Children Are Falling Behind in Education

During the pandemic, children weren’t in classrooms and generally fell behind in their education. The current impacts of which are currently being felt today. As students continue to attempt to go back to normal life, studies show that they didn’t learn much during the pandemic.

This means that both teachers and students are going to have a hard time catching up with the standards for the students. Some students are maybe six months behind, others are maybe two to three years behind. Teachers and students are going to end up working hard even outside of class hours to catch up to standards.

This isn’t the teachers’ fault

This was inevitable, however, saving lives was the greatest priority in those trying times. It isn’t on the teachers or the students that this happened, but rather on the politicians and political pundits that politicized COVID-19. Children and teachers aren’t the ones responsible for the proliferation of the COVID-19 virus. The politicians that kept reopening cities even after the experts told them not to are responsible.

America handled COVID-19 the worst, with around a million deaths and millions of people infected. The people of America watched as their president denied it even existed as the virus was actively killing. Politicians spread misinformation and so did the political pundits.

American failures

America could have cut its experience with COVID-19 in half had it just taken it seriously in the beginning. If America didn’t have an extremely individualist culture then many lives, including the lives of children could be saved. Children are falling behind because of the incompetence of the American government.

Education was once thought to be the great equalizer. It was something that could bridge the gap between the economic classes. However, this two-year gap in education may prove to be the biggest determiner of success for this generation. Whether someone attended a school with enough resources to help their children throughout the pandemic will be the major factor. The situation seems hopeless, and it seems as though there aren’t many solutions to this problem.

Radical Redistributions

However, not everything is as it seems. One could use a few suggestions to negate and or mediate the problem. There is a disturbing lack of resources in many schools. What could be done, is a radical overhaul of how school funding is done. Fund the schools that need it the most. Schools with students of color could have resources that correlate to their experience.

The school week or hours shouldn’t be extended, but there could be more resources put into tutoring services. More tutoring services put into schools could help alleviate the issue over time. Tutoring can’t be the only answer though. There may not be enough tutors for every child that needs it. Furthermore, some children need special attention because of learning disabilities, and neurodiversity.

Complex solutions for a problem that could have been smaller

This is a complex problem that requires a complex solution. No one solution is going to be able to solve this issue. Rather, holistic analysis and a multitude of solutions are what these children need. Many say that it would be cruel to deprive a child of proper education. The actions (and inaction) of politicians are what deprived these children of proper education. The COVID-19 pandemic could have been two to six months instead of two years. America could have taken notes from other countries and handled it all much better. Yet, America is America, the land of the free.

Children are in need and the American government can help them

These children need help, and a macro-level redistribution of resources can help these children. There are many different uses for those resources in terms of distribution. Some are useful, and some are less useful. However, at this point, anything would help. Children are people, and they deserve a great education. Not to create more worker drones, but to create functional and healthy members of society. There are many things that the American government could do about this problem. Even the slightest nudge in the right direction could help thousands of children. All it takes is political will.

Written by Kenneth Mazerat

Sources

US News: Online School Put US Kids Behind. Some Adults Have Regrets. By Associated Press

Scientific American: U.S. Kids Are Falling behind Global Competition, but Brain Science Shows How to Catch Up; by  Dana Suskind, Lydia Denworth

TheAtlantic: Kids Are Far, Far Behind in School; by Thomas Kane

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Stefanie Galvin‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License

First Inset Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License