Dear Parents presented an excellent post, one worthy of being studied by parents looking to provide structure for their home-bound child. But he stops short of addressing what I think is a much greater problem.
I am a Rebbi who is currently “teaching” his class daily using the conference call system. Let’s call a spade a spade; it’s a far cry from the real thing. It’s hard to go longer than an hour, down from 3-plus hours minimum in the classroom. While the more motivated talmidim are picking up something, the less motivated can be barely involved and find it difficult (to nearly impossible) to stay focused when there is little before them visually. Bechinos, and the accountability that they bring, are essentially non-existent. Will this be the extent of the children’s learning for the next few months (or longer) chas v’sholom?
It seems to me that in spite of R’ Yehoshua ben Gamla’s innovation of a melamed teaching Torah to another’s child, there will be a need and a parental responsibility to return, for the forseeable future, to Plan A, in which a father taught his son Torah.
What will this take? Perhaps a father will see the need to temporarily suspend his regular Daf Yomi to prepare Eilu Metzios, Hamafkid, Hachovel, Hameiniach or Hameivi Get. Maybe he’ll need to learn up a few perakim of Mishnayos Berachos, Sukkah, or Bava Kama. Or maybe the father will be familiar with these limudim. But in any case, this cannot be a “off to the side, just chazer the day’s learning for 15 minutes” type of learning. This could very well be your son’s primary learning session for the day!
In any case, in my opinion, fathers must make it their business to see to it that their son has personal learning time very day, even with a projected pace and “curriculum”. Let’s not let our children slide, chas v’sholom.
With hopeful eyes,
EDH