For the new year, I had in my mind an article to identify the area that could possibly have the longest impact on the future as a result of the past two years of government action in relation to the COVID virus. I am afraid the winner (actually loser) would be the negative impact on our children because of our nation’s schools’ measures to curb the spread of the disease. I found some very strong support for my conclusion.
Margaret Brennan was hosting CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, December 26th, and asked five expert guests, “What is the most underreported story through 2021.” One of these guests was Jan Crawford, a television journalist, author, and attorney. She serves as a political correspondent and chief legal correspondent for CBS News and previously for ABC News, and one other important fact, she is the mother of four children. Crawford took to the question like a hungry bear. She severely condemned the “crushing” restrictive measures that public schools have used to deal with the Coronavirus. She made it clear, “They will be paying for our generation’s decisions the rest of their lives.”
What basis did she base this on? “I mean school closures, lockdowns, and cancellation of sports. You couldn’t even go on a playground in the D.C. area without cops shooing the kids off,” Crawford said. “Tremendous negative impact on kids, and it’s been an afterthought. It’s hurt their dreams, their future, learning loss, risk of abuse, their mental health.”
Is this hyperbole or prophecy? Surprisingly, even the left-leaning New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have both printed editorials expressing the same concerns. The NY Times quoted the author and journalist Glenn Greenville, “School closings and ‘remote learning’ have caused a massive mental health crisis among teenagers. This, and the disruption to their intellectual development, will be enduring and severe.” Echoing this was Dr. Sina Safahieh, child and adolescent psychiatrist, who wrote for the LA Times, “COVID-19 has precipitated a mental health crisis, fueled by social isolation, collapse of routines and structure, and increased uncertainty about the future.”
Actually, anyone who looks at the data would come up with the same conclusion. Teen suicides, suicide attempts, emotional trauma from isolation, failure rates, drug usage, and more have all spiked dramatically since the “two-week closure to flatten the curve” in March of 2020 has turned into a two-year roller-coaster for our nation’s students.
And it has not just been in the educational realm but also all the other elements that make up a school experience. Sports activities, club events, extra-curricular happenings of all sorts have been disrupted or canceled. The benefit of these in terms of social development cannot be underestimated. When we think back to our high school days, how many of us remember more about our sports or clubs or entertainment activities than we do what chemistry class in 11th grade was like?
What makes this almost criminal is that the educational establishment is well aware of the impact that inconsistency has on learning. I have found studies dated back to 1906 on the negative impact that ‘summer break’ has on student development. These studies show that students lose roughly one month of learning over the summer. Every study done on teacher strikes has shown the severe disruptions they have on the learning process, especially those in their early years.
Even economists have noted that each additional year of schooling yields a return over an economic lifetime of somewhere around a ten percent return. Now calculate what the loss of a year of learning is worth to a child’s future. Learning comes from development skills, and skills come from practice. When that practice is sporadic, skills suffer, and learning lingers slowly behind as well.
The simple, personal interaction that takes every day in a school environment has been radically distorted due to the COVID disruptions. Yes, it is true that virtual communication is by far their favored means of connection, but everyone knows that nothing can replace personal interaction. The disruption of COVID is the only explanation for emotional trauma we are seeing, especially in the nearly doubling of suicides and suicide attempts of teens in the past year.
And unfortunately, the fruit from this tree will be found years and even decades from now in those young people who are suffering through this now. Just as the Greatest Generation learned grit, perseverance, and determination through the terrific difficulties, they went through during the depression-ravaged ‘30s and war-torn ‘40s, so these children will become the Jilted Generation for all that has been denied to them, all for prevention of less than one-in-a-million chance of catching the disease.
One last thought: One of my new year’s resolutions is to make sure I get all my facts straight, especially when it is to honor the best of people. In my article last week on “The Fantastic Fraternity of Firefighters,” I wanted to not just honor the firefighters but also the company Ground Shakers in Muncy that transported the fire truck to Kentucky. (The picture of the truck in that article was on their hauler.) The owner of the company is Travis Kropp and Nicholas Snyder was his sidekick driver. I inadvertently switched them, which I sincerely apologize for. They are both heroes in my book, but Travis is the boss, and his sacrifice deserves recognition.
