A parent ask me recently, “How does it help if my child is the only one wearing a mask in the classroom?”
 
According to the experts, yes, a mask does help keep your child safe, even if they are the only person wearing a mask in the entire classroom or school. 
 
As Dr. Jaimie Meyer, an infectious disease physician at Yale Medicine, explains,
 
“It’s true that masks are most effective when everyone around you is wearing them. If someone is infected with COVID-19 and doesn’t know it, their mask is like putting a thumb over the end of a hose, preventing the virus from spewing….”
 
Dr. Meyer goes on to say that,
 
“…even when that infected person is maskless, anyone around them who has their own mask reduces the chance that those droplets will find their way to their respiratory system and sicken them.”
 
Dr. Meyer also states that,
 
“The strongest protection against the disease remains vaccination… Pfizer-BionTech shots were 85 percent effective ….   But masking may be the next most important thing you can do….  You should keep your mask at the ready because of what’s happening today, but also for what might happen tomorrow….  The mask helps you stay ahead of this disease.”
  
Dr. Meyer is not the only person saying that wearing a mask will help protect your child from COVID.  Linsey Marr, a Virginia Tech engineering professor and one of the world’s leading experts on viral transmission, stated that,
 
“…there is also plenty of evidence showing that masks protect the wearer even when others around them are mask-free. The amount of protection depends on the quality of the mask and how well it fits. Given that the Omicron variant is far more infectious than other variants, health experts recommend upgrading your mask to an N95, KN95 or KF94, which are all high-quality medical masks. Other variables, such as how much time you are exposed to an infected person and how well a space is ventilated also will affect your risk.”
 
Can you believe that we are still arguing over whether children should or should not wear a mask at school?  Well, we are, and the answer is still the same.  Masks are safe to wear all day at school.  Now, we add the fact that even if you are the only person or student wearing a mask in the room, wearing a mask will help keep you from catching COVID.
 
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For research on the safety of wearing a mask, see Do Mask Mandates Cause Psychological or Medical Problems for Children in School?
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I’m Vaccinated.  Isn’t That Enough?

Some people may be saying, “but wait, I thought getting vaccinated was all that I needed.  Isn’t that why I got vaccinated, so I wouldn’t be stuck wearing a mask all day?” Yet, a recent report from Cornell University demonstrates very clearly how effective wearing a mask to class can help curb COVID.  This is a current report from this past week.
 
“Between March 17 and March 23, Cornell recorded 515 positive COVID-19 infections among students, staff and faculty, according to data from the university.  …97% of the student population is vaccinated, while 92% of those eligible are boosted.  The increase comes less than two weeks after the school dropped its mask mandate for most locations….
 
“Nationwide, BA.2, now accounts for more than a third of new COVID-19 cases.”
 
Being vaccinated is very important and everyone should be vaccinated and get a booster when eligible.  We should also not forget to wear a mask—students as well as adults.

 
Do You Need To Wear A Mask Outside?
 
Some people will say, “I don’t need a mask.  I’m staying 6 feet away from other people and that will keep me safe.  Or, I have a plexiglass divider.  Or I’m outside.”  However, Marr goes on to explain that, yes, you do need a mask.
 
“It’s true that viral particles are concentrated closest to an infected individual… but just as cigarette smoke eventually spreads throughout a room, so, too, does the coronavirus.”
  
The cigarette smoke comparison is clear and easy to understand.  We have all been in a room when someone was smoking, even if the person is totally on the other side of the room, smoke travels.  In the backyard, if the neighbor two houses down is smoking outside, it travels all the way to your house.  Just like cigarette smoke, COVID travels throughout a room and even in the air outside. 
 
The CDC makes it clear that you need to wear the mask “consistently” for it to do any good.  You can’t put it on, take it off, pull it down underneath your chin, or wear it very loosely.  To be effective, the mask must fit snugly over the nose and mouth.
 
So, don’t hop out of your car to pump gas without a mask or run inside to the restroom without a mask.  It doesn’t count if you are diligent about wearing a mask at work but leave the mask in the car when running errands.
 
The same is true for children.  Don’t climb on the bus without a mask.  Your child may even want to consider wearing a mask out on the playground. 
 
Remember, COVID is just like the cigarette smoke: it travels through the air.  Masks do not take the place of vaccinations, but they are an important step in staying healthy.
 
As we discussed in my last blog post, even mild COVID can cause cognitive processing problems.  So, be prepared, don’t leave home without your mask.
 
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For more information on cognitive processing and COVID, read Should We Be Concerned about the Effects of COVID on Cognitive Processing and Executive Functioning Concerning Classroom Learning Losses?
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We have established that a mask helps protect you and your child, even if you are the only person wearing a mask in the room.  We have also learned that vaccines and masks work hand-in-hand together to give you the best protection.  It’s not an either-or situation, you need both.
 
Get vaccinated.  Get boosted when eligible.  And don’t forget to wear a mask, N95, KN95 or KF94 if possible.

In September, I told the story of a 15-year-old boy who returned to school after COVID, who was confused, unable to remember what he had previously learned, or even remember what he studied the day before?  This was a top student.  In his own words, he said, “Am I going to be able to be a good student ever again?  Because this is really scary.”
 
We have known from the beginning that COVID can cause cognitive processing problems after a severe illness.  Now, new research shows that even mild  COVID may affect cognitive processing and executive function.  Cognitive processing and executive function are essential if we are to correct the learning losses that we have in classrooms right now. 
 
Children cannot learn to read or work math problems if their ability to process information cognitively is severely affected or changed.  Children must be mentally engaged with the learning process.  They must be able to think and process information in order to learn.

Take reading as an example.  Reading comprehension occurs in the brain.  A child must be able to cognitively process the information being taught to learn to read.  As Dr. Sally Shaywitz explains,
 
“In order to read, a child must “enter the language system,” this means that the child must activate and use the brain circuits that are already in place for oral language….”
 
If, after COVID (even mild COVID), the child can no longer “enter the language system” or understand what is being taught in the classroom because of “brain fog” or other processing problems, then the child is not going to learn.
 
While we have been fighting over keeping children in school, we have totally overlooked the harms of long-covid and now possibly even mild COVID.  If future research continues to support the claim that cognitive processing and executive function are affected by even mild COVID, then we have a major problem in the classroom, a problem that pertains directly to learning and correcting learning losses.
 
Indeed, for the past several weeks, we have been discussing what the schools plan to do—and even possibly should do—to correct learning losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  As we look for answers to correcting learning losses in the classroom, a new research study has sparked a whole new line of questioning. 

 
Does a Mild COVID Infection Affect How the Brain Functions as Children Experience Learning Loss?
 
For the most part, schools have only concerned themselves with learning losses caused by lack of classroom attendance, use of online teaching, the wearing of masks, or anything that they considered to interfere with a normal classroom education.  Yet, research now shows that even mild cases of COVID can lead to cognitive processing and executive functioning problems. 
 
First, let's define our terms.  Then, we will look at the research studies.
 
The two problems that we are looking at are cognitive processing and executive function.  Any educator will tell you that these are very important as children learn. David Eagleman, Ph.D., explains: 
 
“Cognitive processing” describes how the brain gathers and uses information.  Slow cognitive processing creates problems when students are trying to learn.  Therefore, a problem with cognitive processing caused by COVID should be a major concern as we attempt to correct learning losses."
 
The second problem that we are looking at is executive function.  “Executive function” can be defined like this:
 
“Executive function is a set of mental skills that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. We use these skills every day to learn, work, and manage daily life.”
 
Cognitive processing and executive function work hand in hand. When cognitive processing slows down for some reason, this affects executive function and the ability to learn.  So, if we are to help students overcome learning losses, we absolutely must identify and correct any cognitive processing or executive function problems.
 
 
What Does New Research Show?
 
The recent University of Oxford study showed that even mild COVID can change brain tissue. On Monday, March 7th, the University of Oxford reported on research with 785 participants over the age of 50.  These participants had a neural image of their brain on file before COVID.  Each participant received two brain scans approximately 38 months apart.  Anyone with a severe case (sending them to the hospital) was not included in the study.  The researchers found that those who tested positive for COVID-19 showed an:
 
“… increase in brain tissue damage, a reduction in brain size, and a reduction in gray matter thickness.” 
 
Continuing, they explained that MRI exams showed noticeable brain problems:
 
“Between the pairs of MRIs, which were separated by an average of about three years, …. those who had Covid [showed]: a greater loss of what’s known as gray matter in the brain, as well as a higher rate of abnormalities in the brain tissue.”
 
Did these brain abnormalities from mild COVID affect cognitive skills?  Yes, they did:
 
“On cognitive function tests, those who had Covid demonstrated a slower ability to process information and had lower marks on what’s known as executive function, which is an umbrella measure of the brain’s ability to manage complex tasks.”
 
This is a peer-reviewed study, and the publisher even offers the peer review statements online for you to read.
 
 
What Does This Study Prove?
 
As one researcher from the University of Oxford study stated, there was “definite cognitive decline between the brain scans” from just mild COVID.  The Oxford study is one of the first studies to document these cognitive changes in the brain after mild COVID.
 
This study from the University of Oxford is an excellent study, but as Dr. Benedict Michael from the University of Liverpool told Newsweek, we still need to know more:  
 
"The bottom line is, this is a very methodologically sound study with pre- and post-COVID controls. But now we need studies to determine what this actually means for people in terms of cognitive function and quality of life ...."

We do not have a similar study with pre- and post-neuroimaging brain scans with children, but this study from Oxford is one of the first large-scale pre- and post-test evaluations of the actual changes that occurred in the brain after a mild case of COVID-19.  This study was also conducted before the vaccine was widespread. 

  
Are There Any Other Studies That Report Similar Findings?
 
Even though we do not have pre- and post-brain scans of children who suffered from mild COVID, we do have other studies and some doctors believe that children and teens can be suffering from the same cognitive processing and executive function problems as the people from the Oxford study. 
 
Doctors from Mount Sinai reported that COVID patients 18 and older who were only treated in the emergency department, then released and sent home (mild cases)  “…also had developed thinking problems.”
 
Dr. Igor Koralnik, chief of the division of neuro-infectious disease and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine, supports the findings from Mount Sinai and says that yes young people with mild cases can experience cognitive processing problems. 
 
Dr. Koralnik says:

“This study confirms what we have also seen at Northwestern, that cognitive problems are persistent both in patients who were previously hospitalized and also in patients who had only mild respiratory symptoms….”
 
So, something is definitely happening in the brain, even when people have a mild case of COVID. 
 
 
How Does the Oxford Study Relate to Students in the Classroom?
 
We need to become more aware of these cognitive processing problems, especially as students who have had COVID return to school.  What should we do to help these students struggling with mild and long-term COVID problems?
 
A video of a 12-year-old’s story shows the dramatic difference COVID can make in the life of a young person. I encourage you to watch this video.  The video also offers advice on how to deal with long-covid at school. 
 
