Students can’t make up class, social events
I passed one of my colleagues several days ago at work as we were both gathering things to take home so we could continue doing our jobs as best we could.
How are you doing, I asked.
“I have a high school senior,” she answered.
Oh, yeah. I am sure no one — certainly not me — has a grasp of anything more than a small piece of the broad implications of the world-shaking events going on. But we are all deep into understanding what it is doing to our own lives.
Permit me to suggest a few facets of the impact on students of the shutdown of schools and daily life. These are generally below the level of the astonishing headlines of each recent day and the compelling need to put fighting this health threat first.
But that doesn’t mean they are trivial.
Start with high school seniors. For a lot of them, those last few months of high school are a special time. Prom. The spring concert or play. Graduation and the celebrations around it. Class trips. Just sharing the last rounds of high school with friends. These are not small matters.
Will graduations take place on time? Certainly not looking good. And if something is scheduled, on time or later, will it have the same level of festivity to it? Doesn’t look good for hugs all around. And what does all this do to your state of mind if you’re a kid going through this?
School social life. At all ages and grades, sometimes interacting with other kids is sometimes not so positive and sometimes it is. But a core component of school is social life. Friends, the playground, walking in the hall, working in groups, you name it. School is fundamentally a social institution. Online programs or electronic chats with friends can fill some of the need, but it’s not the same. What impact will it have on kids to be more isolated for long periods of time? Are we headed toward a youth boredom crisis? What are the best strategies for parents?
Making up lost school time. This isn’t a snow day. It isn’t the set of supercold-day school closings we had a year ago. And it’s all but certain that no one is going to advocate for making up for lost school days. Don’t worry about being stuck in class in July.
Educational progress. I’ve been trying to follow stories from around Wisconsin and nationwide about launching abruptly into an era of distance and online learning. There is good reason to say a lot of parents, a lot of teachers and a lot of schools have done heroic work in trying to keep education moving forward. (I take seriously the postings I’ve seen online from parents who say they now understand why teachers should be paid more.)
But it appears the best guess is that distance learning is not happening with width and depth. Millions of students are getting an improvised slice of a day of learning. Millions are getting no slice at all. Ultimately, repair work can be done on getting kids back on track. But it won’t be easy, it won’t be pretty and losing a third of a school year is just not a good development.
Testing. One side effect of this shutdown will be wiping out standardized tests that were scheduled to be given in just about every school in the country this spring. This includes Wisconsin’s Forward and ACT tests. And, for Wisconsin, there presumably won’t be school report cards in the fall, since those are driven in large part by test results. Some people will cheer this, but it means overall there won’t be a way to get a handle on student progress this year.
Jobs for teens, internships, work experiences. There are several schools in Milwaukee where job experiences are a central component of the program. And lots of teens work one kind of job or another. What now? It’s not just getting credit or getting paid (both good things). It’s the benefit of the whole experience. What will be available the rest of this spring? Or this summer?
Summer vacations, summer camps and summer rec programs, summer jobs. What should you expect, what should you prepare for, what happens if all of these things are knocked out? Just thinking about these things is stressful. What happens if they really come to pass?
How will schools start up again? Kansas is the only state so far that has officially canceled the rest of the school year. But it’s not looking good. So what happens if the all-clear is given in time to start up in August or September? What about teacher hiring, training and simply deciding what approach to take to returning to school life?
Impact on family life. Family bonding time is a good thing. But this may turn out to be a bit more than anyone advocated. Can we all get along? Can we come out of this as a closer, better family?
Week 1 of this reality may turn out to be the easiest for some people. Or maybe people will get used to this lifestyle.
It’s hard for me to see how there aren’t a lot of down arrows in the prospects for many kids. And it’s easy for me to see what can lead to up arrows: maintaining a sense of structure to each day, striving for positive attitudes and pursuing commitments on all levels to moving forward with education and social life for kids.
Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.
A lot of parents, a lot of teachers and a lot of schools have done heroic work. I’ve seen postings from parents who say they now understand why teachers should be paid more.