1st grade is a bad as we suspected

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Thank you for subbing! We NEED you!

+1000. I don’t know why so many people are being nasty to OP.

Education begins at home. I have a niece in 1st and a nephew in 3rd. They had a father working in COVID wards and a mother WFH in a high-stress job. They were put through Kumon to supplement the poor DL and they’re perfectly fine. Other parents chose not to do this and they’re being defensive. And don’t whine to me about their privilege. Many of you have the same privilege yet you failed your kids.

Perhaps because OP was being nasty about young kids and their parents.

Some parents have really let their kids down over the last 18 months. This is an undeniable fact. Yes, DL was a disaster, but some parents tried to mitigate the disaster, others did not or made it worse by allowing and encouraging terrible behavior and learned helplessness.

FOAD. You have no clue what some parents were dealing with.

Maybe. But not most of the parents posting here.

You don’t know that, but even if you’re right, so what? Your comment wasn’t limited to only parents here.

Parents, even the ones who “we have no idea what they are dealing with” are still ultimately responsible for how their kids turn out. I’m the end, if their kid is a HS drop out or whatever, no one is going to blame the pandemic from back in K.

Yes, there could be a whole wave of kids that turn out behind from the effects of the pandemic, and it's the school system's fault for acting like 5 year-olds can do a school day on Zoom. The majority of parents were doing the best that they could, but not everyone can afford supplementing and tutoring or even has a lot of time for homeschooling.

They can stay mad and blame whoever they want, but in the in it’s THEIR kid they are punishing by not taking their own steps to remediate.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for subbing! We NEED you!

+1000. I don’t know why so many people are being nasty to OP.

Education begins at home. I have a niece in 1st and a nephew in 3rd. They had a father working in COVID wards and a mother WFH in a high-stress job. They were put through Kumon to supplement the poor DL and they’re perfectly fine. Other parents chose not to do this and they’re being defensive. And don’t whine to me about their privilege. Many of you have the same privilege yet you failed your kids.

Perhaps because OP was being nasty about young kids and their parents.

Some parents have really let their kids down over the last 18 months. This is an undeniable fact. Yes, DL was a disaster, but some parents tried to mitigate the disaster, others did not or made it worse by allowing and encouraging terrible behavior and learned helplessness.

FOAD. You have no clue what some parents were dealing with.

Maybe. But not most of the parents posting here.

You don’t know that, but even if you’re right, so what? Your comment wasn’t limited to only parents here.

Parents, even the ones who “we have no idea what they are dealing with” are still ultimately responsible for how their kids turn out. I’m the end, if their kid is a HS drop out or whatever, no one is going to blame the pandemic from back in K.

Yes, there could be a whole wave of kids that turn out behind from the effects of the pandemic, and it's the school system's fault for acting like 5 year-olds can do a school day on Zoom. The majority of parents were doing the best that they could, but not everyone can afford supplementing and tutoring or even has a lot of time for homeschooling.

They can stay mad and blame whoever they want, but in the in it’s THEIR kid they are punishing by not taking their own steps to remediate.

It's also other kids in the class that are punished because everything slows down and more resources are allocated to help the struggling kids catch up. It's all connected, even if you're patting yourself on the back right now for being such a superstar parent.

[Anonymous]

I think you're absolutely right, OP, and it's only going to be more obvious as time goes on. A lot of these kids missed some really crucial building blocks of education. The gap between kids who were in person or doing outside the school enrichments and kids who weren't is going to be very wide.

[Anonymous]

I have no doubt that this year's first graders are the most behind behaviorally. But the kids who have the biggest deficit academically are current third graders. There were a chunk of kids who were a little behind in reading in the middle of first grade at the start of the pandemic. They then missed a solid 18 months of interventions when they could have been caught up on reading. They're now in third grade and read like behind first graders, when third graders are typically expected to be able to read to access the curriculum. It's the same for writing and math. So so so many critical skills were missed. It's not good.

After evaluating the third grade this year our school canceled science and social studies for the year to work on phonics, spelling and writing. There's a huge deficit.

[Anonymous]

The good news is that K-2 are times were lots of concepts are taught in spirals with lots of reinforcement so the kids should be able to catch up. I would be far more concerned if we were talking about the MS and HS kids, who I do think were legitimately screwed last year. Lots of those classes build on each other and catching up is far harder to do.

