It’s fine for kids who have high-speed internet, fancy laptops and tech-savvy adults around to help out. This is a story about everybody elseFacebookayman Miller lives in the northwest Toronto neighbourhood of Weston, in a tower of rental units off the 401. Since last March, Rayman, who is 21, his mom and his younger siblings have been home for most of the day every day in their three-bedroom apartment. Rayman shares a bedroom with his two brothers, who are 14 and 18.
Rent is $1,500 a month. The family pays about $160 per month for high-speed internet bundled with TV—a big chunk of their limited income. Connectivity is an issue, too. These days, with so many people in the building working and schooling from home, their internet crashes regularly. Once, while Rayman was delivering a Zoom presentation for school, his screen froze in front of the whole class, and he had to ask his professor if he could do it another day, which was mortifying.
David Cameron, the TDSB’s senior manager of research and development, showed me a map of the city that indicated the neighbourhoods in Toronto with the highest percentage of low-income families: a jagged horseshoe shape extending from the northwest corner of the map in North York down to Regent Park in the south and up the northeast strip to Scarborough. In the centre of the city are the more affluent zones.
McLaren is concerned about the sheer number of hours the girls spend on screens: they log on the moment they wake up, and log off just before they go to sleep. Typing full essays on an iPad is hard on hands and eyes, and agonizingly slow. The kids have headaches. Irahs complains of blurry vision. They are exhausted and socially isolated. Moorelands Camp, an organization that runs their after-school and summer programs, has promised to send them donated laptops.
Sara’s younger brother, who’s in Grade 9, got a loaner Chromebook. He and Sara often negotiate for devices: Sara needs a computer with a microphone and a camera for drama class, and her mom’s laptop mic and camera don’t work well. The Chromebook’s mic and camera do, but her brother uses the Chromebook most days so… “It’s annoying,” Sara says with a sigh.
But a swath of students stay silent throughout the lessons, despite their avatars appearing on the screen, as if they’ve signed in and left the room. Some have never submitted any work. Others just don’t log in at all. Jane spends a good chunk of every day trying to track them down, often unsuccessfully. She suspects they lack reliable tech, or have parents who aren’t at home during the day or can’t navigate language barriers. When it came time to write report cards, Jane was at a loss.