 
Where Does That Leave Us in Terms of Learning Loss in the Classroom?
 
Searching for answers? Many questions remain to be answered.  Research continues.  Those of us who work with children and teens need to ask what this means for correcting learning losses in the classroom.
 
 
Cognitive Processing Problems are not New with Students who Struggle to Read.
 
At my reading clinic, I will definitely strengthen my efforts in cognitive processing and executive function.  I already emphasize these two areas since they are common problems for children struggling to learn to read.  I think that it would also be wise for the schools to strengthen support for students struggling with cognitive processing and executive function.  COVID may have had more of an effect than we think.
 
One way that I strengthen cognitive processing and executive function skills at my reading clinic is through hands-on learning projects.  For example, the space station displayed at the top of this blog post is an example of an activity that I use.  The space station is created completely and totally from the child's imagination.  There are no instructions, no patterns.  The child must think and figure out how to make things work.  As the children go around from workstation to workstation, they create and add to their space station.  The children must process information and then use that information to build their space station.  The children read stories, and we talk about what astronauts need to survive in space.  I have a table full of recyclable materials that they use to make their space station. They may add spelling words at one station, or stories they have written at a different station.  The only supplies needed are recyclables (plastic containers, tissue rolls, plastic cups…whatever you have on hand), construction paper, and glue. 
 
 
I call it the Peaceful World Space Station because I'm always emphasizing peace, sharing, and cooperation while I teach children to read.
 
Next, we will explore more ways to help students cope with cognitive processing and executive function problems.  Stay tuned.

A first grader was sent to my after-school program because he was not only failing in school, but reading below the kindergarten level.  After one year in my program, he was reading at the third-grade level—as a first grader.  You can imagine my shock the next fall when he was sent back to my program.  The school had retained him in first grade because of his absences throughout the year, even though he was reading at the third-grade level.  Yes, the child was absent a lot, even from my program.  The child had asthma.  I offered to go with the parent to talk with the school; she refused.  This was a single parent household with the family living in the housing projects.  The student had become a behavior problem in just the first two weeks of school; therefore, he was sent back to me to correct his behavior.  The child quickly informed me upon his return that he didn't need to work on reading because he was just a first grader.  I smiled and said, “Here at the Reading Orienteering Club, we all work on reading each and every day, and since you can read at the third-grade level, I'll expect to see you challenging yourself to read even harder books and stories.”  He finished the year reading at the fifth-grade level, even though he was still just a first grader in school.
 
Would equitable grading have made a difference for this student?  I think so.  Naturally, it depends on how the school uses equitable grading.

 
What Is Equitable Grading?
 
There are as many theories on equitable grading as there are people to write comments about the practice.  Yet, for us, I will define equitable grading to be mastery of the material being taught.  That means that the grade being given on the report card from school does not include attendance, class participation, or homework. Equitable grading does not use all sorts of fancy grading scales.  To me, equitable grading means that the grade reflects what the student has learned, not how well they cooperated or behaved in class.  Yes, I know that behavior and cooperation are important.  Trust me, I work with at-risk students who do not always walk in the door displaying their best behavior.  If you are a teacher or counselor, classroom behavior is always a concern.
 
Behavior and cooperation grades, if desired, should be totally separate from academic grades.  Yes, I know that teachers need classroom cooperation and appropriate behavior, but the grading system that we are presently using is not working.
 
 
Why Would Equitable Grading Help Us Overcome Learning Losses?
 
If the grades sent home on a report card actually reflected how well the student has learned the material being taught during that grading period, then parents and teachers alike would better understand what the student has and has not learned.
Parents often come to my reading clinic and tell me that they do not understand why the teacher says their child cannot read.  As they say, “He brought home a B on his report card.” 
If the report card grade includes behavior, attendance, and homework, a well-behaved child can easily bring home a B on their report card and still not be able to read.  Yes, I’ve seen it many times.
 
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For more about learning losses in reading, see: 
Reading Wars are Over!  Phonics Failed.  Whole Language Failed.  Balanced Literacy Failed. Who Won?  It Certainly Wasn’t the Students  
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Do Report Card Grades Reflect How Much Students Have Learned?
 
No, in general, I do not think that our grading system shows how much the student has actually learned.  When we talk about learning losses from COVID or even before COVID, we must actually be measuring true improvement.
 
If the school is adding points for homework turned in correctly or even incorrectly, then you do not have an equitable grading system.  Yes, some schools give points to students who turn in their homework even if it has the wrong answers.  These homework points are then added into the overall grade listed on the report card. 
 
If your report card grades add points for classroom participation or cooperation, then you do not have an equitable grading system.  As Jennifer Gunn said in an article for Resilient Educator, you cannot measure everything with one grade:
 
“The truth is, grades cannot represent everything. They can’t encompass a student’s behavior, ability to meet deadlines, mastery of content and skills, participation, effort, professionalism, attendance, punctuality, neatness, and likeability… inconsistent grading practices and the ways they can inadvertently perpetuate achievement and opportunity gaps among our students make grading an issue of equity. There are grading practices that are more bias-resistant and motivational that can improve learning, minimize grade inflation, reduce failure rates, and create stronger teacher-student relationships and more caring classrooms.” 
 
I totally agree that “grades cannot represent everything.”  If we are ever to overcome the learning losses from the pandemic and before, we must have a separate academic grade based on what the student has learned.
 
 
Are Schools Changing Their Grading Policies After COVID?
 
Some schools have made changes to their grading policies.  Unfortunately, it is uncertain whether these changes have helped or hurt.  There is no uniform policy change, and no one is checking to make sure that the changes that are being made have actually helped the students overcome learning losses.  As one report explains:
 
 “To curb an alarming rise in failing students at the height of the pandemic, school districts around the U.S. showed leniency in accepting late work and assigning grades.
  
As the coronavirus crisis subsides, some are sticking with it or adopting similar approaches — not because of the pandemic, but often because of what it revealed about how students are penalized for hardships like a lack of support at home, work obligations or poor internet access.”
 
Are lenient policies the answer to correcting learning losses?  I do not think so.  Leniency has its place, but we still need to measure exactly what the student is or is not learning.  At my reading clinic, I give students all the time they need to learn a concept or complete a project, but I never reduce the standards or the reading skills that they must learn.

 
Homework Does Not Reflect Equitable Grading.

As for adding in points for completing homework, we need to remember that it has been proven that homework does not teach and does not always translate into better learning.  I’ll have more to say about homework later.  For now, I will just say that we need to separate homework from the grade that is recorded on the report card, especially since homework has been shown through research not to be effective in helping students learn.

For more details and research on homework, I encourage you to read The Battle Over Homework by Harris Cooper.  If you cannot find it at your public library, it’s available for $3.98 from Better World Books.

 
Must We Rely on Grades?
 
Let me first explain, that I do not give grades in any of my programs, but I do test to make sure students are actually learning.  Regardless of whether it is with my one-on-one tutoring with vowel clustering, my weeklong Camp Sharigan program, or my year long after-school Reading Orienteering Club program, all of my programs test.  I pretest before students enter my program so I can tell where a student needs help.  I use a midpoint test to measure progress and determine who needs extra help.  The mid-point test also tells me if a student is not improving.  If a student is not showing improvement at mid-point, I immediately change my teaching approach with that student until I find a way to help that student.  My post-test at the end of the year tells me the grade level that the student is able to read at after instruction.  I test reading level, spelling, and comprehension.
 
Although testing is essential, testing must absolutely reflect what the student has learned.  If you do not test, you cannot prove that the student has actually learned anything.  I do not use such things as pop quizzes or unit tests.  Parents frequently tell me how much their child’s grades have improved at school.  I’m pleased, but I still rely on a pre-, midpoint, and post-test to tell me exactly how much the student has learned in my program.
 
Since my goal is to send students back to the classroom able to succeed in class, I need to make sure that they have actually learned the skills that I'm teaching.  It takes some students longer than others.  I teach to the individual needs of each student.
 
Behavior and cooperation are separate from teaching and learning.  Yes, I frequently must deal with after-school behaviors and a lack of cooperation.  But I do not grade or test behavior or cooperation. If you must grade behavior, I think that you should have a totally separate grade for behavior.  
 
Hands-on teaching techniques help resolve behavior and cooperation problems.  Puppets, rockets, pop-up houses, hands-on teaching techniques definitely keep students interested and engaged in the learning process. 
 _________________

For more about hands-on learning, see Teaching Technique #8:  Hands-on Learning
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Where Should We Start?
 
If you are a teacher or school administrator, you may be asking how can you set up an equitable grading system? If you are a parent, wanting to sit down with your child’s teacher, you may be asking, how do I discuss equitable grading with the school or with a teacher?
 
Some questions you might ask are:

• Does the student's grade on their report card reflect what they have learned?
• Are points added or taken away when the student is absent or does not complete an assignment?
• Is the student allowed to make up a low grade with additional learning activities?  Or do they just retake the test?
• Does the report card grade reflect how well the student behaved in class or cooperated with others?
• Does the report card grade include points or grades for completed homework?
• How can the grade recorded on the report card more closely show what the student has learned and how the student has or has not improved in actually learning the concepts being taught in class?

 
As Sandra Burns, an elementary school principal, explains:
 
“Leaving out irrelevant grading factors, such as time taken or behavior concerns, will focus on the mastery level of each grade earned as opposed to outside factors that should be irrelevant to an overall grade earned.
 
As educators, we want the very best for all of our students. Grading assignments can at times be a challenge when we allow irrelevant criteria to weigh in on overall grades. The more we align our grading rubrics to the ultimate goal or objective of the assignment, the better equipped we’ll be to create meaningful and valid grading procedures within our classrooms.”  
  
So, the next time you have a chance to speak at a school board meeting or to attend a parent teacher conference, don't hesitate to ask, what can be done to provide more equitable grading for our students?  I really do think equitable grading will help us overcome learning losses.  It's not enough all by itself, but it's a good place to begin.

For children to do well in school, they must, first and foremost, protect their health. On February 4th, I mentioned that a link between COVID and diabetes had been found with children. 
 
The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that: “A new study shows children under age 18 were at greater risk of being diagnosed with diabetes more than 30 days after a COVID-19 infection than those who weren’t infected with the virus or those with pre-pandemic acute respiratory infections (ARI).”
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For more, see my earlier post:  Why Are Parents Still Afraid of the COVID-19 Vaccine? Is Misinformation to Blame?
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Many parents have shown interest in the CDC’s report.  Schools and teachers should also be concerned because when children are sick, they struggle to learn.  Teachers are also in a position to notice early warnings signs of diabetes—excessive thirst, frequent bathroom trips, exhaustion, and weight loss.
 
I promised to do more research.  This is what I found.
 
A Research Study from the United Kingdom: COVID-19 and Diabetes
 
Researchers from the Imperial College in London said,
​
"Our analysis shows that during the peak of the pandemic the number of new cases of type 1 diabetes in children was unusually high….  this study is the first to show a potential link between COVID-19 and the development of type 1 diabetes in some children.  [this occurs because] …the coronavirus spike protein might be able to attack and destroy insulin making cells in the pancreas.”
 
