How much do you think the pandemic hurt your child academically?

[Anonymous]

My kid missed half of kindergarten and all of 1st grade. His handwriting is fine, but the way he holds a pencil is really messed up. He refused to take any direction from us when he was learning to write. Hopefully he’ll grow out of it.

Academically it probably helped both of my kids. I got “how to teach your child to read in 100 lessons” and taught my son how to read in spring/summer 2020. Because we had the iPad at home for 1st, we were actively involved and aware of what he was learning each week and able to scaffold and support him at home. His little brother who was in preschool at the time is like a sponge and soaked up all the 1st grade info and is now way ahead in math.

Once the kids were fully back in school, I have to admit I kind of checked out last year because I didn’t have to check assignments every day.

[Anonymous]

Math - neither of my kids is a Math kid and they were totally f'd by the pandemic only teaching 50-60% of the Math curriculum

seriously long term repercussions

[Anonymous]

Mine are fine or even ahead academically because I taught them at home but it totally sucked having everything closed for so long. They know how to behave in public because we taught them appropriate behavior but they struggle to make friends with other kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard to say. I think the pandemic made schools lower their standards enormously. During the shut down it was “oh well, we can’t be expected to teach on Wednesdays or to administer tests!” Post pandemic it was like “oh well, the kids are behind!” I’m not sure that expectations have recovered. In parallel, reducing rigor is also now more broadly accepted as an equity move - eg no homework, honors for all.

This. My kid was fine academically during the pandemic. Coming back to school was a giant letdown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard from both my kids' teachers that they're still seeing big issues with handwriting and social skills.

At the beginning of the year, a 4th grade teachers shared than about half of her students were still writing certain numbers backwards. This is likely due to reliance on tablets for math instruction during virtual and in the following year. The 4th grade teachers have reported lots of social issues too, particularly among the boys (who have been described as "wild" or "feral").

A first grade teacher shared that she was still teaching pencil grip and letter formation to her students this spring and that many were still very far behind in fine motor skills. She thought it was likely from missing years of preschool/daycare. She said she's still seeing social issues too.

I have seen several children who wrote numbers backwards while learning to write from Zoom school...because the teacher's video was reversed.

[Anonymous]

This thread is so privileged, including my experience. We did private and a pod and hired a reading specialist for my K student. Of course he is fine.

Who was really hurt are lower-income students without family and financial support who were already disadvantaged and are now more so. It’s unfeeling not to recognize that pandemic learning loss affects those most who can least afford to face it. As a society we are failing the poor yet again but DCUMers are fine so let’s just not talk about it and/or pretend it isn’t happening!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so privileged, including my experience. We did private and a pod and hired a reading specialist for my K student. Of course he is fine.

Who was really hurt are lower-income students without family and financial support who were already disadvantaged and are now more so. It’s unfeeling not to recognize that pandemic learning loss affects those most who can least afford to face it. As a society we are failing the poor yet again but DCUMers are fine so let’s just not talk about it and/or pretend it isn’t happening!

This. Kids from lower socioeconomic levels were disadvantaged. Most of DCUM were not.

Similarly, we had no long term issues. We also had private tutors for the entirety of the pandemic and continued the private tutors to date. Kids actually had more intensive math study during COVID than at any other time.

Socially, we have a tight cul de sac with lots of kids. Our neighborhood kids played together quite a bit and were always outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so privileged, including my experience. We did private and a pod and hired a reading specialist for my K student. Of course he is fine.

Who was really hurt are lower-income students without family and financial support who were already disadvantaged and are now more so. It’s unfeeling not to recognize that pandemic learning loss affects those most who can least afford to face it. As a society we are failing the poor yet again but DCUMers are fine so let’s just not talk about it and/or pretend it isn’t happening!

You are privileged and using talking points of poor people as your commentary.

We were at one of those poor schools, and yet, many of our kids did just fine. It took a lot of parental involvement, but so does in-person.

The issue is the quality of the academics and schools not being willing to address issues like reading early on. You are clueless. Schools have been in person for two years now so it's time to stop blaming the pandemic and understand that the issue is the changes in curriculum, teaching and standards.

And, my kids have been in virtual for three years. Virtual isn't the issue. We don't have your privilege to be able to send them in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so privileged, including my experience. We did private and a pod and hired a reading specialist for my K student. Of course he is fine.

