Not the School Closures

Published by

Clarissa

June 21, 2023

Breaking News: Math and reading scores for 13-year-olds in the U.S. have hit the lowest levels in decades, with a sharp drop since the pandemic began.https://t.co/wfQDAlZ1qR
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 21, 2023

Everybody nods their heads to this. Yes, of course, it’s the school closures. I’m opposed to school closures but I don’t get how this is an obvious result. The kids who are 13 today, were 10 in 2020. During lockdowns, they weren’t at home alone. That person they were with at home could have taught them to read. There wasn’t much else to do anyway.

We keep hearing that schools exclude parents from decisions about their children and that the government treats parents as irrelevant.

Hmm, I wonder what’s causing all this. It’s not like parents are aggressively making themselves irrelevant by handing over all responsibility for their children to the schools and the government.

I taught my 7-year-old about tradeoffs. Everything in life is a tradeoff. If you want the good things, you’ll have to accept the bad things that come with them.

This is a tradeoff, too. If you don’t want to teach your own child to read, if you hand over control over that process to somebody else, that somebody else will control what the child reads. We can pout over it or recognize how it works.

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5 responses to “Not the School Closures”

Victoria

June 21, 2023

My daughter was in kindergarten in spring 2020. We did not do any zoom school and instead I read constantly to her and we did nature walks and art projects. (security guard came up to us to keep us from the local school playground telling us it was closed. So we just went there on weekends when there were no guards…god, that was so stupid.). She is the best reader in the class.

She is also very good at math but I admit I’ve never taught her any math. She literally has me give her math homework when she’s bored.

I think just being an involved parent makes a world of difference. I didn’t ever teach her reading. I just read with her all the time, and continue to do so now (not as much as lockdown, but it’s still at least a nightly thing). Were reading The Borrowers series currently. She just told me last night how much she loves reading with me. My SIL, who is a very involved parent, but admitted she doesn’t ever read to her kids, is exasperated her daughter struggles with reading. She goes to a private school and SIL is upset at how the money she spent doesn’t translate to results.

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methylethyl

June 21, 2023

I think a lot of 10-year-olds were home alone, though. Legal or not, ideal or not, quite a lot of families simply could not afford to have a parent (perhaps the parent) at home during the school day.

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1. el
  
  June 21, 2023
  
  \ I think a lot of 10-year-olds were home alone, though.
  
  Agree, especially those whose parents don’t work in Hi-Tech and had to be physically present at work.
  
  In the 90ies with the huge wave of immigration of FSU Jews to Israel, one could hear the term ‘key-kids’ . Elementary schoolchildren (6 years old in 1st grade) went to empty flats from school with a key and were alone, while their parents were working / studying Hebrew.
  
  According to Israeli laws, “a child under six can’t be left at home alone” and “Public service announcements are broadcast on the radio, recommending parents that only kids aged nine and up can ride bikes and cross streets by themselves.”
  
  When we immigrated, my brother was 5 years old. At the age of 6, he walked to elementary school, often alone, sometimes with a neighbor whose grandson was of a similar age. My mother was studying Hebrew, my grandmother was unable to walk such distances, while I went to my school in a different part of a town.
  
  He was not alone in this:
  
  “It’s OK to walk home alone
  Compared to their American counterparts, Israelis prefer ‘free range’ parenting over the hovering ‘helicopter’ type
  …
  In Israel, precautions are taken to protect children when they’re out on their own. Schools have older kids serving as so-called “gold guards,” crossing guards garbed in neon yellow vests at crosswalks close to schools who offer a safe route for children walking on their own to school each morning.”
  …
  there is no law in Israel relating to the age at which children are allowed to walk — or bike — outside by themselves. One organization, Beterem – Safe Kids Israel, suggests not letting children under nine cross streets by themselves, or walk home alone.”
  https://www.timesofisrael.com/home-on-their-own/
  
  What do you think about this and the suitable age when a child can be left alone inside a flat and/or let to go to school on his own?
  
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  1. methylethyl
    
    June 21, 2023
    
    Age at which it is legal to leave a child at home alone is variable by state in the US. In some states it isn’t legal until 11? 12? In many states it is variable depending on the amount of time you’re leaving a kid alone. So like, it might be ok to leave a competent 8 year old for an hour, but not all day while you’re at work.
    
    The practical result of these rules, plus lockdowns, is that there were likely a LOT of below-middle-class kids, under age 12, who were left at home alone or with siblings the whole work day, illegally, to do “online school” (or no school, if they didn’t have a computer or internet connection), and simply told not to answer the door or go outside, because it could get mom in trouble and she might lose her job.
    
    In addition, there were many, many kids left in the care of grandparents, and even older siblings, for that time period.
    
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2. Demotrash
  
  June 21, 2023
  
  Yep. “Parent at home all day to teach” wasn’t the experience of all families, or even most. And these disproportionately lower class kids are, I’m sure, the ones struggling the most now.
  
  It’s also harder to teach your kids these things when you’re not well educated yourself. And, I imagine, harder for kids of average and below average IQ to learn things that Klara picks up on instantly. I think families for whom it is relatively easy take the ease for granted.
  
  None of this is an excuse to abdicate all personal responsibility, of course. But I think even with effort, many families could only reduce the harm, not eliminate it entirely.
  
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