The researchers go on to say, “Type 1 diabetes can be managed through insulin injections. However, children can become very unwell if the disease is not recognised and treated early.  [symptoms to watch for]  …feeling thirsty, going to the toilet (passing urine) frequently, feeling tired and looking thinner (weight loss).”
 
Research so far does not prove a direct link between COVID and diabetes.  All we have so far is a correlation.  That means that we are finding an increase in diabetes among children who have had COVID.  This is a definite reason for concern but not proof that COVID caused the increase in diabetes.  We need more research.  Parents whose children have had COVID should definitely watch for the symptoms of diabetes and have their children’s blood sugar levels tested by their doctor.
 
One family’s story reminds all of us how important it is to watch for symptoms early.  I hope you will take a moment to watch this heartbreaking video.  By becoming more aware of the symptoms, you might be able to save the life of a child.
 
 
The CDC Study
Concern started when media interest spiked after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an increase in diabetes among children who had been diagnosed with COVID.  The CDC concluded,
 
“Persons aged <18 years with COVID-19 were more likely to receive a new diabetes diagnosis >30 days after infection than were those without COVID-19 and those with prepandemic acute respiratory infections. Non–SARS-CoV-2 respiratory infection was not associated with an increased risk for diabetes.”

The CDC, again, is basically stating that there is a correlation.  Although we do not as of yet have proof that COVID causes diabetes, such a correlation between COVID and diabetes should definitely concern all parents and doctors. 
 
Since the CDC report is fairly technical, I found this easy-to-understand summary from Li Cohen, a reporter for CBS News.  Cohen stated,
 
“[children] …diagnosed with COVID-19 … were 166% more likely than those who did not have COVID to be diagnosed later with diabetes.”
 
“…children who had COVID were also 116% more likely to develop diabetes than those who had non-COVID respiratory infections prior to the pandemic. Non-COVID respiratory infection was not associated with diabetes…."
 
So, there is a connection between COVID and diabetes.  Researchers are just not sure exactly what that connection may be.  Yet, the connection between COVID and diabetes is too strong for us to merely brush it off as coincidence. 
 
Cohen went on to interview Dr. Sheela Natesh Magge, director of the pediatric endocrinology division at Johns Hopkins.  Dr. Magge stated that,
 
“…the development of diabetes could be attributed to how COVID affects the body's organs, such as the "direct attack of the pancreatic cells….  There's some evidence that COVID-19 infection could affect insulin secretion….  The stress of any infection can increase blood sugars and can make you have a higher risk of any of the complications of diabetes because your blood sugars could get higher."
 
The doubting Thomas’s may be saying, “OK, my child had COVID, got over it, and now is fine.”  That attitude is exactly what the researchers are trying to warn people against.  Diabetes does not always immediately follow having COVID.  Diabetes can develop anywhere from 30 days after a COVID infection to even longer.  Check with your doctor and watch for the warning signs.  Early detection of diabetes is extremely important.

 
Is there any other research supporting these claims?

I found other research supporting this concern.

• Dr. Jennifer Sherr, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Yale, said,

“I can say that anecdotally, here at Yale, we've seen increased risk of type two diabetes and more diagnosis of type two diabetes.”
 
Dr. Sherr again reminds us that “correlation doesn’t mean causation.”  No one is saying that just because your child had COVID that they will automatically get diabetes.  The research is saying to watch for the warning signs of diabetes.  Be on the alert.

• Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, after studying data over the past five years, found that “…the incidence of new-onset T1D [type 1 diabetes] during the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020 and 2021 appeared to have increased compared with previous years.” 

 

• Some research indicates that the increase is not just with Type 1 diabetes.  Researchers are also seeing an increase with Type 2 diabetes.

 
“…the estimated prevalence of diabetes among children and adolescents increased significantly for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.”
 

• Dr. Sharon Saydah, a researcher at the CDC, explained that so far research does not tell us whether “post-COVID Type 2 diabetes” would be a chronic (long term) condition or a “transient condition” that might eventually resolve with treatment.  She does remind everyone that Type 1 diabetes is not reversible.  It never goes away.  She went on to say that vaccinating all eligible children against COVID, masking, social distancing, and taking every precaution is the best way to protect the children. 

 

• What the CDC report did state is that for over 2.5 million children under the age of 18, those who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, they were:

 
“… about 2.5 times more likely to receive a new diabetes diagnosis a month or more after infection.”
 
These numbers are more than high enough for us to take the threat seriously We must not ignore this research.  I will keep you posted as new research emerges.
 
So, the conclusion is, yes, we have seen an increase in diabetes from children who had COVID.  Does COVID cause diabetes?  We do not know.  Research is continuing.  What we do know is that we should all be on the alert and watching for the warning signs of diabetes with children.

No, I do not believe that the administrative plans discussed in my previous blog posts will correct the learning losses caused by COVID or the losses that existed before COVID.  The schools need a new approach.  I believe that hands-on teaching techniques might be one answer.
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What Are Schools Saying about Pandemic Learning Losses, and What Is Being Done to Help? 
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Students anticipate success or failure based on their past experiences.  Students who have failed in the classroom often consider themselves failures.  Perceived inferiority reduces a child’s ability to learn.  If we return from COVID with the same methods that the child failed with (phonics, whole-language, or balanced literacy) before COVID, the child will, most likely, continue to fail.  We need a completely new way to teach reading. 
 
At my reading clinic, a simple craft project becomes a hands-on way of teaching decoding and encoding skills, an initiator for intrinsic motivation, and the means to provide step-by-step directions which help to increase comprehension.  The program uses creative art projects that are tied into the learning process and skills being taught. That helps children to set aside their fear and reluctance and try again.  The craft projects are not mere craft projects for the sake of completing a craft.  At the reading clinic, the hands-on project does not go home until the learning exercise is also completed.  The hands-on craft projects become a teaching tool. 
 
Yes, we have seen success with hands-on learning techniques:

• A student who failed for nine straight years in public school is now reading.
• A student diagnosed with ADHD and failing in reading moved up two grade levels in one year.
• A student diagnosed with dyslexia and whose parents tried everything, including expensive private one-on-one systematic phonics tutoring, learned to read, and moved up to beginning chapter books in one year.
• Six children who entered the program reading at the (pre-K) level ended the year reading at the 2nd grade reading level.  Only one child in the group was a first grader.
• One student started at the pre-K level and ended the year reading at the third-grade level, while a second grader started the year reading below first grade and ended at the fourth-grade level.  This improvement was just from September to May.
• One year, a student moved up four grade levels in reading, 4 students moved up three grade levels in reading, and 8 students moved up two grade levels in reading. 
• Another year, two students moved up four grade levels in reading, 3 students moved up 3 grade levels in reading, and 6 students moved up two grade levels in reading. 

 
So, yes, we can teach failing students to read.  If we use the correct teaching methods, we can correct all reading failure—before and after COVID.

Links to earlier posts in this series about recovering pandemic learning losses 

How Can We Overcome the Education Losses Children Have Experienced from the Pandemic? (Part 1) 

What Are Schools Saying about Pandemic Learning Losses, and What Is Being Done to Help? (Part 2)

Are The Schools Creating A Positive Learning Environment That Will Help Students Correct Learning Losses?  (Part 3) 

A Hands-on Project Helps Create a Positive Learning Environment to Help Students Correct Learning Losses (Part 4 of a Series)​

Let’s look at a simple project that children can make, and see how it helps the student learn the day’s lesson.

For several weeks now, I have been showing pictures of pop-up houses, some simple, some more complex.  Now, I want to show how to take that simple pop-up house and use it to teach.
  
Let's get started! Begin with a simple pattern that even 5-year-olds can trace and cut out. 

Instructions For Making A Simple Pop-Up House:
  
Remember to Read the Directions carefully—all of the directions.

1. First, select construction paper that you want to use for your pop-up house.  Fold the paper in half as if you are making a book.  Trace the pattern.  The pattern must be on the fold of the paper.  Trace and cut out your house.  Be sure to cut notch at corner/fold.  Lay pattern on your house and fold bottom flap as shown on pattern. 

 
Read this to the child. "Decorate your house using markers, crayons, or scraps of paper.  Do not decorate below fold line (see pattern) because that is where you will glue your house to the paper.  Slow down; take the time to make your house look very special.  Sometimes it can be frustrating to work on a project very slowly, trying to do your best work, but in the end, it is best when we put extra effort into every job we do.  Be creative and do your very best.  Use only a glue stick for glue."  

Decorating a house can be very simple or very elaborate. Here are two examples made from this pattern: 

Second, fold a second sheet of construction paper (green is best, to look like grass) in half as if you’re making a book. 
 
Third, place glue only on the folded flap of your house.  Use a glue stick--no liquid glue. 
 
Fourth, line up the center fold of your house with the center fold of your open sheet of green
construction paper.  Open house into a V shape and glue down the flaps onto the green construction paper.  Open and close green construction paper once to make sure that the house pops up.  Then, set aside to dry.
 
Teaching tips:

• Place glue only on the folded flap of your house.  Use a glue stick--no liquid glue. 
• Line up the center fold of your house with the center fold of your open sheet of green paper. 
• If you are teaching older students, have them use their ruler and protractor to make their own pattern.  Now, you have combined reading and math into one lesson.
• Even many special needs students can do this project.  Make your pattern out of carboard.  Hold the pattern in place and encourage the student to trace around the pattern. 
• If you are teaching on-line, this is a perfect project.  I used it with a 3rd grade student, but you can also use it with first graders.  You just give the instructions orally with young children.  I’ve also used this exact pattern with 5- and 6-year-olds in a class.  For example, say:  “Has everyone folded your paper?  Hold the paper up and show me the folded edge of the paper, where is the fold?  Excellent.  Lay your paper on your desk and place your pattern on that fold.”

 
This simple hands-on project becomes a teaching tool and is also a motivational tool to encourage students to want to learn.  The house is not simply an arts and craft project.  It is a teaching technique placed within a supportive group-centered prevention program that focuses on both teaching and counseling.  I want to undo the harms of reading failure.   I want to encourage children to try again and believe that they can learn to read.  
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Reading Failure is a Mental Health Problem
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What Have We Taught With This Hands-On Project?

One of the best ways to help children practice comprehension is by following step-by-step directions to make a project.  The children must read, understand what they read, and then apply such comprehension in order to complete the project. 
 
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For more about comprehension, read:  Reading Comprehension
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If you are teaching on-line, for older students, you could have your students research colonial homes, then write a paragraph or essay comparing and contrasting colonial homes with the house they live in today. 
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One web site that I like is:  Colonial Homes for Kids
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So, be creative with either in-class or on-line instruction, you can bring your lesson to life with a simple hands-on project.  The house is not just an arts and craft project, it becomes a teaching tool that motivates your students to want to do more.  Yes, we really can change how we teach and help every student overcome their learning losses, whatever they may be.


