Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Those might be your personal observations. But the studies on the impact of school closures and remote learning on the welfare of children cite:
* The loss of a safe space for children from distressed households.
* The effects of social isolation during crucial stages of development.
* The long-term effects of learning loss, now estimated to be one-third to half of a school year in rich countries.
* The disproportionate effect of all of the above on disadvantaged and less educated households.
None of this is a surprise to the paediatrics associations the world over that implored governments not to close schools. Now that we have data showing the harm has been even greater than the experts feared, hopefully we will recalculate the tradeoffs the next time we’re faced with a serious contagion. For instance, we should prepare contingencies to keep schools open even when 25 per cent of teachers are absent.
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Your points made here are all correct to some degree, but with the emphasis placed on "disadvantaged and less educated households." This is the key. In my school and across my division we did a study to research the impact on kids and what we found was the high achievers were okay and generally not impacted (educationally) by any of the time lost in school. The "middle of the pack kids" were also not impacted to any high degree. They experienced some gaps in learning but nothing that couldn't be overcome. It was the kids that were already struggling that struggled worse. This was the big educational harm of the pandemic and school closures. And it wasn't educational in the sense of how many would think. It's not like their IQ slipped or something (because that's not possible).
The big issue we found with the struggling kids was that they gave up. After schools reopened, these kids struggled to attend and when they did attend they struggled to stay engaged. It's like they forgot how to do the routine of school.
Now these are the kids who are coming from very poor homes, or abusive homes, or terrible situations, etc. In my division, we roughly estimated this to be about 5% of kids. This is terrible and disheartening and needs our immediate attention as a society, but as I said in my post above, the VAST majority of kids came through it okay. I'd even suggest that the VAST majority of our kids gained some amazing life experience by going through the pandemic in their formative years.
I also question the idea of the loss of "half a year of learning" and what that actually looks like. Kids learn in all sorts of ways, and I would wager to bet most of it doesn't occur in the classroom. As I stated above, yes this generation of kids missed out on some deeper understandings of science, math, history, etc. but think of the life experience they gained that other generations did not. They likely pushed themselves in ways they didn't think possible or got to spend time doing other things they loved. These are learnings that will stay with them for the rest of their lives and are likely more meaningful than a teachers lesson on any given topic. I know this isn't true of all kids but just because they couldn't attend school doesn't mean they weren't learning and growing. It happens whether they sit in a classroom or not. In fact, some kids thrive the best outside of the classroom.
Again, I'm repeating myself, but in my mind the great loss of the pandemic for kids wasn't educationally. It was in mental health. I think I take it for granted now as an adult, but for most kids the world is a safe place because of the adults and structures/institutions that exist in it. (Police/Fire/Hospital/etc.) During the pandemic, many adults were scared and many of these institutions were overwhelmed and the news was dominated by scary and unknown possibilities. If many adults were facing panic/anxiety/depression/fear/dread during this time, think of how it must have impacted our kids? Their foundation (adults/institutions) were rocked and it probably felt like the world was ending for stretches. I fear that this loss of safety and security will have long-lasting impacts on the mental state's of our kids, because as a society we don't seem to be focused on it. Rather we're debating and arguing about the loss of 5-6 months of schooling and its impact on their learning.
I mean, my division was somewhat aware of this. For the start of the 2020/2021 school year (after the big school shutdown in the year prior) our division sent out a notice to all staff that it wanted us to focus less on the educational losses of the previous year and focus more on making school fun/safe/inviting. They were worried that we'd place more stress on the kids if we tried to "make up" all the lost learning. I guess people inside of the school system are focused on the mental state of the kids, but it feels like the general society keeps talking about some educational/learning loss when really that was negligible or at least not the biggest outcome of the school closures.
I know everything I stated is only from my experience, my school and my school division but I suspect it was a similar reality for most across this province.
Just my thoughts. Sorry I post so much about this, but its obviously something I care a lot about.