Kids are far behind in school • Hacker News Board

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#51

Post by bluGill » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:02 PM UTC

croon wrote: post #17

mattcwilson wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would love to see the data you have showing that private schools that stayed open, or public schools that fought to stay open, contributed significantly to additional deaths, such that “millions more dead” would even be a fair comparison to the impact of schools choosing to go virtual instead.

You're arguing for data examining something that has happened, while all decisions regarding a new virus act on data only available prior. Acting from an assumption that an infectious disease spreads more if children from every family gather daily in crowded classrooms doesn't seem like an unreasonable one. I would also love more data on this, preferably before the next pandemic.

It is not possible to have all the data in time to make decisions. We didn't know how covid spread in the early days, just that it was spreading fast in China, killing a lot of people (we didn't know what a lot was), and popping up all over the world. 3 Months after the decisions needed to be made we had a lot more data.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#52

Post by woleium » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:02 PM UTC

No post body was provided.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#53

Post by howling » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:02 PM UTC

usrn wrote: post #18

criddell wrote: post #16

Any guesses what the long term consequences might be? I have a hard time imagining anything more dire than the immediate consequences of social isolation during the pandemic. In other words, I think the kids that make it through are going to be okay.

I spent high school in the woods home schooled and only socialized at church. So did all my siblings and a number of people I met at college. We all turned out fine.

Standard application of selection bias. People that don't "turn up just fine" don't go to college or browse HN.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#54

Post by JoeAltmaier » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:03 PM UTC

gilbetron wrote: post #10

ovi256 wrote: post #7

I've heard from private school teachers that they expected exactly this to happen, and enrollment in private schools has boomed as parents that could used the schools that cared about staying open (and opened as soon as they could). This was well supported and non-controversial pre-pandemic, where we had research results showing that simply having participation in remote schooling lowers high school graduation rate b…

No idea why you were getting downvoted this month, what you said was largely fact. I have a son that went through 6th grade virtually, and 7th grade in-person but masked. We were able to stay on top of him, so he's doing well enough academically (honor roll for 3 terms so far this year, although the work has been easier). Socially and developmentally has been a big issue, and he suffered a lot, in a first world way.…

It was that last sentence where he threw blame.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#55

Post by lapcat » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:04 PM UTC

What does being "behind" even mean? The dirty truth of the US educational "system" is that there is no system. Different school districts offer vastly different levels of education, depending mainly on wealth (i.e., the property tax base, because schools are locally funded). When I was a kid, my family moved from one city to another within the same state, and suddenly I was way behind in my new school, especially in math, simply because my new school moved at a significantly faster pace and had higher expectations of students. But I eventually caught up, and it was fine. So I suspect that this problem is vastly overstated.

It's not like the US educational system was doing a great job before the pandemic. I used to teach in college, and a lot of student were not properly prepared. We rely a lot on "social promotion", where mere age and time spent in seats is taken as the standard for educational level.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#56

Post by shlant » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:04 PM UTC

goldfeld wrote: post #29

criddell wrote: post #16

Any guesses what the long term consequences might be? I have a hard time imagining anything more dire than the immediate consequences of social isolation during the pandemic. In other words, I think the kids that make it through are going to be okay.

Oh you've no idea how catastrophic cascading effects over generations of parenting will be, but it's all fitting to a plan you know, the pandemic was just a means. The words religious and fascism come to mind, also Greg Egan's and others' sci-fi. In other news Politicians Are Far, Far Advanced In Their Schemes. Ed.: it may sound as if I'm calling out a major conspiracy and centralized but that's far from it, I'm just…

what "bad actors" are you referring to? what are their "bad intents"?

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#57

Post by scotty79 » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:05 PM UTC

I'd like to see how well the knowledge is retained in kids after let's say 3 years.

I believe most of the knowledge the kids were taught that long ago is not present in their memory anymore as if it was never taught.

I remember happily forgetting all information I learned and it took me just summer vacation to do that.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#58

Post by vmception » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:05 PM UTC

woleium wrote: post #52

Quoted post unavailable.

> at the moment

The key part of their reaction to their education boogeyman is to squash any attempt at showing how broken its always been

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#59

Post by lowkey_ » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

woleium wrote: post #52

Quoted post unavailable.

This is the same logic behind the "great replacement" conspiracy theory, the idea that Democratic politicians in the US will encourage mass immigration so that they get more voters.

However much we want to doubt our politicians, I really don't think they would change the demographic makeup or worsen the education of our country simply for votes.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#60

Post by OscarCunningham » Mon, May 23, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

mcv wrote: post #6

My oldest son started in secondary school last year, so his first two years were largely in lockdown. He's quite introverted (and by now extremely so), so he enjoyed not having to meet people, but his school discipline suffered enormously. I already caught him gaming instead of following classes during the lockdown, and he apparently never learned to finish his homework. He's got more failing than passing grades. Sti…

> Still, he's smart, seems to understand all the material, and he still has a couple of years to work on his problems before his exams, so with enough work from him, school, us, and the extra tutoring we fortunately can afford for him, he'll probably be okay. But there are probably tons of kids far worse off than he is.

It's sad to me that this is the way things work. Being smart and understanding the material are the important endpoints. If he's already achieving those then it's backwards to make him do lots of extra work just to jump through the hoops of exams.