captioni sponsored by wnet >>nreenivasan: on this edit for sunday, august 30: our special "covid-19 and the classroom," with a look at how more families are rning to homeschooling, and advice from the founder of khan academy, sal khan. >> sreenivasan: next on u"pbs newseekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milste family. kbarbara hope zerg.

charles rosenblum. ntwe try to live in the mo to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investnts. >> for 25 yes, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. this weekend our special series taking a look at how them" is coronavirus pandemic is affecting education as schools

across the country apening in various stages of in-person or remote learning. as of this morning, the more than 25 million cases of cod-19 globally and 843,00 deaths according to johns housins university's coronav resource center. in the united states nearly six million people have been infected and more than 182,000 have died. overall infection rates are slowing, but there are concerns that as some students return to classes thereawill be an in. the university of alabama reported tt it has had more than 1,200 students test positive for covid-19 since the staclrt oses less than two weeks ago. the university said in a statement that no students have been hospitalized. we'll have more on our coverage of covid-19 and the classroom after the news summary. in portland, oregon, one man is dead after pro-trump protesters and counter protesters converged in the city's downtown last night. images from the scene show the victim, who has not been

identified, wearing a patriot prayer hat-- a far right group based in theortland area. in a statement overnight, nd's police chief urged patience before "drawing conclusions about what took place." as of this morning, police were still looking for the individual or individuals responsible. yey, caravans of pro-trump trucks rallied. some drove off the route through downtown portland in the evening and clashed with psters. port arrested ten people. today, president trump re-tweeted a video of his suorters firing papptballs and pe spray from a truck, saying "the big backlash going on in portland cannot be unexpected. ing in the national guard!" portland's mayor has resisted federal help, but the acting director of homeland security said today that federal intervention was a possibility. >> all options are on the table, specifically as we talt portland. >> sreenivasan: there have been daily protests in portland since the police killing of george floyd in minneapis in late ma

in kenosha, wisconsin, about 1,000 protesrs march and rallied yesterdademanding justice for jacob blake. the peaceful crowd heard speeches from local leaders blake's family outside the city's courthouse. a kenosha police officer shot blake, a 29-year-old black man, seven times in the back last sunday aft responding to a domestic dispute call. blake remains in the hospital yesterday his father called for the protests for racial justice to continue peacefully. >> good people of this city, understand: if we tear it up, we have not if you tear it up, then we have nowhere to go. >> sreenivasan: early last week some protests in kenosha turned violent-es were destroyed, there was looting and an armed white teenager shoand killed two protesters. he is now charged with homicide. national guard troops are deployed in kenosha and a 7:00 gam. curfew is in effect ain tonight. a spokesperson said president

tuesday.to kenosha this several wisconsin officials, including the lieutenant orvernor and kenosha's may said they do notant the president to visit. democrats in congress are pushing back after john ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, annouoned most in-periefings will end and be replaced with written ports. in a letter to congress yesterday, ratcliffe said the change will prevent" unauthorized disclosures or misuse" of intelligence information. his decion and said concernsd about russia'shreat to national security are being overstated. >> within minutes one of those briefings ending, a number of members of congress wt to a number of different outlets and leaked classified information again for political purposes to create a narrative that simply isn't true, that somehow russia is a greater national security threat than china. >> sreenivasan: this morning, democratic house intelligence mmittee chair adam schiff denied that he or his staff have questioning intelligence

officials is critical to election security. he>>re going to put it in writing now instead of giving an oral briefing. that doesn't make nse unless the goal is not to low members of cs, the representatives of the american people, to ask questions. >> sreenivasan: protesters in belarus are once again calling on embattled president victor lukashenko to step down. tens of thousands gathered in the country's capital for the since a disputed presidential election on gust 9. lukashenko, who turned 66 today and has en in power since 1994, has resisted calls to re-run the election, which was marred by widespread allegations of vote-rigging. riot police were out in forcin central minsk, andeveral protesters were detained. the european union is planning on iosing sanctions on belarus if lukashenko doesn't agree to negotiate with the opposition. he's accused western governments of trying toopple his regime d threatened counter sanctions. two of president trump's top

advisors were in jerusalem today to meet with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu.so white house adjared kushner and u.s. national security advobert o'brien hailed the recent agreement between israel and the united arab emirates to establish diplomatic relations at a news conference with netanyahu. kushner will join an israeli delegation tomorrow on the first commercial flight from israel to the u.a.e. yesterday, the u.a.e. formally ended its commercial boycott of israel. for more national and international news visit pbs.org/newshour. >> one of our neighbors offered up tkiir garage as a ergarten classroom. so, they emptied out their thole garage ak everything to their parents house and they basically made likkeshift kindergarten room in their garage.