And look at what you've taught with this simple hands-on project:

1. Comprehension—Regardless of whether you had the students read and follow the written directions or if you read the directions to the student, you were teaching comprehension, following directions, listening skills, and completion.
2. If you had your students write a story, you were also teaching composition and story writing.  If you had your older students research a topic, you were also teaching research and writing nonfiction paragraphs.  You can turn the pop-up house into a book and have each student write their own story or essay.  There are hundreds of ways to use this hands-on project.
3. Even if you are teaching first graders, you can use this simple house to teach letter sounds.  I use a game called Build-by-Sound.  The child keeps the vowel sound the same.  For example, use the short a sound.  Then, build words:  at, bat, cat, rat…ran, fan, man, …cap, lap, sap.  Keep the vowel sound the same but change the consonants. 
4. For older children, you can add consonant blends:  trap, black, stack….  Depending on the age of your students, you can even have two or three syllable words with one common vowel sound.  Never mix vowel sounds.  The idea is to train the brain to hear the common vowel sound in each word:  apple, happy, cattle, acrobat, astronaut. 
   Then, of course, have your student write the words correctly on manuscript writing paper and glue them to their house to practice later.  Again, use only glue sticks on pop-up houses.
   
   

​If you teach a child to read, you can change the world.

How can I create a hands-on learning environment in the classroom?
 
A teacher recently asked me, “How am I supposed to set up a hands-on learning environment in a classroom with 26 students who read at different levels and have widely differing skill sets?  I've read where you talk about creating a hands-on learning environment at your reading clinic.  That's great, but I can't set up an entire reading clinic in my classroom.  I have other subjects to teach besides just reading.”
 
Yes, it is true, with my Camp Sharigan week-long program, I create an imaginary summer camp that fills the entire room—wall hangings, mountains, fishing ponds, a paper poison ivy vine, and even a snake pit with fuzzy snakes.  

​Yet, my Reading Orienteering Club after-school program uses portable learning workstations because I must be able to set up and take down the after-school program each day—others use the room.  Research shows that both programs are successful.  So, yes, you can create a hands-on learning environment even in a classroom with desks or tables and chairs.
 
And yes, at my reading clinic, students have moved up as much as four grade levels in reading in one year—our program is actually only eight months long, September to May.  I use hands-on learning and creative-art therapy with group-centered prevention to help students replace failure with success.

As the pandemic rages on, parents understandably worry about what effect it is having on their children’s education and mental state. Not only are those important issues, but we also need to understand how school administrators think about the pandemic. What people care about the most, however, is what can we do to help solve the problems?

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Read Part 1: How Can We Overcome Pandemic Learning Problems?
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Are the Schools Approaching the Problem Correctly?
There are almost as many answers to that question as there are people.  Everyone has an opinion.  Let’s be careful not to let “mere opinions” mislead us.  Yes, there is as much misinformation plaguing education as there are “alternative facts” floating between the political candidates.
 
This is the second part of my look at educational loss during the pandemic. In Part 1, we looked at what parents, teachers, and students are saying about educational losses from COVID.  Now, let’s ask, what are the schools saying?  What are the administrators saying?  What do they plan to do?  What should they be doing?
 
We need to remember that the classroom teacher does not always control what is actually taught in the classroom.  In many schools, teachers are told what they can and cannot teach.  They are also told how to teach.  Textbooks and teaching methods are even decided for the teacher.  Such a policy has both benefits and dangers.  Therefore, it is necessary to look at what administrators, school boards, and state education agencies are saying about educational loss during the pandemic.
 
 
What Are School Administrators Saying about Pandemic Learning Loss?
 
Just to list a few points:

• Some are saying that learning losses from the pandemic are irreversible.  Wrong.

 

• One report said that students were two or more grade levels behind because of the pandemic.  I have been working with students for years who were three, four, even nine grade levels behind in reading—all before the pandemic.  Learning loss in education is not new.

 

• One study, conducted by a testing company (be careful when reading test scores from commercial companies who, at the end of their report, offer to sell you testing services) found from their research that in reading an “… increase from 27% well below benchmark in 2019 to 40% in 2020 is nearly a 50% increase in the number of students entering that grade at risk.”  Their findings were mostly with kindergarten and first graders. 

I do not doubt that kindergarten and first graders have suffered in reading development during the pandemic.  As for the 50% increase, I have little confidence in their data.  If you read the study carefully, you’ll notice that their study population is biased.  Yet, the problem remains.  We need to help all children learn to read.

• One educator stated that he thought today’s learning losses would still be around in 2060.  They shouldn’t be.  There is no reason that we cannot reverse any and all learning loss from the pandemic.

 

• Still others say that students who attended online classes lost “comprehension, focus, and engagement.”  It all depends on how the school used online classes.  Just being online shouldn’t necessarily reduce comprehension, focus, or engagement.  I actually worked with a student who improved over the pandemic through online classes over what the student had been doing with in-class instruction before the pandemic.

 

• Many are saying that stress, anxiety, and depression have increased, and such has affected student learning.  This I agree with.  The pandemic has increased stress and anxiety for all of us.  Research shows that depression has also increased.  Yet, this doesn’t necessarily lead to learning loss. 

What Does a Student Stay? 
 
As one high school student said,

“I definitely struggled during the spring of 2020—which I’m sure goes for a lot of other kids. I think I was so overwhelmed by the surrealism of the entire situation that it didn’t even feel like my schoolwork was important; everything felt like a dream. Since then, I have definitely become better adjusted to online schooling—and I do think that if the pandemic had not happened I would be short of a lot of significant knowledge I gained this year. I have certainly become more active and interested in current events, but I have also grown as a person, and although living through COVID has been really hard at times, I am so incredibly lucky to say that I probably gained more than I lost during these times.”
 
So, yes, some students have suffered psychologically during the pandemic, but still others say that they experienced personal growth and development during the pandemic as they learned to cope with difficult situations.  Again, we find ourselves talking about psychological harm.  Let’s refresh our definition of psychological harm.

 
Psychological Effects of the Pandemic

When we say that something causes psychological harm, this means that it impairs a person’s mental development and well-being. For example, rude, hateful words can cause psychological harm. Bullying can cause psychological harm. Teasing can cause psychological harm. Mass school shootings can cause psychological harm.  Reading failure can cause psychological harm.  That's why I became involved as a psychologist in developing programs to help children overcome reading failure.  My goal is to stop the psychological harm caused by reading failure. 
 
No, masks, vaccines, or testing do not cause psychological harm.  It is fear and not being able to control the source of the fear that causes psychological harm.
 
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For more on psychological harms, read:  Do Mask Mandates Cause Psychological or Medical Problems for Children in School?

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Every single child and every single adult has been impacted by the pandemic, and yes, we definitely need to treat the psychological effects of the pandemic.  As a psychologist, I am very concerned about the psychological harms caused by the pandemic, especially the increased suicide rate.  The Pew Charitable Trust explains that:

“According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts among adolescents jumped 31% in 2020, compared with 2019. In February and March of this year, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher among girls aged 12–17 than during the same period in 2019.”

And the Pew article continues:
​
“… more than 140,000 children in the United States lost a primary and/or secondary caregiver, with youth of color disproportionately impacted.”
 
We need to look more deeply to see what is causing this increase in suicidal behavior.  We’ll explore this in a later discussion.
 
Stress and anxiety do not always cause learning loss.  After all, we also know that bullying and the fear of gun violence in schools increases stress, anxiety, and yes, increases depression.  Should we then say that the threat of gun violence also causes learning loss? 
 
 
Can we get an accurate measure on learning loss experienced by students?
  
Let's look at a study that gives a fairly objective overview of the problems students have experienced during the pandemic.  An article entitled, The Effect of COVID-19 on Education by Jacob Hoofman and Dr. Elizabeth Secord, Department of Pediatrics, from Wayne State University School of Medicine summarize both the educational and mental health issues facing the schools.
 
 “Learners and educators at all levels of education have been affected by COVID-19.  ...racial minorities, those who live in poverty, those requiring special education, and children who speak English as a second language are more negatively affected by the need for remote learning.  Anxiety and depression have increased….”
 
That statement gives us a good summary of the problems that we are looking at in education.  Hoofman and Secord go one step further as they cite a study from Stanford.
 
“Northwest Evaluation Association is a global nonprofit organization that provides research-based assessments and professional development for educators. A team of researchers at Stanford University evaluated Northwest Evaluation Association test scores for students in 17 states and the District of Columbia in the Fall of 2020 and estimated that the average student had lost one-third of a year to a full year's worth of learning in reading, and about three-quarters of a year to more than 1 year in math since schools closed in March 2020.”
 
Once again, I advise caution for the results.  The Northwest Evaluation only looked at assessments from 17 states—not even half of the country.  Also, Stanford was looking at averages and speculating.  Until the Nation’s Report Card gives us an actual test score comparison, the amount of leaning loss experienced by students is basically speculation.  One research firm or university may be better than the other, but we are still speculating.
 
So, yes, there has been learning loss—more with some students, less with others.  The truth is that we entered into the pandemic with a learning loss in reading.  According to the Nation’s Report Card, over 60% of students across the nation could not read at grade level in 4th, 8th, and 12th grade in 2019 before COVID began.  This 60% score is based on actual test data, not speculation.

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For more on the Nation’s Report Card score, read:  Reading Wars are Over!  Phonics Failed.  Whole Language Failed.  Balanced Literacy Failed. Who Won?  It Certainly Wasn’t the Students.
 
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Testing is important, but it must be accurate and unbiased.  In my own reading clinic, we have moved students up in reading who were two years behind grade level, four years behind, and even nine years behind their grade level.  Regardless of their age or how many years they have failed in reading, students can be brought up to their age-appropriate level in reading.  All we need to do is change how we teach reading in the schools and start teaching reading correctly.  
 
For more on the actual data from my reading clinic, read Chapter 10 in After-School Programming and Intrinsic Motivation.
 
Let’s look at some solutions.  I primarily look at the solutions being proposed in reading because these are the students I work with.  That is also my area of expertise.  This is not to say that we do not have learning loss in math, science, social studies, and other curriculum areas.  Since my research is in preventing reading failure, I will limit my suggestions to teaching reading.
 
 
What Are the Schools Planning to Do to Correct Learning Loss?

• Some states are planning what they call “high-dosage tutoring” over the summer.  Some are even planning to hire college students to tutor children who are struggling.  I think that this could be a good idea, but it depends on how the tutors are planning to teach the children.  Again, it comes down to teaching materials.  If you are using teaching methods that have been proven to fail, no amount of tutoring will help.  

 
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Read:  What Makes A Reading Program Successful?

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• Some states plan to extend the school year.  Merely extending the school year will not necessarily help struggling students.  Again, it depends on the teaching methods and curriculum that you are using.  Failed teaching methods will not suddenly improve when you simply extend the school year.  You must change the way you teach.

