Our educators and families are understandably concerned that students may never fully recover from the traumas brought about by the pandemic this past year - the stress of lockdowns, learning loss, and isolation from extended family and friends are just a few of the issues that experts point to as evidence that children's mental health has been put in jeopardy. Yet while we shore up our mental health systems in schools, we also need to encourage children's resilience.
Rather than focusing on all that has been lost and stressing students even more with the thought they may never catch up to where they "need" to be, students need us to build them up instead of knocking them down.
Of course, we need to do the important work of figuring out where kids are - a solid education is the basic foundation for success, after all. Some form of assessment needs to be done sooner than later but must be framed as an exercise in leveling the playing field. And then we can be creative about what comes next, working diligently to put the infrastructure in place that will lead to a more supportive school environment.
I have seen the power of resilience in the classroom firsthand as an educator. My first year teaching, I vividly recall one young man who pushed boundaries every day because he did not see a path forward after high school. Unlike many of his peers who knew they were going to college, just uncertain which one, he believed his future was entering the workforce after high school. I made it my personal mission to connect with him - bumping into him in the cafeteria, greeting him at the football games, joking about his tie at homecoming. This eventually led to me sitting with him filling out college applications, and all it took was me signaling my genuine care and belief in his future.
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