and then we use our backyard as a rece also as a lunch area.d and so does another family. if you think about it, the zooms are nine, eleven and one and that's when most of my meetings and when most of my wife's etings are. so there is no way, there was no way we were going to be able to um, we needed help. >> sreenivasan: having children at home learning remotely is an added burden for parents returning to work, or trying to work at home themselves, and it's forcing many to scramble for solutions. some are organizing schoing pods with a small group of students and a paid tutor or teacher. another alternative gaining polarity is homeschooling. in the spring of 2019, an estimated 3% to 4% of school- aged children were homeschooled, according to the national home education research institute.

that number is expected to increase due to covid-19. feliciano recently caught up with two parents in georgia. they've homeschoolir kids for many years and have advice for parents looking to make the ap to homeschooling. >> reporter: when newshour weekend first met up with the sarden family in their georgia home back in 2018, judy sarden was almost six years into homeschooling her two kids, aidan and haley, who were then in march, when covid-19 began to rapidly sprethe u.s., georgia governor, brian kemp ordered the closure of all public schools and colleges. and in early april he issued a shelter in place order, sending parents scrambling to keep their kids learning while doing full time jobs. according to sarden, it was a little different at her home. >> the first few days ofhe pandemic were... kind of surreal, i think is probably the best way i can put it. um, you know, our schooling, the

schooling portion of our lives didn't change because we just kind of plugged along as we always were, but not being able to get out of the house was really crazy for me. and that is because i'm typically out of the house every single day of the week. >> we were actually out of the country. we were in the midst of a world schooling trip. >> reporter: amber johnston, a wife and homeschooling mother of four, also from georgia, was in greece with her kids at the time, the first leg of their six country europe tour. >> but i was getting all these text messages, urgent text messages and emails from back home asking me to return, friends concerned, wondering whate were doing. and i think, you know, things were becoming more panicked in the states than they were where we were. but in terms of school, much like what judy sai we didn't miss a beat. we were-- we had our booe with us andre doing the things we normally do.

>> reporter: the johnston's soon returned home, but as o families settled into what came a one-month shelter in r, their professional lives began to change. the choice to educate their kids at home that at times in the past was met with skeptici, was now seen as an asset. began fielding more and more calls from parents looking to better manage their new situations. >> in addition to my private one on one consultation picking up, you know, pere reaching out to me and individuals are, but i'm also working with corporations now. yoknow, to help them provide their employees with strategies and things like that so that they can become more proctive and more engaged while working home while also managing their kids. because, you know, most, most people didn't choose this. >>ter: as schools begin to open up around the country with various formof in-person learning or virtual class, some parents, dissatisfied with what's on offer, are looking

more and more at homeschooling. according to thenal home school association, in a single day last month the organization receed 3 requests for information, up from aandful covid-19 pandemic.e but sarden cautis that what many parents were doing with their kids' education in the spring with distance ltrrning was noitional homeschooling, and that parents need to prepare and educate themselves about state regulations before becoming home educators. >>hat people have been doing is pandemic schooling. they have been scrambling, school districts have been, in the spring ty threw together whatever they uld to try to help people continue on, and it's just a hodgepodge. you know, i knew seven months before i started homeschooling, i s going to start homeschooling, and i planned, i went to homeschool conventions. i talked to people. i did research. >> reporter: as many parents head back into physical buildings for work, both womenhe agree thater you work in a

factory, office building, or are working from home, homeschooling is more feasible than some might imagine. >> the thought that school doesn't have to start at 8:30 and end at 2:30, but you're looking at those equivalent hours and throughout the span of an entire seven days, all the hours that you're not at work, can you schedule some school things to introdspe new lessons, k ideas, teach things during that time, and then set up things thayour kids can do independently. and eveny seven-year-old has >> reporter: and for jnston, while the pandemic has brought newfound interesin the world of homeschooling, this teaching moment h been especially important for a different reason. in may, mass anti-racism protests swept the nation floyd at the hands of police in minneapolis, minnesota. as these events unfolded more

home educators turned to her for guidance as they attempted to incorporate more black history and voices into their curriculums. >> and so, what i see ahead of us is a lot of work that parents writers and all of us are going to have to do tonue the shift that started during the pandemic of wanting something new and different and better and more inclusive to present to our children. >> we were given option to choose betweenh h breed or online learning, that changed. the countyinally asked us to go completely online. >> all of the things that are impacting us, and that's my greatest fear as a parent, you know,, keeping them at home and

theyon have this interaction. they are losing their social skills.r having y own personal work to do. like with me, i mean, i have my -- i am not only a mother, i am a student, and now i am a teacher. i am just likng wea multiple hats d it is veryrustrating so i would love for my kids the to get back to school so i don't have to deal with other things. but ats t point, what can we do? >> >> sreenivasan: when sal khan founded the khan academy website in 2008 his mission s to provide free education for all by providing online tools, software and video tutorials on dozens of school subjects. since then, his site has grown, with more than 100 million users and videos in 46 languages.

