‘The Fun of Learning’

Among all the things COVID has changed for adults — uprooting the economy, skyrocketing unemployment — kids are losing out, too. Schools closed, many transitioning online, but some requiring parents to fill the roles of teachers, and about 9 million kids not having internet access to continue their education at all. Summer camp was yet another thing that kids look forward to every summer that has been shut down for 2020.

Wiz + Kid Tutoring, a company started on the Upper West Side, was founded by Jared Sais, who has been in the business of improving education long before the pandemic. He grew up with dyslexia, and though he credits his mother, who was a special education teacher, and some great teachers, the regular public-school system was a struggle. The system as it stands, Sais said is “never geared towards children with LD’s [Learning Disabilities]. Either you have to go to a private school for $50,000 a year, or do your best in public schools and pray for a teacher that knows what they’re talking about.”

When he graduated from University of Buffalo, Sais jumped into his career in education right away, knowing that he had a knack for working with kids and teaching. He knew that not every kid learned the same way.

“Everything we do these days is basically, you know, a fifties-style of education, right?” he said. “You have to sit for long hours in the office. So, what do the schools do? Make them sit for long hours, get them ready for the workforce. But that doesn’t make sense anymore. Not every child is going to the workforce to sit in the office for, like, a hundred hours a day.”

His style of teaching is much more hands-on and experiential.

“How many schools say, sit down, open your book? Me, when a kid says, ‘I need to stand up and walk’, let’s do it. We’ll walk and learn.”

“Feeling of Adventure”

When the pandemic came, Sais made a surprising statement. “Our tutors and I were very ready for something like this,” he said. “We didn’t falter one little bit.” Already versed in Skype-school, Wiz + Kid continued educating their students so they didn’t fall behind.

Then, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in mid-June that sleep-away camps were canceled for the summer. Kids, who normally look forward to getting a change of scenery and getting outdoors with other kids, are now staying home. Archery classes and sleeping in tents are not an option unless you have a backyard and your own bow-and-arrow — which, in New York City, is unlikely.

Wiz + Kid had been preparing to rent out a space to have a in-person summer camp, pre-COVID. But, as Sais says the education system should do, they adapted.

“Our main goal,” he said. “is to have our campers have the same exact feeling of adventure that we expect when going to a summer camp without the fear of catching COVID-19. There’s something special about the freedom of camp and not having to worry about tests or writing papers, and you can freely be yourself.”

To do that, Camp Wiz+Kid, operated by camp directors Esther Cohen and Rose Platel, hosts a variety of unusual classes for the kids, from first through sixth grades. One is a gold mining class, held virtually, and afterwards Sais sends each student a little piece of gold from his demonstration. Another is a business class, during which he helps students develop a product and learn how to market it to the public. For other classes like dance and arts, Sais has experts to teach.

“It brings that adventure into what summer camp should be,” he said. “You have to do it in a different way.”

Going forward, Sais said he isn’t worried about his own students, but for other students who could not continue or didn’t have access to virtual education.

“It’s up to the teachers and the schools to evolve so they can help the students,” he said. “These are still kids; thrown into a world they don’t understand right now. How about we don’t focus on grades? How about homework is to help teachers understand if a child learns or understands the material? Why are we having these kids at such a young age, take these tests and build that stress and anxiety with learning? You’re killing the fun of learning.”