Who was really hurt are lower-income students without family and financial support who were already disadvantaged and are now more so. It’s unfeeling not to recognize that pandemic learning loss affects those most who can least afford to face it. As a society we are failing the poor yet again but DCUMers are fine so let’s just not talk about it and/or pretend it isn’t happening!

Well, look at you!

I couldn't even dream of putting my kids in private even though they are a smart, hardworking bunch. Had no pod (no one near us to pod) so it was a little isolated, though it helped that I had multiple kids to play with each other. And I was the reading and math specialist for my kid.

It was a lot of work so I can't say that "fine" would be a given as you would be able to assume for your child. I'm happy to say that they are fine.
I answered the question for this thread, we made it through okay. But having been raised in tighter circumstances when I was younger, I know it would have been disastrous if the pandemic had happened when I was a kid as maybe you don’t.

So what do you want? Yes, every awful thing in the world will hit the poor in a more disastrous manner (illness/pandemic/climate change.)
So now that the small talk of how our kids are doing is over, what do you want done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids managed and came out ok. They're both very self-motivated so did fine on the academic side. I'm sure it's not what it could have been though. But as teenagers they missed out on some important things socially. Millions of kids had it worse.

But in retrospect, closing public schools for a year and a half - while privates were allowed to stay open, not to mention all of red America - was disastrous. Just read some of the comments here. We collectively decided to throw public school kids under the bus. Unforgivable. A complete societal failure.

Where were they closed a year and a half? In VA, it was March 2020 to March 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so privileged, including my experience. We did private and a pod and hired a reading specialist for my K student. Of course he is fine.

Who was really hurt are lower-income students without family and financial support who were already disadvantaged and are now more so. It’s unfeeling not to recognize that pandemic learning loss affects those most who can least afford to face it. As a society we are failing the poor yet again but DCUMers are fine so let’s just not talk about it and/or pretend it isn’t happening!

Well, look at you!

I couldn't even dream of putting my kids in private even though they are a smart, hardworking bunch. Had no pod (no one near us to pod) so it was a little isolated, though it helped that I had multiple kids to play with each other. And I was the reading and math specialist for my kid.

It was a lot of work so I can't say that "fine" would be a given as you would be able to assume for your child. I'm happy to say that they are fine.
I answered the question for this thread, we made it through okay. But having been raised in tighter circumstances when I was younger, I know it would have been disastrous if the pandemic had happened when I was a kid as maybe you don’t.

So what do you want? Yes, every awful thing in the world will hit the poor in a more disastrous manner (illness/pandemic/climate change.)
So now that the small talk of how our kids are doing is over, what do you want done?

That is the thing…you shouldered a lot of work. So did I. Our kids are fine. The kids, as I said, WITHOUT FAMILY SUPPORT—which many lower income kids don’t have—are not OK. The school systems need to supplement more to make up for the loss. There is no one there for many of these kids at home. My brother is a teacher in a low-income school…many of his students have parents on meth and pills, they aren’t helping with homework. Don’t those kids deserve a chance like ours? Social supports, like the extra COVID money, should be paid for and used by school systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so privileged, including my experience. We did private and a pod and hired a reading specialist for my K student. Of course he is fine.

Who was really hurt are lower-income students without family and financial support who were already disadvantaged and are now more so. It’s unfeeling not to recognize that pandemic learning loss affects those most who can least afford to face it. As a society we are failing the poor yet again but DCUMers are fine so let’s just not talk about it and/or pretend it isn’t happening!

Well, look at you!

I couldn't even dream of putting my kids in private even though they are a smart, hardworking bunch. Had no pod (no one near us to pod) so it was a little isolated, though it helped that I had multiple kids to play with each other. And I was the reading and math specialist for my kid.

It was a lot of work so I can't say that "fine" would be a given as you would be able to assume for your child. I'm happy to say that they are fine.
I answered the question for this thread, we made it through okay. But having been raised in tighter circumstances when I was younger, I know it would have been disastrous if the pandemic had happened when I was a kid as maybe you don’t.

So what do you want? Yes, every awful thing in the world will hit the poor in a more disastrous manner (illness/pandemic/climate change.)
So now that the small talk of how our kids are doing is over, what do you want done?

