Picking up the pieces - how do we address problems were are facing in education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone be specific about what the "trauma" is kids are experiencing right now? I have a 12th grader and a college sophomore (and I teach elementary school) so I may not be aware of what issues other kids are having. My personal children are all very active in sports and activities in high school and college now, despite being in virtual schooling for over a year. I'm not aware of a large amount of trauma and stress in their peer group, except for the stress of college applications of course.

Our ES school seems pretty much normal emotionally. Academically there are still some gaps. We spent much of last year bringing students who were behind up to where they should be, academically but it is true that for some students, there are still gaps especially in math. What these students need IMO is individual or very small group tutoring, summer school, after school extra help. We can't provide it during the day because we have to (our school district insists that we) stick to the curriculum unfortunately. I believe this policy is misguided. They tell us we can "weave in" remediation in "mini-lessons" but what these students need are actual lessons, not ad hoc mini lessons.

But emotional trauma at the elementary school level? What are people seeing that needs to be dealt with?

I was wondering the same thing. I have a 9th grader and 11th grader so my days of being in tune with an elementary school are long gone. The pendulum seems to be swinging back to being more strict with the kids and their behaviors after being extremely understanding last year. That is what I see at my kids' high schools at least.

Shouldn't the same be happening in elementary school? A "carry on, then" attitude? It doesn't need to super strict, but these young kids need to learn they still need to carry-on and what the expectations really are. I find it hard to believe elementary kids are still too "traumatized" for that.

Have you ever had to deal with a child with depression? "Just move on" doesn't work for adults or children. "Have you tried not being depressed?"

Yikes.

+1

-1. If your kid has depression, regardless of the reason, the school cannot and will not fix it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9 year old daughter developed severe anxiety and it was not related to Covid closures at school because we lived in TX and had 3 weeks of virtual school. Her anxiety developed when we moved to DC because she is so freaked out about all the people still obsessed with Covid here. It’s so sad to see such miserable people worrying all the time about Covid still when the rest of the United States has moved on!!!

Yawn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Smaller class sizes would go a long way to fixing many of the other issues.

Which requires more teachers who do not exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone be specific about what the "trauma" is kids are experiencing right now? I have a 12th grader and a college sophomore (and I teach elementary school) so I may not be aware of what issues other kids are having. My personal children are all very active in sports and activities in high school and college now, despite being in virtual schooling for over a year. I'm not aware of a large amount of trauma and stress in their peer group, except for the stress of college applications of course.

Our ES school seems pretty much normal emotionally. Academically there are still some gaps. We spent much of last year bringing students who were behind up to where they should be, academically but it is true that for some students, there are still gaps especially in math. What these students need IMO is individual or very small group tutoring, summer school, after school extra help. We can't provide it during the day because we have to (our school district insists that we) stick to the curriculum unfortunately. I believe this policy is misguided. They tell us we can "weave in" remediation in "mini-lessons" but what these students need are actual lessons, not ad hoc mini lessons.

But emotional trauma at the elementary school level? What are people seeing that needs to be dealt with?

I was wondering the same thing. I have a 9th grader and 11th grader so my days of being in tune with an elementary school are long gone. The pendulum seems to be swinging back to being more strict with the kids and their behaviors after being extremely understanding last year. That is what I see at my kids' high schools at least.

Shouldn't the same be happening in elementary school? A "carry on, then" attitude? It doesn't need to super strict, but these young kids need to learn they still need to carry-on and what the expectations really are. I find it hard to believe elementary kids are still too "traumatized" for that.

Have you ever had to deal with a child with depression? "Just move on" doesn't work for adults or children. "Have you tried not being depressed?"

Yikes.

NP. Out of the four of us, DH and DS and DD and me, three of us really struggled with an increase in depression and anxiety during the pandemic and virtual school and afterward. Now, while DH and I are doing so-so, DS is doing fine, as is DD. A return to school, return to expectations, return to/making new friendships is what he needed and what he got.

The academic learning loss is an issue - but schools are the solution to the emotional and psychological trauma for kids, imo. Although I like OP's suggestion for increased mentoring and buddying, which was something that our ES used to do but hasn't resumed yet.

It’s debatable that schools achieve their main goal, educating a population. Why would we add healing from trauma to their plate? People need to parent and get their kids the help they need.

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone be specific about what the "trauma" is kids are experiencing right now? I have a 12th grader and a college sophomore (and I teach elementary school) so I may not be aware of what issues other kids are having. My personal children are all very active in sports and activities in high school and college now, despite being in virtual schooling for over a year. I'm not aware of a large amount of trauma and stress in their peer group, except for the stress of college applications of course.

Our ES school seems pretty much normal emotionally. Academically there are still some gaps. We spent much of last year bringing students who were behind up to where they should be, academically but it is true that for some students, there are still gaps especially in math. What these students need IMO is individual or very small group tutoring, summer school, after school extra help. We can't provide it during the day because we have to (our school district insists that we) stick to the curriculum unfortunately. I believe this policy is misguided. They tell us we can "weave in" remediation in "mini-lessons" but what these students need are actual lessons, not ad hoc mini lessons.

