The Covid Education Crisis: A Lost Generation?

It may seem that the epidemic is over; Stadiums have reopened, crowds are everywhere, with barely a mask in sight. But COVID has hurt a lot of things that you can’t easily see, especially in schools. said Jeffrey Canada, founder of the company Harlem Kids District in Manhattan.

He said that when it comes to how the pandemic is affecting education, the news has been surprising, and certainly not in a good way. “We have the data now, and things are bad; they’re actually worse than most of us think,” Canada said. “In fact, I would tell you that we are facing an education crisis right now.”

Actual numbers vary by community, but according to a national test given to fourth and eighth graders, the National Assessment of Educational ProgressReading skills fell to the lowest point in 30 years.

And in math, nearly 40% of eighth graders can’t understand basic concepts — the worst performance since testing began in 1969.

Canada said, “These aren’t just poor kids living in urban centers. It’s all over America. There’s been a huge drop in ELA and in math scores. And that coincides with students missing out on school, with an increase in violence that’s happening, and behavioral problems that kids are having.” In my 45+ year career, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

It is not hard to see how that happened. Experts say the reason behind this is remote teaching and the lack of computers at home. Add to that the fear of watching your family members die, and it’s no wonder millions of young people have had a hard time learning, or even going about their day.

Heather Huszti, chair of the Department of Psychology at Southern California Children’s Hospital of Orange CountyShe even said she couldn’t believe how many children needed help. “We saw a 50% increase in the number of children presenting to our emergency department from the start of the pandemic to this past fiscal year.”

“The children were in some kind of mental health crisis?” Smith asked.

“Yeah. What we (those of us in Child Mental Health) are saying is that it was burning embers even before the pandemic, and the pandemic happened and threw petrol on that fire. We see more and more kids come in who have suicidal thoughts; we’re seeing more and more kids who come in like, “My grades are down, and I can’t work anymore. And if we don’t kind of help kids manage some of these mental health issues, they can’t learn effectively. Those kids are struggling.”

Here’s something else that might take your breath away: A University of California study found that during a pandemic, Children spend an average of 17 minutes less per day on physical activity. Now, 17 minutes may not seem like much, but over time these small losses can really add up.

During the pandemic, some kids didn’t go outside at all, let alone get any kind of exercise. So, now gym teachers like Dan DeJager in Meraki High School Near sacramento playing catch up. Instead of rigorous sports and physical education classes, DeJager runs a program designed to ease kids back into physical activity by having them do anything that gets them moving again, like relay races or Frisbee.

Smith asked, “At this point in these children’s lives, are these the habits that they develop for the rest of their lives?”

“It’s like wet cement,” DeJager said. “We only have so much time to make a positive impression on our students. And so, we want to use that time as wisely as we can and as best we can. And we lost a little bit of that time. Now that we’re back in person, we’re trying to get there again.”

Of course, keeping kids active can benefit their minds as much as their motor skills. Huszti said, “Activity levels for mild to moderate depression can be as effective as medication. So if we’re active, if we’re doing well in school, it can affect your mental health, and your mental health can affect those things too. So, it’s going to start this vicious circle, right? There’s a connection there. It’s all connected.”

But the bigger picture here, according to educators like Geoffrey Canada, is that this will be a kind of lost generation: so uneducated that it lowers their future and ours.

Canada said, “There is a whole group of young people who are not going to get the kind of education that will allow them to get the best jobs.” “A lot of kids will cost tens of thousands of dollars in earnings, or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We constantly forget that this is about America,” he said. “That eight-year-old girl is going to be 20 when you blink an eye, and 25 in a short amount of time. She needs to be an engineer. He needs to be a doctor. We need to start thinking of these kids as resources for this country.”

Canada said there are ways to fix this, such as intensive tutoring throughout the week; extension of the school day; And keep classrooms open in the summer.

He seems to know what he’s talking about: the Harlem kids’ district, which takes kids, as they say, “from cradle to college,” has become a model of success. So, how did the pandemic hit them? They say math scores have dropped a bit, but English has stayed about the same. And in 2021, 100% of the school’s graduating seniors have been accepted into college.

Kwame Owusu-Kesse, CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, says the numbers are evidence that things like intensive tutoring, as well as teachers paying extra to stay after school. “There is no substitute for the work that needs to be done by changing the investment in the short time, extra time for our young people in the classroom with the teachers,” he said.

And there may be a silver lining to the rest of the country. When asked what she thinks things will look like ten years from now, psychologist Heather Hostie said, “I feel like we can raise a generation that will be more attuned to people’s pain, that will be more attuned to helping each other understand the importance of connection. And that may lead us Actually to a better place. So, I’m still hopeful, even when we’ve been through a really tough time. I don’t think we’re through it yet. But I think we can come along and be better.”

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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Carol Ross.

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