On Falling Behind
A succulent strains for the screen-filtered sunlight from a spot on my home desk, right next to the computer that served as my classroom last Spring.
Chewing on this idea of “falling behind in math.”
On one side, there is great anxiety about what this Brave New Covid World has done for students in their math learning. Phrases like “gaps” and “holes” and “catch them up” ring across the internet and, I’m sure, in teacher meetings and parent conferences, too.
On the other side, there’s a strong backlash, “don’t worry about it. They’re still learning. They’re just learning different stuff. It’s all going to be just fine.” Taken to the extreme, the roll-with-it perspective can trend dismissive of ANY learning schedule or developmental and age-based milestones in education.
I do not hear similar fears or justifications about literacy skills at the middle and high school level. I do not hear fears about what the kids are missing out on in terms of art, music, physical education, social studies. Falling-Behind anxiety is strongly focused on math first, science second. Just something to notice.
I want to fall somewhere in the middle here.
“They’re falling behind in math!” mania predates Covid pandemic by eons. It’s one of the most popular fears that parents bring to my table. Paradoxically, the schools I work in are very far ahead of the norm — and yet, the comparisons feel very fraught and the fear is very real within this ultra privileged community. When I smell Keeping-Up-With-The-Jonses dynamics, I try to talk the parents down. In MY classes, even the kids with significant learning disabilities who need and deserve extra help to keep pace are going to be just fine in the long run. Math is not a race. You can become an engineer even if you are behind your classmates by a whole year in high school and don’t make it to calculus by graduation. That’s why they offer intro calculus in college.
Kids really ARE having to learn new things this year, different executive function skills. Different ways to communicate. Different ways to take care of themselves. So are the teachers! This is, indeed, weird and uniquely valuable. And still, it is completely reasonable to be talking about filling holes and getting on track. Whether back on the old track or merging onto a new and slightly adjusted track, it doesn’t really matter to me. My eyes are on the transition. I want lots of attention and care paid to the shift back to classroom. I want SO much patience for our kids, both familially and institutionally.
Back in spring, I was teaching remotely. My students were split roughly into thirds: The first third are executive functioning all stars. They thrived because online learning rewards those with exemplary organizational skills. The second third was grumpy but learning ok. The third group was, academically speaking, a dumpster fire. (Unfortunately, both my daughters fell into the dumpster fire category, but I was stretched too thin by work to provide any support. And now we are home-schooling.)
My read on math and “falling behind” is that each group is going to have different challenges returning to school and diving into next year’s content.
Group 1, the organization pros, will have good coverage of course content. They are less likely than the other groups to have holes. However, they will have problem-solving deficits because they likely weren’t challenged to go as deep into problem solving this year as usual. Please don’t blame the teachers. We are all doing our best. But I’m calling it as I see it. It’s hard to stretch problem solving flexibility remotely. These highly organized students, who are likely topping their remote or hybrid classes, will come up against that wall when they return to school and expectations for flexibility and depth change. It’s fine. They’ll adjust. But be ready for some bumps in the road and some serious loving presence and encouragement through struggle. These kids tend towards perfectionism and it’s may be temporarily painful to integrate the shift.
Group 2, the grudgingly competent online, will likely have some holes in their understanding and might need to re-learn some content next year that just didn’t quite make it in online format. Flexibility of thinking is variable within this group. Most will find relief in being instructed in person and will be able to adapt to deeper problems quickly and without intervention. This group will likely benefit the most from the challenges of at home learning, because it may have built greater strength in executive functioning skills and independent learning skills. I think Group 2 is likely to have the easiest time transitioning back with stable or slightly increased grades.
Group 3 is going to be such a mixed bag. All of my executive function and most of my attentional disability kids are going to be in this group. Many of them are highly skilled at learning on the go and will be able to get back into it quickly. But some of them do have compounding learning difficulties and will have a very tough time of it. All of these kids are going to have gaps in their understanding of material. Ability to adapt to complex problem solving will be variable.
As holes in course content surface, they SHOULD be lovingly shored up by classroom teachers. The schools SHOULD prepare themselves to deal with this and provide patience and reinforcement as they go. This problem will be global, so we educators SHOULD be ready for it and catching them up should not fall to the parents. If this is, for whatever reason, not your child’s experience next year, the first line of defense is for the kid to go to extra help from the teacher at snack, lunch, or before or after school. Even, ESPECIALLY, if the kid is resistant to liking the teacher. Working on that relationship and keeping the teacher in the loop about what’s hard can be very constructive for everyone. If office hours are insufficient, you may want to consider extra help outside of school. If you are considering summer school or tutoring or math clubs on weekends, please involve your child in the decision. It is so hard to tutor kids who don’t want to be tutored, but a joy for all involved when the student is ready and willing to participate.
As always, keep the long view. It is likely that some kids will “fall behind” by a year and choose to repeat rather than rush forward. This has always been true. Kids manage chronic diseases that flare up mid year. Terrific athletes get a once-in-a-lifetime chance to train professionally. There is a global pandemic. Oof. Depth of understanding is more important than timeline. Have faith in the resilience of our children and patience for the transition back to “real” school, whenever it comes. Hopefully soon. Hang in there.