 

• Some people are suggesting “grade-level exposure.”  This is basically teaching at grade level and expecting students to magically move up.  Sorry, it doesn’t happen.  The students are not failing because they want to.  They are failing because they have not been taught how to read.  This proposal is a disaster for struggling students-- the students who have been hurt the most by the pandemic will suffer the most under “grade-level exposure.”

 

• Yes, as always, there are those who are screaming retention is the only way to overcome educational losses.  Repeat the last year.  Wrong.  Making a student repeat a grade never works.  One researcher found that students retained between kindergarten and 5th grade are 60% less likely to graduate from high school.  Never retain students (make students repeat a grade) nor simply pass them on to the next grade.  Teach them instead.

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For this research and others showing that retention does not work, read:  Reason #6 That Reading Scores Were Lower in 2019:  Grade Retention and Social Promotion

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We Cannot Ignore Learning Loss.  So, What Is the Best Way to Correct the Problem?
 
In reading, our best solution for correcting learning loss is to change how we teach reading in the classroom.  We need to move away from whole language and phonics.  They have both been proven to not work for many students, especially the students who need help the most.  So, the solution we seek is the same solution we needed before the pandemic.  If we want to correct learning loss in reading, we need to change how we teach reading in the classroom.

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Read:  When Phonics Fails
 
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​
Yes, we have learning loss and we have psychological issues, the question still remains what should be done about these problems.  These are not new problems in education.  We had learning loss in reading and psychological issues before COVID.  We need to be careful that we do not blame every single problem in education on the pandemic.  We have many problems in education, and we have had for years—long before the pandemic. 
 
The question that remains is:   What should we do about these problems?
 
In an upcoming post, we will look at one suggestion on what can be done to change the way we teach reading. 

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​

For more information, see After-School Programming and Intrinsic Motivation:  Teaching At-Risk Students to Read

The 8 years of research published in this book show that we can, in fact, teach children to read who have failed in classrooms that use phonics, whole-language, or balanced literacy.  So, yes, we can undo the learning losses from COVID.

Available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle. You can also get an e-book version directly from the publisher. 

First, Do You Think Students Have Suffered Educational Losses During the Pandemic?

A recent poll stated that 67% of parents feel that their children are behind academically in school because of the pandemic.  The survey goes on to say that the parents feel that these academic losses are worse than any of the social skills concerns they may have based on school closures and online instruction. 
  
Parents are not the only ones who think students have suffered educational losses.
 
Public school teachers (K-12) also feel that students have fallen behind academically during the pandemic.  A survey from March 2021, shows that teachers feel that approximately 53% of students are showing a significant learning loss.
 
What do the students say?  A very interesting article gives comments from high school students.  I’ll only quote three, but I encourage you to take a few minutes and read this article.  The students offer insights into the educational problems facing our schools.  I have omitted student names.

• Student #1 does not feel that there has been learning loss.

 
Student #1:  “During the pandemic, I don’t feel as if I had experienced the threat of learning loss. In fact, I feel as if I have learned more during quarantine. This is because, during my free time, I have found ways to learn at my own pace and ways to practice what I have studied before.” 

• Student #2 points out issues in online education. Maybe the problem comes from how we use online education.

 
Student #2:  “I think when it comes to academics, most students have fallen behind in their learning. Online school did not allow students to learn to their fullest ability; distractions at home affected people’s ability to focus, and isolation from other students affected people’s motivation. Learning over a screen made it hard to communicate with teachers, ask questions, and fully grasp new concepts. Additionally, with fewer classes each day and less overall learning time, teachers were forced to accommodate conventional learning plans, therefore not getting through as much material as previous years. Elementary students, who are just learning essential skills such as reading and writing, have especially suffered from virtual learning; without an engaging environment, it is impossible to maintain attention.”

• Student #3 feels that the assignments were comparable to in-class learning.

 
Student #3:  “Luckily, I do not feel a learning loss academically during the pandemic. Especially, for the school year which started last fall, my courses are very rigorous and I do not feel the homework assignment lessened than a normal school year. I’m online studying for all my sophomore year, but to be honest, the classes are still challenging and I’m learning a lot. My school is doing hybrid learning: one week on campus and one week virtual. The course load is pretty heavy with tests and quizzes almost every week for different subjects. My teachers are always there to set up a zoom with me for office hours and talk with me despite my different time zone. All my classmates open their cameras during the virtual week, and there’s hot history debate and seminar taking place online, discussion, and sharing writing pieces during English class. Many of us may take this for granted.”
  
We’ve heard from parents, teachers, and students.  Is there any research being done on learning loss during the pandemic?  Yes, I found one study that concurs with the parent/teacher comments, but it also adds one very important item that must be included: “Learning loss was most pronounced among students from disadvantaged homes.”
 
This is similar to what Student #3 described.  I included this student statement because it explains that online teaching may not necessarily be the problem.  The problem may be how we used online teaching opportunities, or the teaching methods used.

 
Does the Way We Teach Online Make a Difference in the Quality of Education? 

Yes, it does make a difference, and the same is true for the classroom.  The teaching methods used in the classroom make a difference as to what is learned in the classroom.
 
Truly, student learning, whether online or in the classroom, relies on the teaching methods being used for success.  Teaching methods are not always controlled by classroom teachers (usually they are not).  Most school boards, state education departments, and even politicians determine the teaching methods being used in the classroom.

 
When Schools Select a Reading Textbook, They Also Select a Teaching Method.
 
Unfortunately, if the reading textbook selected uses methods that have been proven not to work for all students, some students will not be successful learning the material being taught.

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For more about curriculum, read:  Reason #9 that Reading Scores Were Worse in 2019:  Curriculum Choices Determine a Student’s Success or Failure in School
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Also, the children who need help the most are getting the least amount of help with online teaching.  They do not always have access to online resources, but is this a new problem?


Are You Sure That This Is a New Problem Caused by the Pandemic?
 
If we look at the surveys that we discussed at the beginning of this blog post, we see that that teachers believe 53% of students are showing a learning loss, while the survey of parents showed that they believe that 67% of students are showing a learning loss.  Yes, these are just perceptions—what the parents and teachers think.  This is not test data, so we do not know for sure how bad the learning loss actually is.
 
Yet in 2019, before COVID, according to the Nations Report Card, 60% of students were already unable to read at their grade level in 4th, 8th, and even in 12th grade.  We had a learning loss going into the pandemic.  So, are we seeing a new learning loss or are we looking at the same learning loss that was measured in 2019 before COVID?
 
There's no way to tell for sure until we get new test data from the Nations Report Card.  Of course, no one is testing during the pandemic. 

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For a complete report on reading scores:  Reading Wars are Over!  Phonics Failed.  Whole Language Failed.  Balanced Literacy Failed. Who Won?  It Certainly Wasn’t the Students.
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Should students just sit and wait, or can we start teaching students in a new way that could help them learn right now?  As I have stated many times before, I think that we need to change how we teach reading in the classroom and online.  I do not think that we should wait.  I think that we should change now. 
 
So, the question remains, do you think that students have suffered educational losses during the pandemic?  Some have, some have not.  It all depends on the way that the students were taught during the pandemic.  Either way, we do have proven methods for teaching children to read.  We have actually had children move up 4 grade levels at my reading clinic in one year.  The pandemic doesn't need to be an educational disaster.  We just need to change how we teach children to read.
 
Yes, We Really Can Teach Children to Read, We Are Just Not Doing It.

We have the teaching methods to enable every student to be successful.  We just refuse to change from phonics and whole language and use a method that works.
 
Yes, I believe that there have been educational losses during the pandemic.  I also know that there were educational losses, especially in reading, before the pandemic.  We can overcome these losses if we just change how we teach reading.
 
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See:  Vowel Clustering Works Better than Phonics with At-Risk Students
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This is the first of a three-part series on:  How Can We Overcome the Education Losses Students Have Experienced from the Pandemic?  Stay tuned. Next, we’ll talk about some of the methods being explored for overcoming educational loss during the pandemic.

​After-School Programming and Intrinsic Motivation explains how the Reading Orienteering Club works and presents data about its effectiveness. 

You can also download individual chapters from the publisher's website. 

While I was reading an early education newsletter this week, a teacher’s comment made me really stop and think: 
 
“Children do not just play to pass time; it is a way of expressing ideas and feelings in the context of what is currently happening in their life and in society. 
 
“Just the other day I overheard a small group of children in the home corner talking about how their baby had the virus and was going to die if they did not get an injection. I watched on as concerns for the doll’s health quickly changed to happiness, as they pretended to inject the doll. The calm nature of this quite serious situation captivated me, the children had taken on the responsibility of saving a life, but it seemed they were unaware of the magic in their work.”

 
Children know that the coronavirus is dangerous but, too often, the adults are more afraid of masks or the vaccine than of the virus. Misinformation, which is often motivated by greed, overrides people’s judgment. Shouldn’t we care about one another?

 
If preschool children can understand the importance of the COVID vaccine, why can't adults?
 
As epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said, “People are still being hospitalized with this variant [omicron], as well as dying.”

• COVID is still a major problem for children. 

 
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics  
“COVID-19 cases among children have spiked dramatically in 2022 during the Omicron variant surge, over 3.5 million child cases were reported in January.”

• It's not over.

​

As Health Day News reports, coronavirus infections are spreading among our children: 

“More than 1.1 million American children were diagnosed with COVID-19 during the week ending Jan. 20…. That is 17 percent higher than the 981,000 cases diagnosed the week before and double the number from two weeks before that.”

• Diabetes has also been added to the list of long-term problems for children that can be caused by COVID.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that: “A new study shows children under age 18 were at greater risk of being diagnosed with diabetes more than 30 days after a COVID-19 infection than those who weren’t infected with the virus or those with pre-pandemic acute respiratory infections (ARI).”
 
Yet, they also note that vaccination rates are still too low. Only about “…63.8% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated… This includes about 55% of 12- to 17-year-olds and 19.9% of children ages 5-11….”

 
Why are so many parents refusing to get their children vaccinated?

Dr. Jessica Ericson, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Penn State Health Children's Hospital, explained that being vaccinated “… makes a big difference in kids, just as it does in adults.” She went on to say, "We are not seeing many vaccinated children needing hospitalization, even among those high-risk children…."

 
Why are parents afraid of the COVID vaccine but not the COVID infection?
 
In November, I asked why parents were afraid of the COVID-19 vaccine, and in 2022, I’m still asking why parents are afraid to have their children vaccinated.  The vaccines have proven to be safe and effective.  Millions of children are getting sick every day with COVID, and schools are still having to close in many areas because of COVID.  Why would parents risk their children getting sick and possibly dying?   Is misinformation responsible?   

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For more on fear of vaccines:  Misinformation Kills:  Has Your Child Been Vaccinated?  Or, Are You Waiting?
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What is the driving force behind misinformation?

