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What Will Happen to the COVID-19 Kids When They’re 19?
The Coronavirus pandemic has devastated the youngest generation
We’ve seen reports for months that the continued disruption of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has harmed children. You’d have to be living under a rock not to realize what schools, parents, teachers, and above all, children, have gone through since early 2020.
As a mother, I’ve been horrified and worried since the first days. The first thing I thought when schools went into lockdown was, “This is so unfair to the students.” Class of 2020, graduating virtually, having virtual proms. Class of 2021, potentially back to normal, or potentially not. I understand that people from Silicon Valley with tech mentalities believe that school is about imparting knowledge and often have negative feelings about school. But that’s not what school is all about. It’s where kids make friends, learn how to get along with others. In a good school with good teachers, it’s where they learn how to learn. That’s why, although online and remote education has been available for many years, for younger learners: it doesn’t work.
I do have training in online education from accessibility to empathy and structure. At the beginning of the pandemic, I realized that teachers being thrown into educating online, all ages, all…