John Thompson: Reflecting on “The Lost Year” for Students | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Reflecting on “The Lost Year” for Students | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Reflecting on “The Lost Year” for Students

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, read the New York Times Magazine’s report on the possibility of a “Lost Year” and wrote these reflections:

Three times, I had to take a break from reading the New York Times Magazine’s special education issue, “The Lost Year.” The Magazine’s powerful reporting delivered gut punch after gut punch, forcing me to put the magazine down, calm myself, and contemplate the suffering our children are enduring.

Three times, as these compelling and emotionally overwhelming student stories hit home, I would get sick at my stomach. I’d sense anxiety growing to the point where it hit as hard as when ideology-driven, Trumpian policies are announced. As these tragedies unfolded over recent months, I got into the habit of taking a break, breathing heavily, and relaxing, resulting in naps to calm my nerves.

The anecdotes in “The Lost Year” illustrating the damage being done to our most vulnerable children hit me especially hard because of decades working in the inner city and our most disadvantaged schools. But I must warn readers who may not have been covered by so CONTINUE READING: John Thompson: Reflecting on “The Lost Year” for Students | Diane Ravitch's blog

Where are all the kindergartners? Pandemic creates rare gap year

Where are all the kindergartners? Pandemic creates rare gap year

Where are all the kindergartners? Pandemic creates rare gap year

While K-12 enrollment has gradually decreased in recent years, the latest kindergarten numbers are abnormally low.

SACRAMENTO — Amy Neier carefully wrote “first day of kindergarten” on a whiteboard and posed her 5-year-old son Hunter with the sign to capture the milestone she had long waited for.

Then Hunter headed off for another year of preschool instead.

Neier and parents across the nation are skipping kindergarten in droves during the most tumultuous school year in generations. Frustrated by the thought of sticking their 5-year-olds in front of screens during the pivotal first year of school, they are sending their children to extended preschool, forming learning pods or foregoing formal instruction altogether.

“I thought my tears would be because I was sending my baby to school, not because I was worrying if the decision to keep him out of school this year was the wrong one," said Neier, who lives in Peoria, Ariz.

Given the choice, parents have sought alternatives, especially essential workers who need child care to stay employed. Teachers are doing their best to keep their students' attention — but also would prefer to return to their classrooms whenever conditions are safe. School administrators are imploring families to enroll their kindergartners, fearing a loss of attendance-based dollars.

And while affluent families can still find ways to give their 5-year-olds enrichment activities, low-income children may be losing out on a full year of instruction they would have received otherwise.

“Some parents are leaving their kids in their current pre-K or child care programs but a lot of parents don’t have that option, so where are these kids?” said Patricia Lozano, executive director of Early Edge California. “Kindergarten is not CONTINUE READING: Where are all the kindergartners? Pandemic creates rare gap year