​As someone said many years ago,
 
"Only two things are infinite — the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
 
The quote is often listed as coming from Einstein, but as Quote Investigator shows—that may not be the case.  Nonetheless, I think that it may be a very appropriate quotation for what is happening in the world today. 
 
How do you explain so many people believing some of the outrageous things that are being said on social media?  Even on some supposed news media stations?  At rallies?  Again, I believe the answer is misinformation.  I also believe that one of the primary driving forces behind this misinformation is greed.
 
Frederick S. Perls, a psychiatrist of the 1940’s and founder of Gestalt therapy, once stated that an
“… impatient, greedy attitude is responsible more than anything else for the excessive stupidity we find in the world.”
  
Although I do not agree with gestalt therapy, I do think Perls’ statement on greed and stupidity has provided insight into human nature.  Greed may be one of the reasons that so many people are pushing “alternative facts,” misinformation, and just plain lies.
 
Look behind the scenes:

• Everyone by now has heard about the Spotify uproar between Neil Young and Joe Rogan over, fake information about vaccines. Young goes on to mention the 200 plus doctors who joined together to write a letter explaining the “… dangerous life-threatening COVID falsehoods found in SPOTIFY programming.”  He said, "I am happy and proud to stand in solidarity with the front line health care workers who risk their lives every day to help others."

 
You might be asking, why are SPOTIFY and other companies supporting misinformation, especially since misinformation about COVID has been shown to be so dangerous?

 
Money.  Or as Perls said, greed.
 
I applaud all who are standing up to Spotify and the selling of misinformation.  I think that Neil Young has started a protest that may actually do some good.  Money talks.
 
 SPOTIFY is not the only source of misinformation: there are dozens of these social media sites. They make a lot of money selling falsehoods. 

• Joseph Mercola, a leading anti-vaccine advocate who has been thrown off of YouTube and Facebook, has started his own political newsletter.  He is among the top 20 listed on Substack and his subscribers pay $50 a year. The Washington Post has estimated that he makes about $2.5 million in revenues from his newsletter. He keeps 90 percent and Substack takes 10 percent. So, you can quickly see why Substack wants to keep Mercola happy.  They do not care what he writes or says.  It can be true or false.  Mercola and Spotify are making money.  The concept of a subscription service is bringing in so much money that Twitter and Facebook are planning paid subscription-based newsletters as well.  Greed abounds; forget truth.  Truth doesn’t make much money.

 
Another source of misinformation is the “Disinformation Dozen.” As Mary Pappefuss explains: 


“The “Disinformation Dozen” produce 65% of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms, concluded the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. … [The Disinformation Dozen are] individuals who do not have relevant medical expertise and have their own pockets to line, who are abusing social media platforms to misrepresent the threat of COVID and spread misinformation about the safety of vaccines.”
 
“Anti-vaccine activists on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter reach more than 59 million followers, making these the largest and most important social media platforms for anti-vaxxers…”

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For more on the dangers of misinformation, read:  How Dangerous Is Misinformation?
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Again, what do we see as the driving force—greed, money.  These people are making bundles and bundles of money selling lies.  I’ve listed only three.  How can we stop this?
 
We need to love and care about each other.
 
I do not know how to stop misinformation, but, as a psychologist, I do know that we need to love and care for each other.  We need more kindness and less name calling.  We need compassion and concern for someone other than just self.  We need less anger and hatred.  We need to reach out and help others.  We need to show others that we care each and every day.  Caring for others is healthy and creates wellbeing.  Hate and anger do not.
 
I do think that the protest that Neil Young and other musicians started with SPOTIFY is helping.  If you take money away from the social media companies, then perhaps they will begin to care about the welfare of innocent people, especially the children.  As adults, we should do all that we can do to protect the children.  Taking masks away from children in schools and refusing to vaccinate children is not protecting children.  It is doing the opposite.  I believe that social media, misinformation, and political parties are driving the hate and the anti-vaccine movement.

 
We need to search for the truth.  We need for everyone to be vaccinated.
 
Yes, the COVID vaccine is safe (even for children), and it saves lives. Researchers from Yale University and the Commonwealth Fund found that the vaccine saved approximately “… 279,000 additional deaths due to Covid-19 -- about 46% more than there were -- and as many as 1.25 million additional hospitalizations if there were no vaccinations.” 
 
Vaccines save lives.  If you are not vaccinated, get vaccinated.  Vaccinate the children too and don’t forget to get your booster shot.  As the slogan goes:  “the life you save may be your own.”

 
A new variant is coming our way.

Right now, Omicron BA.1 is responsible for 98% of the COVID infections worldwide, but Omicron BA.2 is beginning to spread.  Omicron BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1—that means that you can catch it more easily, and it passes from one person to another more easily.  Research has shown that unvaccinated people are more likely to catch BA.2 and to pass it on to others, as a Danish study shows:
 
[BA.2] “…spreads more easily among unvaccinated people….  Unvaccinated: about 10% more likely to catch the coronavirus from someone with BA.2 than the fully vaccinated household members, and about 20% more likely to pass it on…."
 
As with Omicron BA.1, fully vaccinated people (with booster) are less likely to catch BA.2 or pass it on to someone else.
 
So, yes everyone needs to get vaccinated.  It’s not about “freedom,” “personal choice,” or “control.” Every single person who isn’t vaccinated is potentially exposing every other person in their community, neighborhood, family, or school because unvaccinated people are allowing COVID to continue to grow, spread, and change into new variants.  When people refuse to get vaccinated, they are actually supporting COVID-19 because they allow the pandemic to continue.  Yes, when you are unvaccinated, you are encouraging COVID to spread.  Don’t take my word for it.  Read this report. 

 
Why can’t we care about each other? 
 
If you are unvaccinated, should you feel responsible when you make someone else sick? 
 
Do you remember the teacher who took off her mask in September to read a story and made children sick? 
 
An unvaccinated teacher from Marin County, California decided to go ahead and go to school and teach one day even though she had a cough, slight fever, and a headache. During reading time, she decided to take her mask off to read to her students.  Although the students were wearing masks, 80% of the students sitting in the first two rows, those closest to the teacher while she was reading, later tested positive for COVID-19.  Four siblings of these infected students also came down with COVID.  Four parents of children who tested positive from this one classroom episode, also came down with COVID, and only one parent was unvaccinated.  Six students tested positive for COVID after a sleepover that was hosted by one of the students from the original class.  None of the students were eligible for vaccine because they were younger than 12 years old.  Of the 26 elementary students who caught COVID from this one unvaccinated teacher removing her mask to read a story, 18 of the students were tested and found to have the Delta variant.

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For more on this story, read:  Coronavirus is Raging Through the Schools.  We Must Have Mask and Vaccine Mandates to Protect the Children.9-8-21
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​Why can’t we care what happens to someone else?  Should we only think about ourselves—not our neighbor?  Many of the unvaccinated claim to be Christians.  Whatever happened to “love your neighbor as you love yourself?”  The opposite of love is not hate. It has been pointed out that the opposite of love is selfishness: 
 
“So what is the opposite of love, if it’s not hate?  The truth is, the opposite of love is selfishness which is seen far more often than hatred.  Love results in giving, so its opposite is selfishness – the absence of giving.
 
“Hate is created by something that affects the things we love.”
 
We need to find a way to heal our nation.  Instead of selling hate, we need to encourage compassion, concern for others, helping your neighbor, caring for children—all children, not just your own.  We need peace and love.

You probably have seen it by now.  It has been all over the Internet, and this is one time I think the Internet really should publicize something this awful.  I'm talking about the man from Southern California, wearing a t-shirt that said, “Your mask makes you look stupid,” who yelled at and harassed middle school students because they were wearing a mask. 
 
Some reports say that he has been harassing elementary and middle school students for months.  Another report said that he had been deliberately coughing and spitting on students, even sticking his head in car windows.  A parent claimed that when a police officer did arrive on the scene, the officer delivered a lecture to the students on First Amendment rights. 
​
  
Anger and Bullying are Wrong.
 
All of the facts haven't been sorted out yet, but no matter how you look at the situation, this is wrong.
 
Absolutely no adult should ever act this way at any time for any reason.  There is no excuse for this kind of behavior.  As one parent said,
 
“Clearly there is a problem here, not just a mental health problem but an anger management issue where he feels compelled to attack people who are more vulnerable than him….”
 
The students should be praised for wearing a mask, not criticized and not lectured about First Amendment rights.
 
Is the Man Insane?

No, that behavior does not show that the man is insane.  Remember, I talked before about the difference between bad behavior and insanity.  Let’s look again at the definition provided by clinical psychologist Dr. Ryan Howes, Ph. D.  Insanity is a
 
“…mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis [having lost contact with reality] or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.”

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For more on mental illness, read:  Why Can’t We Stop the Pandemic?
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Do You Control Your Anger?
 
Anger alone is not a mental illness, but it can indicate deeper problems.  We all get angry.  Anger is a natural response to frustration.  The question is how do you control your anger?  Or, do you not control your anger?  Are you yelling at others in your family?  In your community?  Uncontrolled anger is a problem.
 
Uncontrolled anger can, however, lead to intermittent explosive disorder (IED), which is considered a mental illness.
 
“A person with intermittent explosive disorder (IED) has repeated episodes of aggressive, impulsive, or violent behavior. They may overreact to situations with angry outbursts that are out of proportion to the situation.”
 
On the video, the man was shown getting in his car and driving away before the police arrived.  He was not totally out of control.  He displayed enough control not to become physically violent.  Yet, he was definitely verbally abusive.  I think he also knew that what he was doing was wrong, that's why he left the scene.
 
Should someone like this be held accountable for his actions?  Definitely.  He needs an anger management program immediately.  Should he apologize to the young people and their parents?  Yes.
 

This is a case of Out-of-Control Anger, not First Amendment Rights.
 
We keep hearing claims of First Amendment rights.  Anger is not a First Amendment right.  I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t know whether what the man did was legal, but it was certainly very wrong. Let’s go read the First Amendment again.

“Amendment I“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
 
Cornell Law School gives this interpretation, just in case we are having trouble understanding the amendment.
 
“The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition.  It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual’s religious practices.  It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely.  It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government.”  
 

Do you see the word “peaceably” assemble?
 
The First Amendment does not give you the right to harm someone else.  The First Amendment does not give you the moral right to harass children and youth.  Adults need to stop harassing children and youth while claiming they are only exercising their constitutional First Amendment rights.  Wrong.
 
In September, the people were also wrong who heckled and laughed at a young man who spoke at his school board meeting.  Yes, the young man had a First Amendment right to speak, but the adult audience members did not have a First Amendment right to make fun of him.
 
----------------------- 
See:  Do No Harm: Adults Should Not Bully a Child
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Frustration Does Not Give You the Right to Say or Do Whatever You Wish.

We're all frustrated over the pandemic, but that does not justify rude obnoxious behavior. 
 
