Christmas break anyone? It’s finally arrived. Has it felt like a super long year so far? If you are sitting reluctantly at the computer still, wishing you were “done,” this post is for you. Readers, please pass this on to coworkers who may also be hunkered down working. Let’s all stand up for our own version of nap time.

You only get so many winter breaks. If you have children at home, they only share breaks with you for a while — and then they are gone. They can’t always come home. My husband and I will zoom on Christmas, but we will open our presents alone.

Be kind to yourself. The lesson on mitosis, the Battle of Shiloh, or two-step equations can be fine-tuned later – later, like the midnight before your presentation, if strictly necessary.

This is a time for cheese fries, trips to the comic book store, huddling under blankets to rewatch “Home Alone,” complete with cinnamon cocoa, and whatever other special family rituals you celebrate. Don’t let work eat away at your own special rituals.

You deserve a break today. And tomorrow. And the day after that. In fact, you deserve to take the rest of 2021 off entirely.

(If you believe working now will improve your life later, then I suppose a teacher’s gotta do what a teacher’s gotta do. Still, reader, I’ve seen admin blow up the curriculum and render those preplanned lessons worthless. I’ve also been moved from one school and grade to another school and grade mid-year. These are excruciatingly complicated times! With all the resignations going on right now, I recommend living in the present.)

The title of the Chicago News Tribune article by Heidi Stevens is “We need to stop demonizing our food.” (Dec 5) Here’s the paragraph that inspired this post:

“Eating disorders skyrocketed during the pandemic. Since March 2020, when lockdown orders went into effect in most states, the National Eating Disorders Association helpline has reported a staggering uptick in calls — a 78% year-over-year increase during some months. Teenagers account for up to 35% of the calls.”

And these are the people — the children — who got far enough in their internet searches to find the phone number for the National Eating Disorders Association helpline.

Let’s extend this thought: Girls and women form the majority of persons diagnosed with eating disorders. Research varies on the extent of differences and, just as I believe girls are underreported for ADHD, I suspect boys are underreported for eating disorders. Recent studies back up my view. But eating disorders remain a heavily female category in a stressful time. Anorexia sufferers are about 90% female and a recent study in Pediatrics showed “cases of adolescent anorexia increased 65 percent in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.” (Adolescent Anorexia Up 65 Percent in Canada During First Wave of Pandemic, Study Finds (msn.com) My two previous posts about the dramatic increase in suicide attempts among adolescent girls highlight a mental health crisis.

I think back to my children and other little kids I have known. Food is one of the first great comforts we discover in life, as any parent knows. Fwench fwy, anyone? Cad I ‘ave a gookie? Even as adults, many of us are attempting to duplicate mom’s macaroni and turkey stuffing,

Eduhonesty: This will be a short post. As Heidi said, we need to stop demonizing food. Because sometimes right now, it seems all the news is bad. Gas prices are scary, the weather is wrong, supply shortages have knocked favorite foods off the shelves, school shootings keep coming, adults and kids are putting schools on soft lockdown with rumors that sometimes turn into credible threats, and, all the while, omicron is surging.

If parents and teachers want to encourage healthy eating right now, that’s great. Pushing clean, fresh vegetables and fruits hurts no one. I am making daily fresh fruit smoothies, a fun activity that encourages eating melon pulped into juice.

But discussions revolving around fat, calories and weight have the potential to do harm, especially since weight gain has been one part of today’s COVID misery. According to Harvard University, “39% of patients gained weight during the pandemic, with weight gain defined as above the normal fluctuation of 2.5 pounds. Approximately 27% gained less than 12.5 pounds and about 10% gained more than 12.5 pounds, with 2% gaining over 27.5 pounds.” (Did we really gain weight during the pandemic? – Harvard Health).

It’s natural to want to attack our weight gain problem, but I’d like to suggest that maybe, in most cases, issues of weight gain should be left mostly alone. As a teacher, I have watched girls freak out over added pounds, cinching in waists with impossible belts and cutting out breakfasts and lunches. Then I have dealt with midmorning and afternoon eruptions, inspired by light dinners, few or no snacks and no breakfast. Those girls get hangry from lack of food. Sometimes they break into tears. Then they often binge eat as a consequence.