But emotional trauma at the elementary school level? What are people seeing that needs to be dealt with?

I was wondering the same thing. I have a 9th grader and 11th grader so my days of being in tune with an elementary school are long gone. The pendulum seems to be swinging back to being more strict with the kids and their behaviors after being extremely understanding last year. That is what I see at my kids' high schools at least.

Shouldn't the same be happening in elementary school? A "carry on, then" attitude? It doesn't need to super strict, but these young kids need to learn they still need to carry-on and what the expectations really are. I find it hard to believe elementary kids are still too "traumatized" for that.

Have you ever had to deal with a child with depression? "Just move on" doesn't work for adults or children. "Have you tried not being depressed?"

Yikes.

NP. Out of the four of us, DH and DS and DD and me, three of us really struggled with an increase in depression and anxiety during the pandemic and virtual school and afterward. Now, while DH and I are doing so-so, DS is doing fine, as is DD. A return to school, return to expectations, return to/making new friendships is what he needed and what he got.

The academic learning loss is an issue - but schools are the solution to the emotional and psychological trauma for kids, imo. Although I like OP's suggestion for increased mentoring and buddying, which was something that our ES used to do but hasn't resumed yet.

It’s debatable that schools achieve their main goal, educating a population. Why would we add healing from trauma to their plate? People need to parent and get their kids the help they need.

ok, but many of them aren't. it's fun (and easy) to see the world in what people SHOULD do but the reality is that many parents, for various reasons, aren't being the parents that their kids need. and then that carries over to the schools. so...what now? saying "well, people should do this or that" is not a solution.

Saying “well, the schools should solve all my and my kids’ problems” is not a solution. Their job is education, not psychiatry or social work.

[Anonymous]

1 - To rebuild trust, school boards and school districts need to acknowledge they were wrong and made poor decisions. This alone would go a long way to help alleviate problems.

2 - Students have to be taught to read and do basic math. School districts should mandate that the three months be dedicated in elementary and middle school school to nothing other than learning basic math facts and math facts review and learning how to read by using phonics based methods. Every single student. After 3 months of group instruction then switch over to one on one instruction for those still struggling. At the high school level, there has to be some tracking instituted and students lacking basic skills will spend the same 3 months doing this.

3- The majority of academic struggles are rooted in a student’s inability to read. Teaching a child to read takes one on one tutoring. It costs money. APS declined to do it bc it can cost “$100 per hour” and they said it was too expensive. They didn’t seem to care that some parents pay that out of pocket and the parents who can’t - their kids never learn to read.

4 - Remote teaching was such a problem bc teachers were so unequipped to deal with technology. Some had never, ever used any kind of web conferencing tool despite the software the schools had including those features. Some had no idea how to update and add upload documents. Teachers should be provided ongoing training, be required to participate in hands on learning and should be required to pass a basic technology skills test each year. There is no excuse for teachers to not understand technology and how to use it.

In addition school districts need to get serious about their own technology infrastructure and make sure they are using systems across the district that integrate seamlessly and efficiently share data across all systems. Teachers should be able to quickly and data to a single system and be able to generate reports and details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smaller class sizes would go a long way to fixing many of the other issues.

Which requires more teachers who do not exist.

Which also has minimal evidence that it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

2 - Students have to be taught to read and do basic math. School districts should mandate that the three months be dedicated in elementary and middle school school to nothing other than learning basic math facts and math facts review and learning how to read by using phonics based methods. Every single student. After 3 months of group instruction then switch over to one on one instruction for those still struggling. At the high school level, there has to be some tracking instituted and students lacking basic skills will spend the same 3 months doing this.

Um... no thank you. Plenty of students already know how to read and know their basic math facts. They do not need THREE MONTHS of review. Talk about learning loss!

[Anonymous]

Here’s how I addressed the problem we were facing in education.

My child was in a public school through distance learning. Seeing first hand the terrible instruction they were receiving, I took the second job of being my child’s teacher. In math in particular he went ahead at a much faster pace and when we returned in person I asked for a higher grade math placement. It was denied promptly, hence the educational problem we were facing.

The solution came after we switched to a charter school, and he was tested and placed two grades above his current one.

Problem solved!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 9 year old daughter developed severe anxiety and it was not related to Covid closures at school because we lived in TX and had 3 weeks of virtual school. Her anxiety developed when we moved to DC because she is so freaked out about all the people still obsessed with Covid here. It’s so sad to see such miserable people worrying all the time about Covid still when the rest of the United States has moved on!!!

Yawn.

Sounds like a lot going on at home with the big move. Covid may not have been to blame. Or, maybe you talked about it so much and handled it wrong to create such a dramatic response. You may have moved on but because of your behavior and choices some of us cannot risk illness and don’t have your privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone be specific about what the "trauma" is kids are experiencing right now? I have a 12th grader and a college sophomore (and I teach elementary school) so I may not be aware of what issues other kids are having. My personal children are all very active in sports and activities in high school and college now, despite being in virtual schooling for over a year. I'm not aware of a large amount of trauma and stress in their peer group, except for the stress of college applications of course.