No, face masks will not rot your teeth out, cause you to have trouble breathing, or make you look stupid.  Actually, wearing a face mask shows that you are intelligent and fully aware of the dangers from COVID-19. 
 
Face masks are safe, and they do protect children, youth, and adults from COVID.  Vaccines are important too.  Face masks cannot do it alone.  Make sure you’re vaccinated and have your booster.
 
Face masks are also not psychologically harmful, even if you wear them all day.  Face masks help children and teens feel safer, and yes, they should be wearing a face mask in school all day and even after school on the way home.  The youth were being smart and exercising caution.

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Read:  Does Wearing a Face Mask Affect Your Ability to Breathe?
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I met a little 4-year-old boy one day at the grocery store while waiting in line.  He and his dad were both wearing masks.  I always wear a mask.  As we stood in line socially distancing, I couldn't help but notice that the little boy was crying.  Keeping my mask in place, I said, “Are you having a hard day?”  His father answered, “A lady made fun of him for wearing a mask.”  The psychologist in me came roaring to the surface as I replied, “Well that lady was wrong.  The smartest and best thing you can do is wear a mask wherever you go.  I wear my mask, even when I'm just walking around outside.  I'm very proud of you for wearing a mask.”  As I spoke, the little boy began to sniffle and stop crying.  I noticed that he also stood taller, especially when I said I was proud of him.  I went on to say, “I hope you continue wearing your mask.  I know I plan to.  Don't let anyone discourage you from wearing a mask.  Be one of the smart ones.  Wear a mask, everywhere you go.  Throwback your shoulders and let everyone see how proud you are to wear a mask and stay healthy.”  The little boy seemed to grow at least two inches and stood tall and straight beside his dad.
 
I don’t know if I helped that day, but I tried.  When you see someone wearing a mask, tell them “Thank you for wearing a mask.”

Children Are Worried--About the Virus

​A high school sophomore recently posted on Reddit and described his time spent in school.  I’ve listed only a few of his comments, but please read his entire statement. It's important. 
 
“I arrived at school and promptly went to Study Hall.  … there were 14 absent teachers 1st period…. Second period I had another absent teacher…. Third period I had a normal class …. First thing the teacher did was pass out COVID tests … 4 more teachers would pass out COVID tests throughout the day, which were to be taken at home …  90% of the bathrooms were full of students swabbing their noses and taking their tests. I had one kid ask me -- with his mask down, by the way -- whether a "faint line was positive," proceeding to show me his positive COVID test….  Classes that I did attend were quiet and empty.  … some of my classes had 10+ students absent.  ... we literally learn nothing. I spent about 3 hours sitting around today doing nothing….  I tested positive for COVID on December the 14th. At the time there were a total of 6 cases. By the end of break this number was up to 36. By January the 3rd … the numbers were up to 100 ….   Today there are 226.  …90% of the conversations spoken by students concern COVID. It has completely taken over any function of daily school life.”
 
This student is not the only person questioning whether we should be forcing in-class education in the middle of the omicron surge. Many schools needed to close: 

• “At least 3,229 schools were closed in the first week of January, the highest for the year….”
• Los Angeles announced as of 4 P.M. Monday, January 10th that “… 65,630 students and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 in the week before school.”

• The Rhode Island National Education Association is calling for remote learning.
• “… at Brooklyn Technical High School, the city’s largest, an estimated 600 kids poured out into18-degree temperatures [on Tuesday January 11th] to call attention to what they described as an unsafe and chaotic environment at their school with the ongoing viral surge driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.

 
The students are realizing that it is not safe to be in school right now.  When will the parents and administrators wake up and realize that school is not a safe place to be at present?
 
The count keeps climbing.  There are dozens of schools closed in my own local area.  Everywhere you look, schools are closing because it is just not safe to continue in-class instruction, especially since omicron has hit the staff as hard as the students.
 
An average of 672 children are hospitalized every day because of the omicron variant. 
  
Some people claim that omicron is not as serious as delta and not as harmful for children.  That is misleading. Remember, children are never placed in the hospital unless it is serious, and we also need to remember the danger of long-covid. Yes, omicron can cause long-covid.  As Dr. Anthony Fauci reminds us,  
 
"We should always be aware that when people get symptomatic infection … anywhere from 10 to up to 30 plus percent of people will go on to have persistence of symptoms [long-covid]….,"
  
We’ve examined the problem.  The claim that omicron is less dangerous for children is false.  It is also dangerous for students at school.  Now, let’s look at the solutions:  in-class or online.
 
This, in turn, raises the question:

 
Is there really a psychological harm in keeping students home for a few weeks? 
 
Some say that it is psychologically harmful to keep students home, but is it?  No, there is no harm.  Sorry, that’s just misinformation. 
 
As a psychologist, I want to talk about the misinformation floating around about how psychologically harmful it is for students to learn from home.
 
Yes, they miss their friends.  Yes, they are bored staying home.  Boredom and psychological harm are two totally different things. 

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Reason #10 that Reading Scores Were Worse in 2019:  Boredom. What Causes Boredom?

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No, teaching is not always the best online.  Some teachers have done a fantastic job online.  They are to be applauded.  Others have just passed out a stack of worksheets.  Worksheets do not teach.  They never have, and they never will.
 
Personally, I find teaching online harder than teaching in-person, but then, all of my curriculum materials are written for groups.  I’m a group specialist, so I naturally write and design curriculum that works best in a group setting.  I’m designing and testing some new online material.  Looking at the present situation today though, we must now ask, 

 
Is it truly better for students to learn from home or be sent to classrooms where they may get omicron? 
 
I cannot see anything that justifies sending students to school right now.  I’m sorry, what we are doing is dangerous.  Listen to the students: do you not hear their fear?
 
“It doesn’t feel safe to be in school to be honest, … half the classes aren’t there. Some have COVID, some are afraid of COVID….”  Another student also said, “There’s no social distancing at all, the stairways are packed. There’s no point coming here if I’m going to get sick”….
  
Fear, anxiety, anger, and stress are what cause psychological harm, not sitting at home being bored or even sitting at home dealing with a less-than-perfect educational approach.  As for the loss in educational excellence, as my own research has proven, we can bring failing students up 3 and 4 grade levels in reading in one year.   The problem is that we will not change our teaching methods, but we will save that argument for another day. 

​------------------------- 

Vowel Clustering Is Better than Whole Language and Phonics

​-------------------------
 
What causes psychological harm?
Let’s return to the question of psychological harm. Right now, researchers are looking at what causes psychological harm in schools.  Bullying, verbal and physical harassment in school, name-calling, the threat of gun violence in school, and even reading failure have been documented to cause psychological harm.  Reading failure as a cause of psychological harm is how I got involved in reading education and proving that there is a better way to teach struggling students to read.
 
Claiming that students are falling behind is not a good reason for risking student lives by sending them to school right now, especially since classroom instruction before the pandemic left more than 60% of students unable to read at their grade level in 4th, 8th, and 12th grade.
 
​------------------------- 

Should We Be Sending Students Back to School? Part 1 

​------------------------- 
 
For years, I taught a class at the university entitled Psychology of Adjustment.  Students frequently said that the course opened their eyes to why people act as they do.  The textbook that I used was Weiten’s Psychology Applied to Modern Life:  Adjustment in the 21st Century.  My students also said that they learned so much just from reading the textbook.  In my experience, college students rarely admit learning anything from reading the textbook.  It’s a well written book, very easy to read, and the new edition is still being used in university classrooms.  You can even purchase a used copy for less than $7.00.
  
I mention Weiten’s book because he describes very carefully how mental illness and psychological harm are derived from daily actions and encounters.  As Weiten points out, it is how you adjust to the situations that you encounter in life that make the experience healthy or harmful.
 
The mere fact of online education for a few months or even for a year or more is not psychologically harmful.  It is how you adjust or cope with online education that creates the problem.
 
Marching in the street adds to anxiety and stress—not helpful.  Refusing to allow masks and vaccine mandates in schools adds to the fear and anxiety of faculty and students—very harmful.  Remember, it is fear, anxiety, and stress that actually causes psychological harm, not sitting home working on a computer or wearing a face mask all day in school.  I’ll say it again, wearing a face mask is not psychologically harmful.

​------------------------- 
 
Does Wearing a Face Mask Affect Your Ability to Breathe?

​------------------------- 
 
Forcing students to go to school when they are afraid of COVID can and does create psychological harm.
 
Beware of misinformation.  Just because your favorite politician or even your next-door neighbor says that it is psychologically harmful to teach remotely, doesn’t make it true. 
 
What is the real psychological harm? I will tell you what is psychologically harmful—sending students to school when they are worried about catching COVID-19.  As the student said in my opening example, 90% of the rest rooms were clogged with students frantically testing to see if they had COVID.  That’s like sending students into a battle zone.  Yes, if I sit all day in class worried that I am going to catch COVID from the person sitting next to me or even across the room from me, such stress is psychologically harmful.  I’m also not going to learn anything while I’m worried about getting sick.
 
Finding out that your teacher died of COVID after being exposed at school is psychologically harmful.
 
Worrying about making your grandparents sick if you get COVID is psychologically harmful because the student feels responsible for harming someone they love.
 
Yes, there is lots of psychological harm taking place at school, but it is not from wearing a mask or online instruction.
 
Attacks by gun shooters are psychologically harmful.
 
Bullying and (both verbal and physical) harassment at school is psychologically harmful.
 
Remember, it is the fear, anxiety, and stress that actually causes psychological harm.
 
Worrying over whether they will be allowed to wear a mask to protect themselves can cause psychological harm.  Notice, the mask does not cause psychological harm.  It is the fear of catching COVID because they are not allowed to wear a mask that actually causes the harm.
 
Besides, if we change our teaching methods, we can bring all of the students up who have suffered during the coronavirus pandemic.  We can also bring up the students who were already behind before the pandemic.  Sitting in the classroom is not the key to effective education.  Teaching method is the key that enables every student to learn.
 
​------------------------- 

Reading Wars Are Over!  Phonics Failed.  Whole Language Failed.  Balanced Literacy Failed. Who Won?  It Certainly Wasn’t the Students.

​------------------------- 
 
Soon, I plan to show you a lesson that I am developing for online instruction.  Yes, we really can teach from home successfully.
 
Student safety must come first.  Set politics aside.  Let the students learn from home till omicron calms down. 
 
Get vaccinated.  Get your booster and wear a N95 mask wherever you go.  Safety begins at home.  Keep the children safe.

Motivation is the driving force that explains why people act and behave as they do. Even though the image of a carrot dangling from the end of a stick in front of a person’s nose is often used as a symbol of motivation, you cannot actually motivate another person. ​

We need to reevaluate.  Would children actually lose that much educational value from 3 or 4 weeks of online classwork?  I say: no! 
 