No one is pretending that there is an easy way to deal with what happened last year, it was a unique situation. Schools were shut because they needed to be. Could they have been opened earlier? Yup. No doubt about it in my mind but I am not a Scientist or medical expert and it wasn't my call. All I could do is make the mess work as best as I could.

What I saw, in our little circle of friends, is that very few kids parents were making their kids complete the Monday async work. The few who were only had their kids complete the must do work. DS was the only kid who was doing all the must dos and can dos. The number of people talking at the pool this summer about how they allowed their ES kid to just not do the work on Mondays or skip the sessions they didn't like was crazy. People seemed almost proud of the fact that they had stuck it to the schools by letting their kids turn off the computer or not participate.

And now they are now complaining that their kids are behind. Well, of course they are. Virtual learning sucked, especially for the younger kids. It was stupid hard and not an effective way to teach kids. The Teachers had no say over that mess and could only try to do their best to make it work. There wasn't a Teacher out there that thought that this was an effective way of teaching kids, especially early elementary. But it is where we were and what we had to work with. It was hard for everyone. Really it was. The amount of people whose response was to say screw it and not find a solution was astonishingly high.

So yeah, kids are behind this year. Kids who were in person all last year are ahead. ES kids are in the best position to make up that ground. It is going to take work but it is doable if parents choose to make it a priority and don't expect the schools to do everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a 1st grader, who attended a small in person K last year, a preschool that added a 5 year old class, so not super academic or anything of that sort, but he did go in person every single day. This year he is in 1st grade in person and he tells me that he is at the top of his class. The work he brings home is all stuff he did last year already. He hasn't learned anything new academically. I'm fine with this, because it's giving him the time and space to learn to grow socially and get used to a big class, school, structure, etc., since he already has the academics. But yeah, this group of kids got screwed by virtual learning.

This isn't any different then kids who attend stronger Preschools then kids who attend play only preschools then kids who never go to preschool. Kindergarten has a massive skill gap and it tends to take to second or third grade for that skill gap to be made up for some of the kids. Last year pushed this forward by another few years. And yes, it sucks, but it is nothing new. It is just more on the radar of the parents who sent their kids to preschool or read to their kids as babies and toddlers. The gaps are more transparent to everyone.

But these gaps are the same gaps that the Teachers have seen every year in a Title 1 school. Kids are not prepared for the grades they are in and we expect the Teachers to make up those gaps. The difference is that those same gaps are now glaringly obvious in non-Title 1 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The good news is that K-2 are times were lots of concepts are taught in spirals with lots of reinforcement so the kids should be able to catch up. I would be far more concerned if we were talking about the MS and HS kids, who I do think were legitimately screwed last year. Lots of those classes build on each other and catching up is far harder to do.

No one is pretending that there is an easy way to deal with what happened last year, it was a unique situation. Schools were shut because they needed to be. Could they have been opened earlier? Yup. No doubt about it in my mind but I am not a Scientist or medical expert and it wasn't my call. All I could do is make the mess work as best as I could.

What I saw, in our little circle of friends, is that very few kids parents were making their kids complete the Monday async work. The few who were only had their kids complete the must do work. DS was the only kid who was doing all the must dos and can dos. The number of people talking at the pool this summer about how they allowed their ES kid to just not do the work on Mondays or skip the sessions they didn't like was crazy. People seemed almost proud of the fact that they had stuck it to the schools by letting their kids turn off the computer or not participate.

And now they are now complaining that their kids are behind. Well, of course they are. Virtual learning sucked, especially for the younger kids. It was stupid hard and not an effective way to teach kids. The Teachers had no say over that mess and could only try to do their best to make it work. There wasn't a Teacher out there that thought that this was an effective way of teaching kids, especially early elementary. But it is where we were and what we had to work with. It was hard for everyone. Really it was. The amount of people whose response was to say screw it and not find a solution was astonishingly high.

So yeah, kids are behind this year. Kids who were in person all last year are ahead. ES kids are in the best position to make up that ground. It is going to take work but it is doable if parents choose to make it a priority and don't expect the schools to do everything.

MS and HS kids who actually attended class and did the assigned work are fine and not behind at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that this year's first graders are the most behind behaviorally. But the kids who have the biggest deficit academically are current third graders. There were a chunk of kids who were a little behind in reading in the middle of first grade at the start of the pandemic. They then missed a solid 18 months of interventions when they could have been caught up on reading. They're now in third grade and read like behind first graders, when third graders are typically expected to be able to read to access the curriculum. It's the same for writing and math. So so so many critical skills were missed. It's not good.