That is the thing…you shouldered a lot of work. So did I. Our kids are fine. The kids, as I said, WITHOUT FAMILY SUPPORT—which many lower income kids don’t have—are not OK. The school systems need to supplement more to make up for the loss. There is no one there for many of these kids at home. My brother is a teacher in a low-income school…many of his students have parents on meth and pills, they aren’t helping with homework. Don’t those kids deserve a chance like ours? Social supports, like the extra COVID money, should be paid for and used by school systems.

These kind of problems.. support from a school would be s few drops in the bucket. There absolutely needs to be aid for these kids, but not led by the education system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so privileged, including my experience. We did private and a pod and hired a reading specialist for my K student. Of course he is fine.

Who was really hurt are lower-income students without family and financial support who were already disadvantaged and are now more so. It’s unfeeling not to recognize that pandemic learning loss affects those most who can least afford to face it. As a society we are failing the poor yet again but DCUMers are fine so let’s just not talk about it and/or pretend it isn’t happening!

Well, look at you!

I couldn't even dream of putting my kids in private even though they are a smart, hardworking bunch. Had no pod (no one near us to pod) so it was a little isolated, though it helped that I had multiple kids to play with each other. And I was the reading and math specialist for my kid.

It was a lot of work so I can't say that "fine" would be a given as you would be able to assume for your child. I'm happy to say that they are fine.
I answered the question for this thread, we made it through okay. But having been raised in tighter circumstances when I was younger, I know it would have been disastrous if the pandemic had happened when I was a kid as maybe you don’t.

So what do you want? Yes, every awful thing in the world will hit the poor in a more disastrous manner (illness/pandemic/climate change.)
So now that the small talk of how our kids are doing is over, what do you want done?

That is the thing…you shouldered a lot of work. So did I. Our kids are fine. The kids, as I said, WITHOUT FAMILY SUPPORT—which many lower income kids don’t have—are not OK. The school systems need to supplement more to make up for the loss. There is no one there for many of these kids at home. My brother is a teacher in a low-income school…many of his students have parents on meth and pills, they aren’t helping with homework. Don’t those kids deserve a chance like ours? Social supports, like the extra COVID money, should be paid for and used by school systems.

These kind of problems.. support from a school would be s few drops in the bucket. There absolutely needs to be aid for these kids, but not led by the education system.

Why not? The education system is the perfect place to deal with this by hiring and staffing before/after school programs, summer programs, etc so these kids have a safe place to go where they can get the extra academic support kids from functional households get from their parents. Including access to therapists, mentors, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids managed and came out ok. They're both very self-motivated so did fine on the academic side. I'm sure it's not what it could have been though. But as teenagers they missed out on some important things socially. Millions of kids had it worse.

But in retrospect, closing public schools for a year and a half - while privates were allowed to stay open, not to mention all of red America - was disastrous. Just read some of the comments here. We collectively decided to throw public school kids under the bus. Unforgivable. A complete societal failure.

Where were they closed a year and a half? In VA, it was March 2020 to March 2021.

Lots of DC schools did not open or did not have space for all kids that wanted to go in person in Spring, 2021. So many kids weren't allowed inside a school building between March 2020 and didn't open until Fall of 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard from both my kids' teachers that they're still seeing big issues with handwriting and social skills.

At the beginning of the year, a 4th grade teachers shared than about half of her students were still writing certain numbers backwards. This is likely due to reliance on tablets for math instruction during virtual and in the following year. The 4th grade teachers have reported lots of social issues too, particularly among the boys (who have been described as "wild" or "feral").

A first grade teacher shared that she was still teaching pencil grip and letter formation to her students this spring and that many were still very far behind in fine motor skills. She thought it was likely from missing years of preschool/daycare. She said she's still seeing social issues too.

My DD is in 4th grade and the handwriting is what her teacher commented on to us as well. My DD's handwriting was really bad at the beginning of the year and has improved considerably. I think what has helped has been the teacher's insistence on not using electronics for writing assignments. My DD has weekly essays and reports which are all handwritten. It was rough at the beginning but now it's fine- she started out complaining about writing a paragraph but she can now do a 2-3 page essay on different topics she's researching. My DD also disliked this teacher at the beginning because she was so strict with behavior but now really loves it when she compares to other 4th grade classes.

As for the OP's question, my DD was in 1st grade. School has been a struggle b/c she didn't learn through zoom. Getting her up to speed academically and also being able to handle a full day of school with behavioral and academic expectations was hard. I'm happy we had the transition period in a year where it didn't matter grade wise.