A COVID-affected Generation

[old man emu]

The NAPLAN results are out and are a worry. Although 66% of our children are described as being "strong" or "exceeding" the desired levels, 33% are below what is desired.

 

There are many reasons for that unhappy result, but once again it seems that the "experts" are barking up the wrong tree. Experts say the scores demonstrate the urgent need for classroom reforms, otherwise a significant part of a generation looks set to miss out on crucial foundational learning. "These results show why serious reform is needed and why we need to tie additional funding to reforms that will help students catch up, keep up and finish school," Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said. Once again, the response of government is to throw money, willy-nilly at the problem.

 

But what if the cause was a result of the COVID lockdowns? The COVID lockdowns limited children’s exposure to structured environments such as childcare where they have typically developed their social skills and emotional resilience. This has resulted in many children presenting with challenging behaviours. Examples of challenging behaviour include:

Defiance/ refusing age appropriate requests

Overly fussy such as difficultly settling

Hurting self/ others

Excessively angry when refused their wishes

Ongoing or frequent emotional outbursts.

 

These things are showing up in the classroom, with the result that teachers are spending more time instilling the social skills that were not developed at the correct time in the children's lives. There are also the effects of the quality of homeschooling during the lockdowns. The teachers did their very best to provide their students with access to lessons that would normally be given at school. However, the progress of the children was greatly dependent on the educational level of the parents who were getting the children to settle down and do the lessons amid the distractions of being at home.

 

I was doing that for my grandson, and if I want to be brutally honest, I'm a lousy teacher. I don't have the training necessary in early childhood education. It is hard to identify the way your child learns and to use that knowledge to teach them. I know I learn in a completely different way than my wife did. We were both well educated, but she learned by application and I learned by contemplation. I struggle to overcome my learning technique and to identify my grandson's. Now he'll start high school next year. His Maths ability is low, but his ability with words and verbal communication is above average. It's taken me some time to abandon hope that he will ever do well at maths, but is likely to excel in literature and communication. 

 

How would I change things to improve the literacy and numeracy that the Nation needs? I'd like to see a return to the basics - the 3 R's. 'Rithmetic needs to include Science. There should be less importance placed on teachers having to document each child's daily activities in the detail as they do now. My son often gets several texts and photos from my grandson's teachers showing what activities the grandson is up to that day. 

 

It's a changing world, but children need a good foundation in the basics before they can be set free to explore and make a world of their own.

[willedoo]

I think the use of devices degrades writing ability to some extent. When writing something down on paper there's a direct connection with brain/eye/hand coordination. As your brain thinks of a word your hand is creating it physically. With keyboards there's a certain amount of disconnect as you are essentially just pressing buttons. I don't know if it affects others the same way, but my writing and spelling ability gets worse as keyboard use increases. I can understand the writing getting worse due to lack of practice, but for some reason it impacts on spelling as well.

[facthunter]

With writing you knew when it "Looked Right".  Nev

[spacesailor]

It still " looks right " after the correct key is pressed ..

Hand writing doesn't work for me as I only look at ' grammar ' , that was ' beaten into me . Composition was beaten out , as not required for a manual labourer. 

spacesailor

[onetrack]

I noticed my handwriting skills degrading about 10 years ago, after about 15 years of solid keyboard use - so I made a point of starting to keep a handwritten diary.

This has two benefits - one is, retention of handwriting skills, and two, it provides a written record of what I did, where and when, so I can look back for events or actions I need to check up on.

 

[willedoo]

Over the years I'd fallen into the habit of print writing things like shopping lists, records etc. instead of using running writing. It got to the stage where I almost forgot how to write in running writing so I try to make a point of using it for shopping lists just to keep in practice.

[red750]

When I have to sign any documents, I have to practice on a scrap of paper 3 or 4 times, to make it look like my signature of old. With a bit of a swirl at the front for th P.H., the rest is almost copperplate, apart from th bottom loop of the G. A banker's signature, not a doctor's scrawl. When I was signing documents in relation to my wife's estate, the solicitor said it was one of the best signatures she had seen.

[old man emu]

How did we drift off into a discussion of handwriting? 

 

I was trying to make the point that we have a generation whose social development has been disrupted, and as a result, Society has to work at making up for those losses. I wonder how the effects of those COVID years on our children's development would compare to the effects of the many wars being fought in the Middle East and Africa on children of those places. Can we call what our children experienced "trauma" as in a deeply distressing or disturbing experience?

[Litespeed]

I certainly know of many school kids greatly affected by the lack of social schooling and loss of friendships.

 

We have a generation who were homeschooled for two years, most parents are very poor teachers.

[red750]

16 minutes ago, old man emu said:

How did we drift off into a discussion of handwriting?

There is a link. Kids who are only using keyboards/touch screens will have difficulty reading handwritten material or write longhand. As wiilie and onetrack said, their handwriting skills are degrading. Those kids aren't even learning it. I agree that socialising skills have also taken a beating.

[old man emu]

2 minutes ago, red750 said:

There is a link.

Tenuous at best. 

 

I know writing is one of the 3R's, but in the context of education, writing is the act of assembling one's ideas before disseminating them in word format, whether the words are on a physical object or are displayed on an electronic device.

[onetrack]

The first thing the authorities can do is provide major support for teachers in the classroom. Many teachers feel unsupported when angry parents confront, abuse and even attack them, for not "teaching their kid properly".

 

If this support was provided on a far better scale, then a lot of harrassed teachers would be more inclined to spend time with kids who are "behind the 8-ball".

 

As it is, if a teacher is constantly abused and denigrated, and even physically attacked (by students or parents), then they're not going to put their full effort into teaching.