After evaluating the third grade this year our school canceled science and social studies for the year to work on phonics, spelling and writing. There's a huge deficit.

Parent of a third grader here - this 100%. I also teach. Grades 4-12 (specialist) and while all the kids are hurting, the elementary kids are having the most trouble reintegrating into school. Can’t sit still. Can’t wait their turn. Talk over the teacher. Demand snacks at random times. Can’t walk from one classroom to the next. All the typical student skills that allow academic learning to happen are unimaginably weak right now - and then throw into that mix 2-3 kids per class who seem to be acting out from serious trauma and it’s a mess. We teachers are working our tails off to remediate and bring in supports. Parents are working their tails off to remediate. But there’s no way to work at home on the daily skills you need to succeed in a class full of other children. School was never just about what individual children can learn and our continued emphasis on individual achievement and skills and testing makes that abundantly clear. Children need each other. Learning is as much a full community project as an individual checklist of skills. We forgot that years before the pandemic but the last 18 months have really made it clear. It will take so much to rebuild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The good news is that K-2 are times were lots of concepts are taught in spirals with lots of reinforcement so the kids should be able to catch up. I would be far more concerned if we were talking about the MS and HS kids, who I do think were legitimately screwed last year. Lots of those classes build on each other and catching up is far harder to do.

No one is pretending that there is an easy way to deal with what happened last year, it was a unique situation. Schools were shut because they needed to be. Could they have been opened earlier? Yup. No doubt about it in my mind but I am not a Scientist or medical expert and it wasn't my call. All I could do is make the mess work as best as I could.

What I saw, in our little circle of friends, is that very few kids parents were making their kids complete the Monday async work. The few who were only had their kids complete the must do work. DS was the only kid who was doing all the must dos and can dos. The number of people talking at the pool this summer about how they allowed their ES kid to just not do the work on Mondays or skip the sessions they didn't like was crazy. People seemed almost proud of the fact that they had stuck it to the schools by letting their kids turn off the computer or not participate.

And now they are now complaining that their kids are behind. Well, of course they are. Virtual learning sucked, especially for the younger kids. It was stupid hard and not an effective way to teach kids. The Teachers had no say over that mess and could only try to do their best to make it work. There wasn't a Teacher out there that thought that this was an effective way of teaching kids, especially early elementary. But it is where we were and what we had to work with. It was hard for everyone. Really it was. The amount of people whose response was to say screw it and not find a solution was astonishingly high.

So yeah, kids are behind this year. Kids who were in person all last year are ahead. ES kids are in the best position to make up that ground. It is going to take work but it is doable if parents choose to make it a priority and don't expect the schools to do everything.

MS and HS kids who actually attended class and did the assigned work are fine and not behind at all.

I would bet the same is true for ES whose parents were able to make their kid attend and pay attention, not an easy task, and who ended up sending their kids back to school when the schools reopened.

I do worry about the second and third graders because first and second really are important for helping kids who are picking up reading and math a bit more slowly. Normally the kids without learning issues seem to be on grade level by third but I suspect that is not the case this year. Missing so much of first and second grade because of virtual has got to be really hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that this year's first graders are the most behind behaviorally. But the kids who have the biggest deficit academically are current third graders. There were a chunk of kids who were a little behind in reading in the middle of first grade at the start of the pandemic. They then missed a solid 18 months of interventions when they could have been caught up on reading. They're now in third grade and read like behind first graders, when third graders are typically expected to be able to read to access the curriculum. It's the same for writing and math. So so so many critical skills were missed. It's not good.

After evaluating the third grade this year our school canceled science and social studies for the year to work on phonics, spelling and writing. There's a huge deficit.

Yes this. The first grade curriculum can be accessed by weak readers. The third grade one can’t.

[Anonymous]

I used to Sub and 1st grade was my least favorite grade. They still need so much attention but its only you, no aide like K. Also I agree, there are undiagnosed special needs but that's because some them are just starting to become obvious as they are required to do more academic work then K.
I liked second a lot better because by then a lot of kids who needed extra help have been id'd, most of them can read well enough to follow directions and they have more experience at being a student in regards to procedures and expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I honestly think all 1st graders should have repeated K. The school closures were very very hard on my child, but it was 2nd and 3rd, so he already knew how to read and write and behave in a classroom. I would think back on K and almost feel panicked at the idea of what would have happened if he just ... didn't have Kindergarten.

i agree with you. or some kind of a program adjustment should have been done with consideration to the messed up K year.

