(Sanrey, Camille), (Goudeau,Sebastian), (Stanczak, Arnaud), (Darnon, Céline). “A Two-Sided Lockdown? Social Class Variations in the Implementation of Homeschooling During the COVID-19 Lockdown”.  ront. Psychol., 27, October. 2021
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.670722/full

The worldwide pandemic otherwise known as COVID 19 affected so much of society in many different ways. To start with the first wave of the pandemic which was like a slap of reality, was the closing of schools. Students who regularly go to school and socialize with their friends and teachers had to forcefully participate and adapt to online learning.  Not only the students had to adapt to this new way of learning but also the teachers, to a new way of teaching, and parents to participate in their child’s learning experience and their presence of being home.  The article, “Social Class Variations in the Implementation of Homeschooling During the COVID-19 lockdown, 2021), states, “This situation places a heavy responsibility on parents (Lee et al., 2021), and recent studies have documented that the lockdown has increased the risk of parental stress (Griffith, 2020; Spinelli et al., 2020) and parenting-related exhaustion (Marchetti et al., 2020). In addition, higher levels of depression and anxiety have been observed among parents and children than in normal times.” We see that in this article, not only did students have to adapt to online learning but to their parents being able to homeschool them. This pandemic not only affected families physically but also mentally, some students did not feel well knowing that they were learning via a laptop and zoom meetings, parents felt the stress they had with not only providing for their family but also the responsibility of their children’s education at home.  The article also states regarding parents and children their social class, “the lower the parents’ social position, the lower the digital equipment and the less the parents felt capable of homeschooling. Finally, the higher the social position of the families, the more children spent time doing activities considered to be “educationally profitable,” and the less they spent time doing “unprofitable activities.”  A survey was taken and we see that students of the upper class had more attention to their studies and way of learning via their parents or other resources they had the opportunities with.  Even if all parents were involved in helping their children with learning, higher social position parents were better equipped both materially and psychologically to face the challenge of homeschooling.

How many ways did Covid-19 affect each social class? One way would be the process of online school, a new form of way of learning for students who had never experienced zoom meetings and online test-taking. Now had to make it their daily education, resulting in parents taking roles as educators. The start of the pandemic was not easy at all, people were going crazy, schools shut down, some students did not have wifi at home, families were moving, people were getting fired, businesses were closing. Those that belonged to the upper class did not get to suffer as much as the working class and the lower class. The article provides information on how parents were also highly affected during these times involving education and their mental health. The problem was working and staying home at the same time to make sure their child was learning adequately in a proper learning space. The upper class felt physically and more psychologically prepared to take this task, while the other classes felt stressed and fell into depression. I would like to point out the differences in social classes via homeschooling during the pandemic. I believe students of all upper classes should have the opportunity to earn without the lack of wifi and a device so they could do their work. Parents needed a warning, how about some classes for the parents on how to handle this going on at home, or something to at least guide them. “For example, in the United States in 2019, 41% of working-class families did not own a computer, compared to 8% of upper-middle-class families”. Upper-middle-class families not only live better with more space to study, they also have better digital equipment. Although this problem regarding digital equipment between classes has decreased over time, working-class families are still less equipped than upper-middle-class families. Making them more likely to be partially or totally excluded from the digital world.