“Kristine” chants, fiddles, breaks her pencil lead.

Ignores the latest test.

Looks sad.

Her mechanical pencil will not survive this test.

I give her a yellow pencil.

The pencil is so not the problem, though, as a middle school student might say.

_________________________________________________________________

Tension is baking off of Kristine in silent waves, as she kills graphite threads. The administration wants this latest writing test. But it’s another test. Test. Test. Test.

One way I know that our relentless measuring of knowledge has gotten out of hand: I am grateful Kristine is breaking her pencils instead of herself. It’s a teacher thing. When I see long-sleeves and pants on hot, muggy Illinois days, I wonder if a student is a cutter. Are there scars below those sleeves?

The tension out here has ratcheted up too. They are not OK, these pencil breakers.

Here are a few sobering facts from the CDC (Emergency Department Visits for Suspected Suicide Attempts Among Persons Aged 12–25 Years Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, January 2019–May 2021 | MMWR (cdc.gov)):

“During 2020, the proportion of mental health–related emergency department (ED) visits among adolescents aged 12–17 years increased 31% compared with that during 2019.”

Stress levels in some areas have become meteoric, especially among girls. I’d like the CDC or someone to explain this latest gender disparity, too:

“In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ED visits for suspected suicide attempts began to increase among adolescents aged 12–17 years, especially girls. During February 21–March 20, 2021, suspected suicide attempt ED visits were 50.6% higher among girls aged 12–17 years than during the same period in 2019; among boys aged 12–17 years, suspected suicide attempt ED visits increased 3.7%.”

Eduhonesty: I honestly don’t have the slightest idea how to explain what is happening to the girls.

I know Kristine is barely making it through the day and we have lots of Kristines.

I know it’s time to stop measuring so much and start nurturing our students more. Students can make up learning loss over time — but first they have to be peaceful and enthusiastic enough to engage with new material and optimistic enough to believe they should invest in their own futures.

Have you ever watched “Extreme Hoarders,” reader? Forget that “lost in the closet” header above. Sometimes the closet itself gets lost. My late aunt had a third bedroom that disappeared from view. The contents of that room’s doorway blended into the wall on either side, except for a few suspicious gnaw marks at the top of doorway moldings.

Education today sometimes reminds me of a hoarder’s house. How can you locate what matters? How can you find anything when the shelves have become so packed, when objects in view start flowing out doors into hallways, and out hallways onto hard-packed ground outside? The issues stream out from all sides, so many articles attacking so many problems, leading to so many prescriptions for improvement. Some of these touted solutions are vetted, while many others just spring into being, wild inspirations by people who never spent a week teaching in a classroom. If Bill Gates decided students required mid-morning energy bar breaks and afternoon yoga, would we all start accepting energy bar shipments while buying yoga mats?

I can easily visualize a staff meeting sucking up another afternoon as we all discuss yoga mats.

Eduhonesty: Just a wisp of a thought that I decided to share. Meanwhile:

As of 2017, the National Center for Education Statistics reported the percentage of persons 3 to 18 with no home internet access by race: white 16.5%, black 24.0%, Hispanic 21.4%, Asian 14.5%, Pacific Island 15.4%, American Indian/Alaskan Native 35.8%, and Two or more races 11.9%. During COVID-19’s time of remote and blended learning, that lack of access guaranteed the racial achievement gap would widen.

In the end, it’s all about time. How long to get and issue new laptops to students who never had access to home devices before? HOW to teach students to use the new technology when they are not in school to watch and learn? How many days will be required to teach students to use the new technology? What about the damn internet connection? Lack of connectivity dogged many areas, and photos began turning up of students working in fast food parking lots.

The process of getting technology into student hands jammed early on. Suddenly, many districts wanted new technology all at once, some of it sourced from overseas. Principals sat waiting for laptops that had been promised but were delayed.

From First toilet paper, then yeast. Now laptops are hard to find – CNN: “But with districts across the country all placing big device orders around the same time — and with many universities and companies also reliant on remote work — the unprecedented demand for laptops has strained supply chains. As a result, schools and families are dealing with shipping delays, limited selections and higher-than-usual technology costs.”

Eduhonesty: You don’t need a weatherman to see how this particular wind blew. Schools that were already 1:1, with each student possessing that laptop or notebook, were able to start remote learning immediately. Their students already knew how to use that technology. Technology was in the background, not the foreground.

A question too often ignored about our many remote start-ups: What were the opportunity costs of teaching technology — that is, what were students not learning while catching up on urgent new technology requirements? Almost all US students had around 180 days, but only some students had to learn how to use new laptops. While those students were learning their tech, what curriculum items had to be sacrificed?