spoke with sal khan recently in part about a recent bit of advice he offered in "the new york times." how to "avoid an education catastrophschools, parents and students continue to navigate these uncertain waters. sal, i'm assuming that people are using khan academy more now than they have pre-pandemic? >> yeah, pre-pandemic, we had about 20 milliks coming per month and they were using us about 30 million minutes per day. increase dramatically, about 250% of normal. we saw about 85 llion minutes a day, 30 million folks doing that, and it was pretty much all over the world. >> sreenivasan: so, this is one of those things that i'm sure that you've thought through, but khan academy is not a replacement. i mean, it can be a supplement, but it doesn't replace what happens in a cla, right? >> yeah. u know, i was speaking as someone who's inadvertently become something oster

child for online education, and i'll be the first to say that for my own children or anye with children, if i had to pick between an amazing teacher in a physical classro and the world's best technology, i would pick the amazing teacher every time. now, pre-pandemic, we in theory could do both. we cou have amazing technology in s to an amazing teacher. but now that we have the hand that we're dealt, we have the constraints of, of covid, and what we're saying and we're really seeing teachers do this well in certain pockets is even though we're doing distance learning, the irony is distance learning is a lot of kids main connection to a community, to social interaction right now. >> sreenivasan: how does a teacher community across screens? >> well, right when a teacher gets on to their video conference and highly end at least one touch point per day. rethink how that is.y can it doesn't have to be what you were doing in the physical a day, five days a week.n hour it could be 10 mbuutes each day, with a smaller group of stents that you can focus in on and make sure youet to know

them. when you get on the conference call or the video conference, try to pull them out. ask them what they're doing today, how are they feeling. spend five minutes doing that. ask them interesting questions and ask them to work with each other, idebrly in virtual kouts or whatever else. that's going to-- that's what's going to really get the kids interactd get to a good mental place. >> sreenivasan: you know, that mental portion that you're referencing is so important. i mean how, you know, it one thing in a physical classroom that the child jusreally hasn't slept much and isired and can go over and ask what's going on at home. how does that happen across this medium now? >> this is clearly a sub-optimal situation. you're absolutely right that just body language that affects that you can get when you're in the room with someone, it's much harder over video coerence. i've seen some districts do so things pretty well. the phoenix school district has made a point of an adult from

the district ting to call each d at least once per day to ask exactly those types of iquestions. ansome ways, that might be better than what a lot of students were getting when you 30 kids in a classroom.ne of now at least someone, maybe it might be a two or three minute caon, but they're checking i you. another really solid practice that i've, i've seens in maryland there's about 5% or 10% of the population that e en when theystributing laptops and getting internet connections, they just don't have the supports at home. they don't have the context at atme. and so, hey're doing is ey're opening up the schools for distance learning sohe te aren't there, but the students can go e into a safe environment. they c other-- whatev other social services they need. and then there are kinlkof childcare there that can help make sure that the kids are task in a covid safe way. so that's a real good stopgap population that we, frankly, i'm most worried about right now. >> sreenivasan: so, it seems like there is a possibility here that some of the lessons that we learn and how to keep in touch

with our students should last after this is gone. i mean, it doesn't seem like a bad idea to have someone from a school district reach out to a child every day and make sure that there is that connection there. >> yeah, yeah, i think that's the interesting thing. you know, as sub-optimal as the eryone into kind of thisng innovative, creative, experimentte. teachers are trying new things and, to some degree, they have more permission to innovatebe right nouse the alternative is, is not that great. so, we're seeiot of teachers try things, sometimes they're working, but it's okay if they fail. they can fail forwarhat. and we're seeing a lot of innovation out there. you know, even on the khan academy side, we're cr new courses to make sure kids can fill in all the gaps they have, get readfor grade level courses. i have a separate skunkworks project called schoolhouse world, anoer nonprofit. we're, we're trying to match kids who need freeutoring. and it's open to anyone with amazing volunteer tutors who are willing to provide theseypes of experiences. and everything that we've talked about, best practices on a video conference classroom, these are actually tt practices in a

physical classroom as well. you know, just a one to many leture has never been the m engaging thing. it's always great when you're having a conversation when you were able to work in breakouts and really collaborate on things. >> sreenivasan: okay. sal khan, kh academy. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> it's been a waiting game and it's been a lot of uncertainty, and i think that adds to an incredible amount of anxiety i think everybody has right now. i honestly try to have patience and graciousness wh that because i think with this virus, every day brings new information. you know, it's a waiting game. but today is officialltheir first day. they're certainly signed up on their ipods this morning, ready for their fietings with their teachers. the plan is hybrid. so, tuesday through friday, group a, group b, depending on your last name. it's all about being flexible at this point. i wanted something concrete. my friend had a really good analogy. she said, you know, it's like tryingild a structure in

the middle of a hurricane. and, you know, the weather kee chan the material is, you know, you can't you can't do that. and we have to just be flexible. >> sreenivasan: that's all for thisurdition of "pbs news weekend." for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivas. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live ithe moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has beeny: provided b consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private

corporation funded by the american people. and by contrutions to ur pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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