Families scramble as severe weather shuts schools with little warning
Millions of Students Forced into Remote Learning Due to Severe Weather Warnings—How Well Did It Work?
For the Greving family, the situation has become something of a routine. Mother Ricarda and her son Jonah sit side by side at the desk—she with her laptop, he with his tablet. The bank clerk from Gescher-Hochmoor (Borken district) has a dual role this Monday: alongside her usual remote work, she must also support her seven-year-old son with his school assignments. It seems to be going smoothly, even if Jonah occasionally needs a gentle nudge to stay on task.
Still, balancing both responsibilities isn't easy, admits the working mother. "I have to try to do everything at once." Fortunately, her son's elementary school has kept the workload manageable. "We work for about an hour, and then it's time for play," she says. Jonah, too, appreciates the lighter schedule: "If I need a break, I can take one and play in between."
Not All Parents Can Switch to Remote Work
The news that her son's school would close on Monday caught Greving off guard. Luckily, she was able to shift to remote work without issue. Many other families, she notes, would have struggled to arrange last-minute childcare.
Criticism has also come from the State Parents' Association for Primary Schools. Working parents received word of potential school closures too late, chairwoman Josephine Behrens told our website. If schools had flagged the possibility of Monday closures as early as Friday, parents could have started planning alternative childcare arrangements. "Safety comes first," she acknowledges—but better communication would have helped.
Ricarda Greving agrees. While the hastily arranged homeschooling day was "cumbersome" and "annoying," she stresses that safety takes priority.
Unlike the early months of pandemic-related school closures, she reports no technical issues with remote learning this time.