This short post discusses a topic that’s received regular attention since early in the pandemic, but that attention has often focused on poor vs. financially comfortable schools. I thought I’d make a connection that’s sometimes lacking. That loss of learning that has resulted from COVID-19?

Tired of discussing this issue? Here’s today’s story: Florida second-grader suspended 36 times over mask mandate (nypost.com). It’s no surprise that this particular story comes out of Florida. Mom is outraged that her girl may have to repeat the grade, despite a teacher’s report that she has fallen far behind due to missed class time. I’m just sorry for the kid who has a mom who is proud of her girl for getting regularly thrown out of school. There are additional in-school suspensions too. Time after time, little Fiona lost learning opportunities. What did mom expect would happen?

Amazingly, we are still doing “The Battle of the Masks.”

Let’s start this post with an observation: Not all the anti-mask information is bogus. From the CDC itself at Effectiveness of Cloth Masks for Protection Against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 – Volume 26, Number 10—October 2020 – Emerging Infectious Diseases journal – CDC:

Abstract

“Cloth masks have been used in healthcare and community settings to protect the wearer from respiratory infections. The use of cloth masks during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is under debate. The filtration effectiveness of cloth masks is generally lower than that of medical masks and respirators; however, cloth masks may provide some protection if well designed and used correctly. Multilayer cloth masks, designed to fit around the face and made of water-resistant fabric with a high number of threads and finer weave, may provide reasonable protection”… In community settings, however, cloth masks may be used to prevent community spread of infections by sick or asymptomatically infected persons, and the public should be educated about their correct use.”

Unfortunately, this mask guidance has been twisted around to say simply that cloth masks don’t work. That’s not what the abstract says. That’s not what most of the studies out there say, although I am sure if I dug I could find contrary information. I could probably find a story detailing how the aliens who took over the US government in 1964 have been placing special chemicals on our masks to brainwash and subjugate any men or women foolish enough to cover their faces. You can find almost anything and everything in cyberspace if you are willing to look long enough.* If you can’t find it, you can create it.

There’s an important kernel of information for parents and teachers in that CDC abstract that deserves attention, though. The CDC acknowledges that the “filtration effectiveness of cloth masks is generally lower than that of medical masks and respirators; however, cloth masks may provide some protection if well designed and used correctly.” The key takeaway here is that certain masks are better than others. A few helpful articles:

1. When and how to use masks (who.int)
2. 7 tips for making masks work in the classroom

I’ll ignore the many people wearing a mask below their nose. Those masks are pretend masks, of course. But other masks may unintentionally not be serving their purpose. A single layer of looser-weave cloth, especially one that does not fit well, may also be a pretend mask. If your glasses fog, the mask fits poorly. If the mask gaps anywhere, the mask fits poorly.

When someone says, “cloth masks don’t work,” the rebuttal is in the above CDC article on the effectiveness of cloth masks. They do work, if you do them right. They are not perfect. The N-95s and medical-grade masks are better, if you can find them in the correct size. But that cloth mask is a viable option.

Eduhonesty:

I created this post for another reason, too. I believe mask burn-out has been mushrooming lately. Aside from masks riding on chins, I see many other masks that I know can’t be working well. That bulging cheek pooch may be nothing but a big air canal in the middle of a mask. A few well-placed staples take seconds and can render a mask much more protective.

Masks work. Not perfectly. Nothing works perfectly, but we have entered a time of trade-offs. Saturday evening movie? I decided to take a pass in favor of a Tuesday matinee or even HBO+. We are making our trade-offs, many of us, while others are just trusting their parachutes.

As part of these school mask discussions, it’s vital to remember kids are a special category of problematic. A sad friend with MS will be skipping his family Thanksgiving this year due to nieces and nephews who are out in the world, going to school and not yet vaccinated. He’s not happy. However, he is immunocompromised and he is sensible.

Tired of battling face coverings, reader? Me too! But it’s not time to give up yet — because it’s not over yet. Kudos to that school in Florida for holding its ground. We can’t let COVID fatigue stop us from trying to make the world safe for as many people as possible.

Hugs to my readers! Jocelyn Turner

*For fun, I put ” detailing how the aliens who took over the US government in 1964 have been placing special chemicals on our masks to brainwash and subjugate any men or women foolish enough to cover their faces” into Google. The fourth entry that came up from this search was “Time traveller WARNING: ‘Man from 2030’ says aliens will INVADE Earth in 2028.” Apparently this fellow Roman has been on YouTube explaining that “the greys” are on their way. What I Ioved about this article was that the author did not reject the idea that a species from a destroyed planet might be already here and coming soon in much greater numbers. However, the author did imply that Roman’s claim should be viewed skeptically since the evidence suggested short-term travel back in time was impossible.