Just to begin, let’s look at where education was before the coronavirus pandemic.  Education was not doing as much good as it should have been. As a psychologist, I study reading data because we have found that reading failure affects lifelong development from childhood to old age.  Yes, it really does.  When I was teaching university classes, I often sent my Lifespan Development students to a local nursing home to talk with residents about their early childhood experiences in reading.  As one man said, “We were the Bluebirds.  I have no idea why because everybody knew we couldn't read.  I still can’t read.”
 
Unfortunately, students are still having trouble reading.
Before the pandemic, according to the Nation’s Report Card, more than 60% of children were not able to read at their grade level in school in 4th, 8th, or 12th grade.  We have a major reading education problem in the U. S. 

“A 10-year-old Anne Arundel County elementary school student died from complications of COVID-19….  [he was]  a loving fourth-grade student who loved to play the viola and was part of Hilltop Elementary School’s Strings and Chorus group.”
 
“Over the past month, COVID-19 cases in children 0 to 9 increased by 40% with 17,379 cases in that period, and cases of children 10 to 19 increased by 38% with 25,102 cases in that period.”
 
So, whoever told you that COVID was not as serious for children—lied. 
 
COVID is very dangerous for children.
No, you cannot claim that Omicron is milder, either.  Omicron has shown itself to be dreadful for children.  Children are not placed in the hospital unless they are very, very sick. And, yet: 
 
“Children are also being hospitalized at record-high rates. During the week of Dec. 22 to Dec. 28, an average of 378 children age 17 and under were admitted per day to hospitals with the coronavirus, a 66% increase from the week before….
 
The problem is not just in one or two states.   Omicron has spread all across the nation.  Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston said they have a “four-fold increase in child hospitalizations.” Dr. Jim Versalovic, pathologist-in-chief at Texas Children's, says that "More than 700 children were in the hospital with Covid-19 during one 24-hour period last week….”  Similarly, Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a primary care pediatrician from Columbia University in New York said, "We would be foolish to keep minimizing Covid-19 in children at this point in the pandemic....upper airway conditions can be more dangerous for children than adults."
 
So yes, the facts do show that COVID is a terrible problem for children, and it’s a nationwide problem.  Children all across the United States are getting sick, some seriously, and some even dying.  So, why are we sending children back to school in the middle of the omicron surge?

 
This raises the question:  If Omicron is that serious for children, wouldn’t it be better to teach online until the omicron surge calms down? 
We are sending children back to school even though they are being hit harder than almost any other age group right now. No one wants the schools to close, but we need to be reasonable.  We need to take children’s health and safety into consideration.
 
Why are schools not offering online education throughout January or until omicron relaxes its attack on children?  I’m not talking about returning to online education for the rest of the year—just till omicron settles down.
 
Are students really going to learn that much in 3 or 4 weeks?  No.
Schools are just a breeding group for omicron, and the authorities say that cloth masks are less effective against omicron.  Furthermore, many republican governors, republican judges, and republican state legislators have forbidden schools to require masks in the classroom.  I’m sorry, but that is like saying, yes, we want our children to get sick from omicron.
 
Forget all of this excessive emphasis about adults' freedom and adults' personal rights.  Children also have rights, including a right to be safe. We have a responsibility as adults and as a society to protect children.  Are we doing it? NO.
 
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Read:  How Dangerous Is Misinformation?
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Yes, my own research has shown that we can bring failing students up 4 grade levels in reading in one year, but to do so we must change how we teach students to read.  So yes, we can overcome all of the failure created last year and this year by the coronavirus pandemic.  If we change the methods that we use to teach students to read in the classroom, we can teach students to read.

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For more on how to teach children to read, see:  Vowel Clustering Works Better than Phonics with At-Risk Students  
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We need to keep our children safe.  Get vaccinated.  Get your booster, and please, do not forget to wear a mask.  Not just any mask, they are now telling us to step up to a N49 mask.  Make sure that your child is wearing a N95 mask everywhere they go.

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Misinformation Kills:  Has Your Child Been Vaccinated?  Or, Are You Waiting? 
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No, COVID-19 did not go away.  As a mater of fact, it’s worse.  As we head into the new year, COVID is raging on.  Why?  Why can’t we stop the pandemic? 
 
As I have been stating for several weeks now, I believe, that the problem is the misinformation and out-and-out lies that are being spread across the nation and even around the world. Politicians politicize the pandemic while other people fail to understand the problem. 

For more on the dangers of misinformation, read: 

Misinformation Encourages COVID to Spread

How Dangerous Is Misinformation?
 
 
We Can’t Stop COVID because of Politicians.

​Peter C. Herman, Professor of English at San Diego State University, has offered a different opinion that I think we should listen to and consider.
 
In Newsweek this week, Professor Herman states,
 
“Five Republican-led states—Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, and Tennessee—have extended unemployment benefits to anyone who loses their job because they refused a COVID vaccine.”
 
In other words, certain Republicans are rewarding people for refusing the vaccine.
 
“This is insanity. In the midst of an uptick in a deadly pandemic, it is absolutely ludicrous to give people an incentive to refuse to [take] the vaccine. And if you tell me that benefits do not incentivize behavior, allow me to direct your attention to the many Republicans who have spent their careers arguing that unemployment incentivizes laziness.”

 
Just Because Someone Makes a Bad Decision, You Can’t Call It Insane.
 
As a psychologist, I understand Professor Herman’s frustration, but I must remind all of us, that no, this is not insanity. When we are frustrated with someone or something, we all have a tendency to say, “that's insane.”  I definitely agree that encouraging people to NOT take the vaccine is very, very bad.  Yet, it’s not insane.
 
Let’s turn to clinical psychologist Dr. Ryan Howes, Ph. D. for a definition.  Insanity is a
 
“…mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis [having lost contact with reality] or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.”
  
Dr. Howe's article in Psychology Today is easy to read, and I hope you'll go and read the entire article.  It's both entertaining and enlightening.
 
We need to quit confusing bad decisions with mental illness.  Perfectly sane people make bad decisions every day.  If you need an example, I consider anyone who has refused to take the COVID vaccine or going out in public not wearing a mask to be a person who is making a bad decision. Yet, that person is not insane.
 
It is clear that such bad decisions are making COVID-19 spread and continue to spread across the nation and around the world.
 
 
We Can’t Stop COVID Because People Keep Making Bad Decisions.

Making a bad decision or encouraging someone to make a bad decision is not an example of insanity, but bad decisions are causing COVID to spread and get worse—which means more people are getting sick and dying.  Look at the numbers. As CBS News reports:
 
“As the Omicron variant continues to sweep across the U.S., especially in the Northeast, unvaccinated people of all ages are at increased risk — including children. The U.S. is averaging 260 pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations a day, up nearly 30% from last week. 
 
Health officials say pediatric hospitalizations in New York City rose nearly five-fold from the start of December. Almost all of those children were unvaccinated.”

 
What Is Causing People to Make Such Bad Decisions?
 
There is no question that bad decisions are fueling the spread of COVID-19?  So, why are people willing to believe misinformation?
 
I think the real problem is that politicians are willing to risk someone else’s life so that they may gain a few more votes in the next election.  No, it's not insane, but it is also not how one human being should treat another.  Let's look at some facts.
 
Herman was correct when he wrote that Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, and Tennessee are adding legislation that will in fact give people unemployment benefits if they lose their job because they will not get the COVID vaccine.
  
Herman is also correct when he says that such legislative action by conservative states will make COVID continue. 
 
The fear and the misinformation that some people are spewing out about the COVID vaccines is actually killing people and allowing COVID to continue to spread and change into new variants.  Yes, every time you refuse the vaccine or refuse to wear a mask, you are helping COVID-19 continue to spread and kill people.
 
Look at Donald Trump, who recently was asked if he had been vaccinated and received his booster shot.  Trump said, "Yes…."  Bill O’Reilly also said, "I got it too…."

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Bill's Post: Trump Asked His Supporters to Take the Vaccine 
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We Can’t Stop COVID because People Are Treating a Medical Problem as if It Is a Political Question.
 
COVID-19 kills.  Not getting vaccinated leads to the spread of COVID-19 and can kill.  Therefore, Professor Herman is correct when he says that encouraging people not to get the COVID vaccine is contributing to the spread of COVID-19 and the death of more people from COVID.  Providing financial incentives to not get vaccinated is definitely contributing to the growth and continuance of COVID-19.
 
As Professor Herman states in his article,
 
“…not so long ago Republican states cut unemployment benefits because, they thought, they encouraged people not to find jobs. 
 
“Republicans claim that they want to make the COVID vaccine a matter of choice…. But if the pathway to safety is indeed "paved in freedom," why stop with COVID vaccines? There are many other government mandates that stand in the way of freedom.
 
“Seatbelts, for example: Most states have mandatory seatbelt laws (New Hampshire is the exception) for adults. All states mandate that children must be buckled in.  …why not make seatbelts subject to parental choice as well? Shouldn't we trust parents to know and do what's best for their children?
 
“Each state also requires that children receive various vaccines (polio, chicken pox, measles, mumps and rubella) before entering kindergarten.
 
“Moreover, by their logic, if getting a vaccine is a matter of choice, shouldn't hospitals and health insurance companies have the choice to refuse treatment to people who get sick because they refused the vaccine? Shouldn't they have the freedom to prioritize breakthrough cases and other, non-COVID related illnesses and diseases?
 
“Republicans, after all, are supposed to favor holding people accountable for their behavior. Should an increasingly rare ICU bed go to someone who acted responsibly? Or irresponsibly?
 
“In their drive to oppose any and all Democratic policies, Republicans are leading their followers to an early grave. Truly, the Republican Party has turned into a death cult.”
 
Yes, Professor Herman strays a little heavily into the world of opinion, but he does clearly label his piece as “opinion.”  I would have to agree that rewarding people for refusing to take the COVID vaccine is truly wrong.  It will just prolong the coronavirus pandemic and cause more people to die.  I truly do not see how you can justify such an action.  It's time to stop playing politics with people's lives.  We need to care about one another.  We need to help each other.  We are supposed to be an educated society; it's time that we prove it.
 
Professor Herman’s article is well written, and I hope you'll read it and think about what he says.

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For more on political control, read

Exactly Who Is in Control of Your Life?
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We Cannot Stop the Coronavirus Pandemic Because People Will Not Believe the Truth. 
 
The truth is that the COVID vaccine is safe, even for children.
 
Yes, I know that a popular TV network had someone on the air this week saying that the vaccine is not safe for children.  That is wrong.  Such statements are misinformation and will cause many children to get sick and even some will die. 
 
Check medical sources for medical facts.  We want to remember that COVID vaccines are safe and effective.  Look at the facts.  Look at how many people have safely taken the Covid vaccine.
  
You must also get your booster shot, especially with omicron spreading across the nation.
 
Don't listen to information from politicians, social media, or even your favorite radio or TV host.    Search for the truth. 
 
Get the facts, and no, there are no “alternative facts.”  There is only one set of facts.  When you reinterpret or distort the facts, you are spreading misinformation.  Misinformation kills people.