We can worry about fat calories later. I recommend treading lightly. Melon is a great snack. But if Ava wants a Candy Cane Chill Blizzard from Dairy Queen, I encourage parents and teachers to support her. Encourage her to go out safely with friends and then watch a fun movie (preferably not Night of the Dying, Sloppy Corpses Trying to Get Into the Mall, though if that’s a feel-good movie for her, I take back my last statement). Eating soft serve ice cream filled with candy chunks while relaxing at the end of the day may be exactly what Ava needs. Blizzards are cheaper than Prozac. They are low in sodium, have some useful calcium, and may not be high in fat, depending on what candy treat is mixed in.

Not that I’d necessarily share that nutritional information. Let’s take body image, weight gain and related topics off the table for now, while approaching nutrition and exercise carefully. Our kids have more than enough to manage.

I blogged on a crisis almost two weeks ago that the Surgeon General has just taken on. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy warns of youth mental health crisis worsened by pandemic – The Washington Post

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.”

…

“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%.”

ESPECIALLY GIRLS. Astoundingly, suspected suicide attempts were a remarkable 50.6% higher among girls compared to boys at only 3.7%. On a normal day I might let that 3.7% pass unremarked. With COVID and other changes between 2019 and 2021, a slight uptick in attempted suicide rates seems understandable.

But an increase of 50.6% — that number blows up the charts. That number is a nuclear bomb. If I were to pick a leading indicator to document a group’s emotional breakdown, I doubt I could find a better choice than suspected suicide attempts. Any group that shows a 50% increase in suicide attempts is absolutely in crisis.

Trying to go forward with business as usual in our schools should be considered criminal negligence right now.

Eduhonesty: The toxic emphasis on testing has been attacked repeatedly in this blog, but repealing unnecessary testing right now seems like putting a band-aid on a third-degree burn. We have to do more than reclaim our classroom days for teaching. We have to reclaim our children. When death seems like the best option to a physically healthy adolescent, in a country that has seen 28 school shootings this year, we need to slam on the brakes. IMMEDIATELY.

Discussions related to curriculum and test deficiencies need to be thrust onto the backburner. State standardized tests should be cancelled for at least a year or two in order to work on more urgent problems — such as those many girls who are obviously buckling under the strain of everyday life in 2021. What is happening?

We can’t go on with business as usual. I suspect business as usual may be a huge part of our problem — because “usual” is impossible, and the more we try to force daily routines, the more cognitive dissonance I am sure our students experience. In some locations, schools have almost no substitute teachers available – and no substitute paraprofessionals. Many schools are struggling to meet minimum staffing requirements. Trying to pretend otherwise only highlights the weirdness for many students. Administrators and paraprofessionals are appearing in front of classrooms. Teachers are disappearing, in some cases leaving midyear. Students with IEPs are being ignored because the paraprofessionals and aides required by those IEPs don’t exist. In social media, teachers and parapros lament the growing staff shortages, never knowing what their workday will look like as they are moved around to cover unexpected holes in classroom coverage. Sometimes paraprofessionals and aides are illegally taking over classrooms for missing teachers.*

Teachers are receiving angry and even hostile emails from parents who dislike the new COVID protocols and want the easy communication of earlier years. I am afraid some aggrieved parents simply want to vent. A classroom teacher, like a food service worker, can become an easy target simply by being immediately available to attack — except that when the baristas quit and Starbucks has to close at 1:00 PM, there’s still coffee out there somewhere. When Ms. Jones decides she’s done with those emails and leaves to sell real estate, no competent replacement may be waiting in the wings to fill her position. And a school cannot simply reduce its hours, although hours of active learning may be effectively reduced due to staff shortages.

I’d like to ask readers for help me. We have to discuss those girls. What is happening to our girls? Why are they falling into such depths of depression? What are we doing wrong? Or what are we not doing? We can’t leave this to the Surgeon General and US health bureaucracy. We can’t leave it to the schools. Please share this post. The mental health of our girls needs to be at the top of today’s confused agenda.

These are suicide attempts.

I am glad we are finally hearing more about this crisis — and I hope there will be more focus on the astounding difference in effects by gender.

*Note to parents: If you have a child who is slated to receive special services, I would check to see that those services are being delivered. If they are not, please don’t simply demand compliance. The district may be UNABLE to comply with last year’s plan. Instead, work with your district to find a workable solution for support.