Nancy Bailey writes here about the stress on children that is contributing to alarming rates of stress, anxiety and depression.
Certainly the anxiety caused by the pandemic causes stress. And many children have experienced deaths among those in their family or among friends.
But there are longer term causes of the mental health problems among children, such as the absurd pressure to get ever higher test scores and the withdrawal of time for recess and play.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Nancy Bailey is right about, “But there are longer term causes of the mental health problems among children, such as the absurd pressure to get ever higher test scores and the withdrawal of time for recess and play.”
How many of us would be FAILURES with this over the top TESTING REGIME, which makes money for the FEW DOLTS who sit in chairs, nod at each other for their NON-brilliance and have no clue?
I think most here wouldn’t have had a problem with a multiple guess standardized test. The easiest type of tests to take.
Such a beautiful song, & says it well.
Memo to teachers: therapeutic use of self will be de rigueur when we return to the classroom.
Hello Mark,
I’m not sure what you mean by this.
It’s a clinical term I picked up when I worked in adolescent psychiatry–it just means being available to kids on a semi-clinical level for support and counsel. In practice in means being consistent, compassionate, and empathetic.
❤
I have taught many students from war torn countries. Many of them have witnessed or have been a victim of violence. To put it mildly, some of them had residual mental baggage. When I taught in the elementary school, I invited students to bring their breakfast to my class and talk about anything that was bothering them before school started. Sometimes, just having someone to hear their story or an empathetic listener was enough. Sometimes with the student’s permission, I talked to one of the other teachers or was able to refer them to a community services liaison and/or the social worker. It was a small gesture that meant a lot to students that were going through emotional turmoil that was often something outside their control. This was not any form of therapy as I am not a therapist. It was simply active listening to ease students’ angst when they were going through a rough time.
That’s exactly what I mean, RT, by the term “therapeutic use of self.” Thanks for the reification.
Sometimes, when we address small problems, we can prevent those small problems from snowballing into much larger ones. Students want teachers to listen and validate what they are experiencing. It may be a problem outside the school. We can help students talk to those at home or refer them to someone in the community that can help them. It also does not help that many schools have eliminated so many counselors, psychologists and social workers. Also, in the case of my students, many of them did not speak enough English to ask anyone for help.
One of the problems in the pandemic I have observed is a repeat of my own behavior. You see, I was the product of trauma in a way.
When I was 15, my father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Suddenly, a boy became a man. My brother came home from college and took over the dairy. I helped. I figured I would have to send him through college after he sent me through high school. It turned out differently. We both went to college together.
My reaction to all of this trauma was to not work as hard as I could. What was the point? Indeed, the work I did was mostly because I enjoyed learning. I made good grades, but I could have done much more.
A great many of my students are reacting to the pandemic the way I reacted to my father’s disability. Unlike my experience, which went on through the 16 years following his diagnosis, these students will see the end of the pandemic. It will be hard for them to get back to the hard work of learning.
My experience suggests that they will be best served by loving the process of learning than by testing and punishing. What happens in the next 20 years will still be more important than what happens for the next 6 months.
Thanks for this, Roy. Nicely put, and gladly felt.
Tell this to the meretricious operatives at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Many NEA members (and AFT) members do not feel our health & safety have been advocated for and worry that Lily Eskelsen García, should she become Sec’y of Ed., will simply pave the way for the neoliberal idea of community schools. It seems community schools have become a hot topic with many who support them not mentioning how they will be funded, or as some say “sustainably funded”. Getting in bed with Wall St. will not benefit children and families. We may disagree, but it seems to me that community schools and social impact bond investing are coming and can’t be stopped. It is a global movement, supported by the UN. Can’t we think of a way to support education & medical care without personal data being gambled on by venture capitalists on easy bets that don’t really benefit anyone in the larger picture, except investors?
I meant to comment in another post about this, but my thoughts still stand.
We need to grab onto the term “community” as in community public schools. The term is being bastardized by the edudeformers and privateers-like so many other terms.
Please, all, refer to the public schools as “community public schools”.
Excellent post, Danielle!
Thank you, Diane. I appreciate the thoughtful and touching comments here.
Thank you, Nancy, for your advocacy for teachers and kids! ❤
This is an excellent and timely piece.
But I am sorry Bailey included NAMI’s list of “symptoms of ADHD.” It’s a wastebasket category that can indicate a slew of things such as still-maturing neural development, learning differences frequently accompanying spatial/ musical gifts as well as dyslexia, childhood symptoms of bipolar disorder, and more. Children with this handful of symptoms can certainly be helped to tackle school tasks with SpEd support, but implying they suffer from a mental illness is misleading and dangerous.
You can also count college kids in the group. Over five thousand students at my daughter’s college submitted a petition to the faculty senate, requesting that students would have a choice between getting regular grades or pass-fail (which wouldn’t affect their GPA). Their request was denied. Makes no sense when kids or their parents pay the same or elevated tuition for reduced quality online instruction.
I’m not sure that the pandemic has caused a net increase in stress among my middle school students. I polled them recently and only half want to return to in-person learning. You know what’s stressful? OTHER KIDS (forgive me, I know it’s taboo to speak ill of our sacred children in a forum about education). A lot of my students seem to be grateful to escape the treacherous social maelstrom of middle school.
It is sad to know that childrens are suffering mental health issues in that age when they aren’t supposed to be, there’s stress, pressure, depression, and the way society impacts on their sanity. It’s an undeniable topic. Cause a bad mental state gives a dangerous outcome and we all can think what it would be. Especially in the pandemic there was a period of isolation, and depression.. I just don’t understand how these subject is taken lightly when it shouldn’t