Teaching Pods Land Among Some Santa Barbara Schoolchildren

Parents Take Education into Their Own Hands to Keep Kids Away from Remote Learning

By Delaney Smith | Published August 6, 2020

From left: Victoria Fenkner, Susan Lek, Nika Babaie, Sophie Ninja Blair, and Katie Borzouei gather around the table that they will spend most of their kindergarten learning at. The table is in James and Tanya Fenkner’s backyard, where the group will hold kindergarten lessons in-person as an alternative to the mandatory distance-learning offered by local public schools. The trend, growing in popularity among parents unhappy with distance learning, is dubbed as a “pandemic pod.”

This fall, more than 5.5 million California students will not be allowed to start school in person again. Many parents, desperate to get their children back into the classroom, are taking matters into their own hands — they’re “podding up.”

Pods, sometimes called microschools, are reshaping public education in the face of a global pandemic. In lieu of remote-only education, parents are pairing up their children in small groups to learn together in homes, either with a credentialed educator or with a parent stand-in. The idea is to give students a face-to-face learning experience with other children, while keeping the group small enough that the risks of spreading COVID-19 are minimal.

“Everything is changing so much. That’s why I chose to do this,” said Lynne Zell, a Goleta mom of a 1st-grader whom she will teach along with four other 1st-graders in a pod this fall. “I just decided I’m going to remove myself from this crazy, chaotic circle and focus on my child.”