Students in a Virginia elementary school gave President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden an earful about the “benefits” of virtual learning this week.
The moment: The Bidens on Monday visited a fifth-grade class at Yorktown Elementary School where students discussed the ways in which distance learning allowed them to engage in various non-academic activities.
- “Sometimes when Ms. B was like paying attention to something else you could eat and it was fun,” volunteered one student, while another talked about the freedom to “take a little nap” during remote class.
- “If you don’t know the question, you can just pretend like your mic doesn’t work,” said another.
Remote learning has been associated with worse educational outcomes and elevated stress and anxiety levels among both parents and children.
- But, despite campaign-trail promises to “follow the science,” the Biden administration caved to teacher union pressure to slow-walk school reopenings in the CDC’s February official recommendations.
