and other activities on Facebook Live and other social platforms. Ms. Button, a third grade teacher in Portland, Oregon, for example, is reading aloud and assigning a math game every weekday at 2 pm from the Rose City Book Pub Facebook page.

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