It is a relief to come across some good news for a change.
Especially the news in which the protagonist is someone like you or me, just trying to cope with the times by giving a helping hand.
Mitch Couch made the news in September of 2020 when he posted a picture on Reddit. The picture was of the 35 wooden desks he had constructed for kids in his town that are learning from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. (1)
The Challenges Of Learning From Home
Often when we think about how our lives changed because of COVID-19, we mostly focus on the dramatic ways we are restructuring our working and social life.
We see this post-pandemic world with adult eyes, but children’s lives have changed dramatically too. Imagine yourself back in your junior high school year now. The idea of not being in a classroom passing secret notes to your buddies, playing at recess, or laughing at the cafeteria during lunchtime is just plain sad.
Added to this, most kids do not have the proper resources to successfully take advantage of learning from home. Many of them do not have an adequate computer to work on, fast internet or even a proper space to do their online learning. Some kids that live in small places may be pushing themselves into any available corner they could find. These disadvantages make the remote school experience even tougher.
If you are interested, you can find students from all over the world telling their stories about their learning from home struggles at the recent launch program by Unicef called Voices of Youth. (2)
The Woodworker Dad On A Pinch.
Mitch Couch, also known as #tiktokdad, is an experienced woodworker that has his own DIY YouTube Channel and a website called Goodly Earth where he posts all his DIY wood projects from his town in Lemoore, CA.
With schools closed in more than 130 countries and most kids engaging in remote learning Mitch Couch like many parents knew the difficulties that presented when kids started learning from home. The only space for his kids to take their lessons was a corner at the kitchen table. This arrangement proved to be disadvantageous for parents as well as children, especially during meal times.
In many cases when the need is great, so are we, this was true for Mitch Couch. He came up with the idea of applying his skills as a woodworker and design not only a very practical and comfortable desk for his children but also an affordable one.
The desk he designed, not only gives the students that are learning from home their own space for their classes but also works as storage for their school supplies, and it can be easily foldable and put away when studying time is done. You can find the tutorial for his DIY foldable $20 desk on his page Goodly Earth. (3)
His genius idea got the attention of a local business, who asked him to build an initial number of 25 desks to donate to local schools. Soon they realized that the number was not enough and went up to 35 desks total.
Examples like this when a community comes together to support each other through difficult moments give us hope that better times are indeed ahead.
