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Kids are far behind in school

theatlantic.com

91–100 of 389 posts

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#91
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The benefit of the lockdowns was very, very small for the kids.

Not having dead parents is a great benefit for kids. Not having dead parents who you infected and caused to die is an even better benefit

Stop spreading misinformation. The data clearly shows that the death rate for parents is extremely low. It was only ever people in the 65+ age group that were at significant risk.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burd...

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#92
post #53
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#93
post #44

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.

Probably not much, is my gut. Catching up on relevant academic items is easier than we typically acknowledge. Is why those kids that were reading at an early age are typically not that ahead in a few years. Not that this should be dismissed. But I hazard it is not a panic item.

> why those kids that were reading at an early age are typically not that ahead in a few years.

That's often because they are dropped in a single pace system, where they are forced to sit with kids learning the alphabet, wasting valuable time, getting bored.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#94
post #55

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…

>Different school districts offer vastly different levels of education, depending mainly on wealth

The data show that causation mostly flows in the opposite direction. The main determinant of whether a school is "good" is the average academic ability of the students who attend the school. And that, statistically speaking, is largely a function of race and income.

Policy interventions based on the idea that school quality determines student performance have consistently failed to show significant results. These interventions include local and regional busing. Putting lower-achieving students in close physical proximity to higher-achieving students doesn't make much of a long-term difference.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#95
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one reason to close school is not just about kids got covid themselves, but they could carry covid back home and hurt those elders in the house and make the pandemic worse. it's a trade-off, I think we did what we had to do.

No that's incorrect. We never had to close schools. Sweden kept primary schools open (without masks) and they did fine. Closing schools was a completely irrational overreaction.

They had vastly more covid deaths than their nordic peers. That's a consequence you can argue is justified, I suppose, but you shouldn't try to dismiss it as "did fine."

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#96
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The benefit of the lockdowns was very, very small for the kids.

Not having dead parents is a great benefit for kids. Not having dead parents who you infected and caused to die is an even better benefit

Parents were mostly fine from it in the end. Look by all means lockdowns made a lot of sense early on in the face of an unknown disease. I hope we can all agree they no longer make sense for Covid.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#97
post #68
post #55

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…

"i.e., the property tax base, because schools are locally funded" Not exactly. Most states and the federal government adjust funding to send it to the schools that need it most. https://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/research/school-fundi...

"Most states" qualifier supports the claim that funding varies widely from state to state and town to town. State and Federal funding grants alone are not going to sustain a school district.

Also, your link is basically a charter school industry propo campaign. Hardly unbiased when talking about public schools.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently, national polling is showing that about 80% of parents are concerned about what is being taught in the schools, so it’s likely that this schooling system has decoupled from the values that the citizens want to uphold.

But if you dig deeper most people rate their own schools higher. It’s the other schools, or schools in aggregate that are the problem in the eyes of the voters. https://news.gallup.com/poll/1612/education.aspx For example, in 2021 only 46% were at least “somewhat satisfied” with the state of education. Pre-COVID numbers were only slightly better. But if you ask a parent about their child’s education 73% are at least…

>pre-COVID the numbers are about 5-10 points higher

To me this says the schools are worse than they though. Now that they can sit in on the classes they see what's actually being taught and don't like it.

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#99
post #68
post #55

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…

"i.e., the property tax base, because schools are locally funded" Not exactly. Most states and the federal government adjust funding to send it to the schools that need it most. https://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/research/school-fundi...

Here’s a different source contradicting that: https://www.pubintlaw.org/cases-and-projects/our-expert-repo...

Re: Kids are far behind in school

#100

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'm curious which is worse, social isolation, or mass consumption of video media. I bet Netflix is worse. The social isolation was bad, no question. But during the early school lockdowns I saw first hand what 12+ hours a day of modern TV does to a person's brain in a short period of time. It's nothing like what TV was like in the 80s when I was a kid. The social isolation gets a lot of air time. I'd guess it's not th…

While Netflix may be bad, what kids watch on YouTube and TikTok is far worse. Netflix content was at least written by an adult, maybe even edited.
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