Our ES school seems pretty much normal emotionally. Academically there are still some gaps. We spent much of last year bringing students who were behind up to where they should be, academically but it is true that for some students, there are still gaps especially in math. What these students need IMO is individual or very small group tutoring, summer school, after school extra help. We can't provide it during the day because we have to (our school district insists that we) stick to the curriculum unfortunately. I believe this policy is misguided. They tell us we can "weave in" remediation in "mini-lessons" but what these students need are actual lessons, not ad hoc mini lessons.

But emotional trauma at the elementary school level? What are people seeing that needs to be dealt with?

I was wondering the same thing. I have a 9th grader and 11th grader so my days of being in tune with an elementary school are long gone. The pendulum seems to be swinging back to being more strict with the kids and their behaviors after being extremely understanding last year. That is what I see at my kids' high schools at least.

Shouldn't the same be happening in elementary school? A "carry on, then" attitude? It doesn't need to super strict, but these young kids need to learn they still need to carry-on and what the expectations really are. I find it hard to believe elementary kids are still too "traumatized" for that.

Have you ever had to deal with a child with depression? "Just move on" doesn't work for adults or children. "Have you tried not being depressed?"

Yikes.

NP. Out of the four of us, DH and DS and DD and me, three of us really struggled with an increase in depression and anxiety during the pandemic and virtual school and afterward. Now, while DH and I are doing so-so, DS is doing fine, as is DD. A return to school, return to expectations, return to/making new friendships is what he needed and what he got.

The academic learning loss is an issue - but schools are the solution to the emotional and psychological trauma for kids, imo. Although I like OP's suggestion for increased mentoring and buddying, which was something that our ES used to do but hasn't resumed yet.

It’s debatable that schools achieve their main goal, educating a population. Why would we add healing from trauma to their plate? People need to parent and get their kids the help they need.

We add the extra stuff like healing from trauma specifically to distract from the fact that schools are failing at educating the population. It also comes in handy when asking for more money and the beauty is that there’s no metric on how well schools are doing on this task, it’s all super fuzzy, so no accountability whatsoever. We also have to get around the fact that it’s illegal to provide mental health services from individuals with no expertise, professional training or any kind of licensing, but don’t worry, we can call it ‘counseling’ or social emotional learning, or anything that sounds well intended but is actually meaningless. If anyone objects to this, it means they are just terrible people who want to see children suffer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1 - To rebuild trust, school boards and school districts need to acknowledge they were wrong and made poor decisions. This alone would go a long way to help alleviate problems.

2 - Students have to be taught to read and do basic math. School districts should mandate that the three months be dedicated in elementary and middle school school to nothing other than learning basic math facts and math facts review and learning how to read by using phonics based methods. Every single student. After 3 months of group instruction then switch over to one on one instruction for those still struggling. At the high school level, there has to be some tracking instituted and students lacking basic skills will spend the same 3 months doing this.

3- The majority of academic struggles are rooted in a student’s inability to read. Teaching a child to read takes one on one tutoring. It costs money. APS declined to do it bc it can cost “$100 per hour” and they said it was too expensive. They didn’t seem to care that some parents pay that out of pocket and the parents who can’t - their kids never learn to read.

4 - Remote teaching was such a problem bc teachers were so unequipped to deal with technology. Some had never, ever used any kind of web conferencing tool despite the software the schools had including those features. Some had no idea how to update and add upload documents. Teachers should be provided ongoing training, be required to participate in hands on learning and should be required to pass a basic technology skills test each year. There is no excuse for teachers to not understand technology and how to use it.

In addition school districts need to get serious about their own technology infrastructure and make sure they are using systems across the district that integrate seamlessly and efficiently share data across all systems. Teachers should be able to quickly and data to a single system and be able to generate reports and details.

For the thousandth time, this is not happening. Never. Ever. Let it go.

[Anonymous]

We need to separate the social services that teachers/ schools provide from education. There needs to be a new city/county or state organization that manages the social needs in the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smaller class sizes would go a long way to fixing many of the other issues.

Which requires more teachers who do not exist.

That’s the same reason charter schools aren’t a reasonable fix. There aren’t enough teachers to fill them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depressingly, I think the only thing that will work is to rebuild trust. And I don’t know how to do that. God knows I don’t trust educators any more, not after watching the gaslighting that went on (my kid has severe dyslexia, and will probably have lifelong impact from the closures). I don’t see how kids learn from educators they don’t trust. And many of them do not trust educators at all now.

What? How would the school closures affect kids' trust with their current teachers? Because their parents have been badmouthing teachers this entire time? Sounds like a home/parenting problem.

Bingo. Kids aren’t blaming their teachers unless they hear those talking points at home.