To teachers and parents: Have the kids gotten better?

[Anonymous]

To teachers and parents: We were hearing stories that children were stressed, had forgotten how to behave, almost feral. For a while, there were constant news stories and posts about fights, extraordinary mean behavior and crankiness, children and teens who were really struggling with re-entry. As well as the dumb TikTok pranks.

Now that we're into the 3rd quarter of the school year, have students settled down, remembered, started to recover? My own kids report that things are back to normal, but my younger kid doesn't really remember what normal was and my older kid is pretty oblivious at the best of times. My kids' teachers seemed more refreshed, less burnt out, after the winter break.

[Anonymous]

Sub (all grades) here.

Nope. That said, I think different grades/ages have more behavioral problems than others. First grade and lower HS, in my opinion, are the "worst." Middle School seems much better overall - just normal teen/adolescence stuff, without the reentry issues.

[Anonymous]

HS teacher: no

[Anonymous]

Parent here. We've finally been able to get in to a therapist this past week (after being waitlisted).

Things still aren't 'normal' (particularly in school) for my young kids and one of mine is still having anxiety that is detrimental to everyday functioning.

[Anonymous]

This thread is also discussing the ongoing mental health challenges of kids. The original article is quite long but does a good job with nuance, in my opinion:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1046027.page

[Anonymous]

I was just talking to a high school teacher today who told me this will be her last year teaching. She's a great teacher. From what she told me, her biggest challenge is engaging the students. She was saying that they just seem to have so little motivation to do anything. Every single teacher and administrator I've talked to in the last month has said it's been a very tough year.

For my own 5th grader, she is doing well, a little over her classmates, but much less anxiety. Now that she is getting special education services, she went from being the year at a low third grade reading level to being on a 5th grade level as of last week! Beginning of 5th grade in March, but I'll take it. She also learned to play guitar at school this year.

[Anonymous]

Middle School AP here. I'd say a little. It's been a rough year. My husband is begging me to quit education and open a cocktail bar.

[Anonymous]

ES Admin in a Title 1: Kids are fine behaviorally and academically. The district on the other hand has no interest in anything but testing, testing, and more testing which is burning out students & teachers alike

[Anonymous]

My kids have been in school since January of 2021. No problems in either of the two schools they've been in.

[Anonymous]

It has not gotten better. However, I am not sure how much the kids have really changed as discipline (at least at the school I work at) and the curriculum has changed a lot since before the pandemic.

Prior to the pandemic, we would never have tolerated fist fights at school. They would have been immediate suspension (elementary school). Now, after those same fist fights, kids are sent right back to class where they are still elevated and are destroying the class climate. Things smaller than fist fights are also now just part of the class culture, but are really upsetting most kids. Consider if you were told to go to the office and expected to get your work done while ignoring shouting, kicking chairs, rudeness and all things around you? You probably would get pretty annoyed...and have a pretty big headache! Same for the students. We have kids leaving the classroom just so they can get some peace and quiet. Prior to the pandemic, we were allowed to send disrupting students to the counselor or office- now, no more! Just tolerate it and expect the students around them to just be able to continue on. I think if we had used the same behavior approach prior to the pandemic, we would be having the same results.

The curriculum (MCPS) also changed during the pandemic. We switched to Benchmark which is boring the kids to tears and Eureka which is boring and a huge stretch for most students (except all of the geniuses on DCUM). There are no parties or field trips or enriching units. Just page after page of workbooks so kids aren't motivated or enjoying school.

I think blaming the pandemic on everything is short sighted as during the pandemic too many things changed.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I am wondering what has been going on. I’ve been getting a bunch of emails about Discipline Town Hall from my child’s school. Maybe the adults are over stressed and need to chill. Why aren’t schools using the Covid funds to hire more therapists and counselors? I’m really worried about the mental health fallout when the kids reach college and young adulthood. I mean we are already seeing it with all the suicides happening on campuses that no one is really talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just talking to a high school teacher today who told me this will be her last year teaching. She's a great teacher. From what she told me, her biggest challenge is engaging the students. She was saying that they just seem to have so little motivation to do anything. Every single teacher and administrator I've talked to in the last month has said it's been a very tough year.

For my own 5th grader, she is doing well, a little over her classmates, but much less anxiety. Now that she is getting special education services, she went from being the year at a low third grade reading level to being on a 5th grade level as of last week! Beginning of 5th grade in March, but I'll take it. She also learned to play guitar at school this year.

+1

To the HS teacher’s comments above. I generally am a good teacher but my ability to engage students and get them to work hard and for an entire class period is gone. They complain, go to the bathroom for 20 minutes, look at their phones every two minutes and claim they are working hard when they aren’t doing anything. I don’t think I’ll last much longer because the whole thing seems like a futile effort on my part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I am wondering what has been going on. I’ve been getting a bunch of emails about Discipline Town Hall from my child’s school. Maybe the adults are over stressed and need to chill. Why aren’t schools using the Covid funds to hire more therapists and counselors? I’m really worried about the mental health fallout when the kids reach college and young adulthood. I mean we are already seeing it with all the suicides happening on campuses that no one is really talking about.

It's a really tough time to hire.

[Anonymous]

I’m not a teacher, but was hired this year (using ESSER funds) to help at an FCPS elementary school. Behavior-wise the kids seem to be *slightly* improving (or I’m just becoming numb to it). Academically, not so much. So many kids are SO behind that, if their parents/guardians aren’t consistently working with them outside of school, I don’t know how they’ll ever catch up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has not gotten better. However, I am not sure how much the kids have really changed as discipline (at least at the school I work at) and the curriculum has changed a lot since before the pandemic.

Prior to the pandemic, we would never have tolerated fist fights at school. They would have been immediate suspension (elementary school). Now, after those same fist fights, kids are sent right back to class where they are still elevated and are destroying the class climate. Things smaller than fist fights are also now just part of the class culture, but are really upsetting most kids. Consider if you were told to go to the office and expected to get your work done while ignoring shouting, kicking chairs, rudeness and all things around you? You probably would get pretty annoyed...and have a pretty big headache! Same for the students. We have kids leaving the classroom just so they can get some peace and quiet. Prior to the pandemic, we were allowed to send disrupting students to the counselor or office- now, no more! Just tolerate it and expect the students around them to just be able to continue on. I think if we had used the same behavior approach prior to the pandemic, we would be having the same results.

The curriculum (MCPS) also changed during the pandemic. We switched to Benchmark which is boring the kids to tears and Eureka which is boring and a huge stretch for most students (except all of the geniuses on DCUM). There are no parties or field trips or enriching units. Just page after page of workbooks so kids aren't motivated or enjoying school.

I think blaming the pandemic on everything is short sighted as during the pandemic too many things changed.

This is my conclusion as well. I don’t believe educators/administrators are taking responsibility for the shift in behaviors. The curriculum and style of teaching is making school tedious and boring. Kids rarely get specific, nuanced feedback on their work. For many kids there is no reason to try! Rewards have been removed because “they are unfair.” Well who wants to work their butt off if no one is going to read it, comment on it, and give constructive feedback?