Damaging the Minds of Minority Children

However difficult it is to quantify, the school closing policies implemented by blue city and state politicians will surely count among the worst decisions of the pandemic. Instigated by teachers’ unions, these policies have significantly damaged the minds of children, especially the minds of minority children.

As it happened, the parents of these children invariably vote for Democratic politicians. Thus, they must bear some responsibility for the damage caused to their children. If they could show as much vigor defending their children as they showed marching for George Floyd their children would have far better futures.

As of now, the open question remains-- how much of the damage is reversible? Teachers’ unions mumble something about resilience and explain that children will simply bounce back, cognitively speaking. I consider this somewhere between a pipe dream and an outright lie. The likelihood is that the damage done to these children will never be completely undone.

Jessica Dickler reports for CNBC  on one important aspect of the problem. (via Maggie’s Farm) Can virtual learning be an adequate substitute for classroom instruction? The answer is a resounding No:

After a year of school closings and distance learning amid the coronavirus crisis, more than half of public school K-12 teachers said the pandemic resulted in a "significant" learning loss for students, both academically and from a social-emotional standpoint, according to a report by Horace Mann.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also suggested that virtual learning "might present more risks than in-person instruction related to child and parental mental and emotional health and some health-supporting behaviors."

"The pandemic has taken a toll on our students from an educational perspective, but there are a lot of other impacts happening," said Kelly Ruwe, an education advocate for Horace Mann, as well as a former kindergarten teacher and a mother of three.

Beyond the cognitive deficits are emotional and social deficits. The teachers’ unions are unnecessarily traumatizing children, causing a significant uptick in cases of anxiety and depression. 

Dickler continues:

Nearly all — more than 97% — of educators reported seeing some learning loss in their students over the past year when compared with children in previous years, and a majority, or 57%, estimated their students are behind by more than three months in their social-emotional progress, Horace Mann found.

Some teachers suggested these setbacks could be addressed by adding on summer sessions or bringing teacher's aides into the classroom for one-on-one or small group instruction. Still, nearly one-third expected more students will need to repeat a grade.

Of course, teachers will do their best to remedy the situation. Summer sessions and special tutoring will surely be of some help. And yet, a third of these children will have to repeat a grade.

Around the world, countries that shut down schools are seeing the same problem:

A separate study by McKinsey & Company found similar results worldwide. The majority of teachers from eight different countries said that remote learning is a poor substitute for being back in the classroom.

The U.S. and Japan gave distance learning the harshest scores overall, with a majority of teachers ranking the effectiveness only slightly better than skipping school completely.

As for which children are suffering the most, the answer is-- poor children of color:

Economic status mattered, too. Educators in schools in areas with higher poverty found virtual classes to be especially ineffective, heightening concerns that Covid-19 exacerbated educational inequalities.

Other research also shows distance learning has caused a significant setback in achievement, particularly among Black and Hispanic students, as well as students with disabilities.

According to a survey of more than 1,100 public school teachers by education nonprofit DonorsChoose, students in low-income communities and minority students have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

Teachers report that these students are more likely to be learning remotely currently, and more likely to not have had their school building open all year. 

When asked what the biggest obstacle to return to a "normal" education environment was, nearly half cited a widening gap between academically struggling and high-performing students.

While the country is consumed with fury over George Floyd and systemic racism the putatively  non-racist teachers unions are actively working to damage the educational prospects of poor minority children. 

Also addressing this issue is Rachel Currie, writing for the Independent Women’s Forum. She offers some further research into the consequences of school closures:

For starters, it has done serious—and in many cases permanent—damage to children’s academic prospects. The Stanford Center for Research on Education Outcomes has estimated that, during the spring of 2020 alone, students in 19 states and cities lost between 57 and 183 days of learning time in reading and between 136 and 232 days of learning time in math. Not surprisingly, school districts across America have witnessed a sharp spike in failing or near-failing grades—everywhere from Fairfax County, Virginia, to St. Paul, Minnesota, to Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Currie addresses the horrifying political irony in this:

This gets to a profound irony of COVID school closures: They have been imposed and/or supported by the same people—namely, Democratic officials and union leaders—who constantly demand greater “equity” in American life. Yet school closures have made our society much less equitable, because they have disproportionately harmed poor kids.

Moreover, a year after COVID school closures first started, white students are much more likely than African-American or Hispanic students to be attending school in person. In a February NPR/Ipsos poll, 65 percent of Black parents and 57 percent of Hispanic parents said their children were still all remote, compared with only 38 percent of white parents.

Those numbers should concentrate the minds of progressives. So should the data on mental-health problems: school closures have contributed to a shocking increase in anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts among children, and particularly among teenagers.

“Almost a year into the pandemic,” Dr. Lee Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said on February 24th, “what began as a public-health emergency is turning into a mental-health crisis among our nation’s children and adolescents.”

Surely, she is correct in her assessment:

Indeed, it’s not hyperbole to say that prolonged COVID school closures may rank among the worst and most destructive policy decisions in modern American history.

“The fact that you’re going to have schools that are going to be closed for this entire school year and probably even into the fall is a national disgrace,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared last month.

He was right.