the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Wednesday September 1st was back to school for the Ridgewood School district and nationwide it’s the first day of school in many states. The Ridgewood bog rarely agree even a little bit with the New York Times, but the recent editorial “The School Kids Are Not Alright,” has some bullseye observations about the worm in the apple of our schools.
Here are some points from the piece:
“During the Covid pandemic virtually every [public] school in the nation replaced face-to-face schooling with thrown together online education. The resulting learning setbacks range from grave for all groups of students to catastrophic for poor children.”
“The pandemic amplified disadvantages rooted in racial and socioeconomic inequality transforming an education gap into a gulf.”
“A report from McKinsey sounds the alarm: ‘The fallout from the pandemic threatens to depress this generation’s prospects and constrict opportunities well into their adulthood. The ripple effects may undermine their chances of finding a fulfilling job that enables them to support a family.’”
“These findings constitute a scalding rebuke of those who have minimized the impact of school shutdowns.”
“Schools in districts with higher percentages of Black and Latino children were more likely to have remote learning and the same for districts with more people living in poverty.”
“More than a million children who had been expected to enroll in local schools did not show up, either in person or online.”
“The learning catastrophe that has befallen the country’s most vulnerable children will take more than one academic year to remedy. Pretending that everything is fine, and that no extraordinary measures are needed, is a recipe for disaster.
