Another new twist to the educational process this fall is that thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers are preparing to incorporate lessons about mental illness and depression into their curricula as nearly a third of students may be suffering from the effects of schools shutting down last spring.
A new Gallup Poll indicates that 29% of parents responding in June felt their kids were ‘already experiencing harm’ to their emotional and mental health off the heels of the past school year ending with online-only learning. The poll questioned 1,200 adults with children in grades K-12.
Forty-five percent of parents responding said their children suffered as a result of being separated from their teachers and fellow students. Parents not only worry about the loss of classroom instruction but the effects of being taken out of a safe, familiar and structured learning environment.
Ray Lozano
| Photo courtesy of El Paso ISD
“Collaboration between schools, families, community leaders and health officials will be even more critical to support children’s needs in and out of school,” Gallup reported.
One solution found in El Paso comes from schools planning 30 to 45-minute blocks for students to connect with teachers.
“Teaching and learning, especially this year, needs to be more relational and less transactional,” El Paso Independent School District (ISD) Executive Director of Student and Family Empowerment Ray Lozano was quoted as saying in USA Today.
Research indicates that emotional and mental health can unlock better results in the classroom as students are taught to develop necessary traits such as determination and working with peers. It is also important for parents to remove themselves from their daily routines and take time to interact purposefully with their children.
As the Gallup Poll indicated, the online-learning format impacts parents and teachers as well as students. Efforts must be made on their behalf, says a third grade teacher in Oakland, California.
“We all forgot to stop and do the kind of community-building among ourselves that we do so well with students,” Allison Grilltold USA Today.
It will take a multi-tasked approach in education as mental and emotional health needs are also met this fall while trying to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