[Anonymous]

Reading all these comments blaming parents for not stepping in and teaching their kids, for me shows the problem with our society in a nutshell.

People really seem to have trouble with understanding others, with empathy, and frankly with plain common sense.

The way the US works right now, it is literally impossible for a large chunk of parents to parent well. They don't have the bare minimum time or money or mental capacity or skills, or some combination of the above. Then, their kids grow up and also suck as parents because they never had a chance.

And rather than seeing this fundamental truth, and saying, how can we interrupt this cycle response from so many is, "Well, I did it, so why can't they?" OR "Well, these other people overcame major poverty and trauma, why can't they?"

People who succeed as parents (in US society overall, but especially with the added stressors of COVID) are either privileged or exceptional or lucky.

There will always be people whose internal strength helps them overcome insane obstacles and thrive. But these are just a few exceptional people. Most people can't just shrug off the legacy of their own childhood trauma and become good parents. Most people can't manage two grueling jobs making $15/hour with constantly changing schedules, bad managers, and abusive customers, and then take care of groceries and bills and cleaning and childcare and find the energy to also be a teacher, oh and to do all of that without a partner.

I am UMC with a partner and pretty minor, run-of-the-mill mental health challenges, and this pandemic nearly broke me. I recognize every day that I was only able to keep things together for my now first grader because of my privilege and frankly luck (easy kid who adjusted easily to Zoom school and seems to pick everything up at school without effort). I seriously do not know how people do it without a partner, without tons of money, without totally losing their minds.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am a regular sub (3-4 days every week) at our local elementary school. Today was my first time in 1st grade this year. WOW. Academically and behaviorally I can honestly say this class was more behind than any other class. Honestly, the kindergarteners were better behaved. A lot of undiagnosed ADHD. And academically some of them are so behind they should be repeating K. Some of them literally don’t know what sounds letters make or how to use a pencil to do basic writing.

We discussed all last year how bad this would be but I secretly hoped we’d be pleasantly surprised. It was bad and I fear it will take years and years (if ever) for some of these kids to catch up.

WTAF.

Pro-tip, sweetie. If you see behavior problems everywhere, you're the common denominator. But thanks for the medical diagnosis. What are your credentials?

(p.s., they are SIX years old).

Interesting I’ve been in every other grade this year (including K) and none behaved anywhere near this badly. How often have you been in a classroom for an entire day dearie darling?

I haven't. I'm a clinician working in the field of ADHD.

But it's AMAZING that you're able to draw such sweeping conclusions about how bad first grade is, including making extensive diagnoses, based on your experience of a couple of days in one particular class. Maybe research the terms "outlier" and "confirmation bias" and report back. With citations, if you would.

Would you please just chill out?? Others got what OP was talking about. Just chill the f out.
I know exactly what she meant. My now-K'er was 4 last year. Pre-COVID she was perfectly capable of siting through 10-15 minute task and follow in-class instructions. Last year, during the virtual weekend classes she couldn't sit still for 3 minutes, we couldn't keep her interested enough to listen to the teacher. The online format doesn't work for 4-5 year olds, period. She is doing fine now in K, loves it. But we would definitely would repeat K this year if she had to do it virtually last year.

[Anonymous]

The fact of the matter is that even if a parent was there supervising zoom and making sure the child was doing what was supposed to be done, in my district at least, there was no learning virtually. It was literally filling time aka wasting time because then when zoom was over, my kindergartener and I were both so done that there was no energy left in me to actually then teach or homeschool him separately afterwards. Zoom consisted of: go resd to yourself for 15 mins (for a child who didnt know how to read), go build blocks, roll the dice and color in how many numbers, share what you did over the weekend, etc. That was not learning in any way. No socialization, nothing. The kids could have had the most involved parents but virtual school for k kids was just checking the box to say something was done and nothing was. Maybe some people then had a tutor to come over after zoom to really teach or some sent their kids to kumon, but the fact of the matter is the current K kids are doing a regular k curriculum in person and will show up to first grade at grade level and prepared socially /academically. The current first graders did and are not. Its complete inequity and its a shame that our education system felt that it was ok for those k kids and their families to get so royally screwed.