Mom Captures Emotional Photo of Son Struggling with Distance Learning Amidst Pandemic

• A mother of four took an emotional photo of her son and shared it online.
• The photo shows her 5-year-old son struggling with the virtual class amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.
• Jana Coombs, the mom, wanted to raise awareness about the difficulties some students face with distance learning.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, most schools decided to start the school year online. There are still those who opened their campuses for in-person classes, while some schools opted to mix both.

For many students, however, distance learning can be quite difficult. Jana Coombs saw that in her 5-year-old son Ezra.

“I just took that picture because I wanted people to see reality,” Jana told WXIA.

Her son is a kindergartener in a school at Sharpsburg, Georgia. Their virtual classes began at 8:15 last week, and they were learning the letter A, according to Good Morning America. At some point, Erza felt he was falling behind and became frustrated that he put his head down and cried.

Seeing this made her decide to take a photo, which she shared online last August 17.

“It broke my heart. After I took that photo I called him over, we sat on the ground, we hugged and cried together. I told him, ‘It’s OK. We will get through this.’ I gave him a lot of love and praise and we went back and worked together,” Jana told GMA.

Like her son, she is also frustrated with the virtual classes. The first day was chaotic she said, as she managed three more of her children.

Apart from her 5-year-old son and her 8-month old child, she and her husband, Luke, attend to their 4th and 2nd grader children who are also participating in online classes.

“Juggling a household, having an infant in the house, getting 5,000 emails a day from all their teachers, trying to keep up … different apps, different codes, different platforms, some links don’t work. You’re running from one laptop to another,” she told WXIA.

All three children are ‘missing out’, Luke said in the article. The couple want their kids back to in-person classes.

“A lot of what they’re learning is getting lost in translation because they’re not getting interaction on a personal level,”  Luke said.

“Education is essential for these children,” Jana told CNN. “Socialization and hands-on experience is how elementary kids learn best.”

However, some studies reveal that children can easily contract and spread the coronavirus.

On the other hand, distance learning has shown negative impacts on primary-age students and for working families as well, according to some pediatricians.

“If we don’t speak up, nothing’s going to change,” Jana said. “It’s more than one-plus-one-equals-two. It’s also their mental health. They’re not face-to-face with teachers, socializing with other children, they’re stuck behind the screen.”

Still, the Coombs are thankful to the teachers and are giving them a lot of credit for their children’s success in online learning so far.