Students Falling Behind: SO WHAT?
The educators are saying “they are falling behind and it breaks our hearts”. Why, if everyone is falling behind then why can’t we do this whole year over again?

Neonbrand from Unsplash

I think people forget that we decide on the structure of our society. If we need to change a very small piece, then we change that piece.

An entire nation of children falling behind in education calls for an educational reset. It takes time to work on skills and there are no shortcuts to the acquisition of skills. You have to practice them. If we don’t want to lose the skill, we will have to take the time. We don’t get a shortcut just because the pandemic has caused changes.

The failing grades will disproportionately affect kids who live in poverty stricken homes. There is a lot of hype about how kids are not able to access computers and wi-fi. There is not a lot of resolution. Again, skills acquisition is a social construct; human beings make the rules. Human beings can change the rules. If everyone is failing, then reset the school year at day one and start again. But start again with the wisdom of the pandemic: do we need classrooms all the time? What is an appropriate schedule for children?

Zach Vessels from Unsplash

It goes without saying that the disruption of the pandemic this year has ruined a stratosphere of activities that we have come to expect. Our expectations do not mean that the activities are correct, or appropriate.

We need to change with a changing world and if nothing else, we can use the pandemic to show us how much needs to change.

Those who believe children are failing have got it all wrong. It is us, the adults, who are failing. Children did not construct the educational system. Children did not design the classroom or the social system that is operating today. As a matter of fact, the school year was designed around the agrarian calendar to help farmers use their children in the fields to help with planting. How is that the truth in the twenty first century? Why would we continue to have a system that is based on farming?

Our social structure is a shame. The educational system is proving that. Colleges scrambling for tuition and fees that they don’t earn. School systems scrambling for tax money that it takes an MBA to understand in complexity. It’s all a shame and in some very serious cases it’s a sham too.

If you question my opinion, ask yourself this: “why are we failing in this pandemic?” What is making us end up at the failing end of the effect of the pandemic?
['Johanna Baynard']
['Pandemic', 'Education', 'Poverty', 'Social Structures']