The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

Dicken’s defined a major reality in the opening of A Tale of Two Cities. We can be in the midst of both the best and worst circumstances at the same time. We have been on a rollercoaster of highs and lows that have left us mentally spinning and emotionally spent. In the arena of education, we have faced unprecedented circumstances. All of us are concerned with what will be the impact on students as they continue on their learning journey. The conversations regarding the outcome of this chaotic time have run the whole gamut from “kids will never recover” to “it’s no big deal”. The truth is somewhere in the middle. However, much of what comes from this is up to us.

A recent article by Judith Warner in the NY Times speaks substantially to this issue (shout out to Kyle Barnett for sharing this with me). How to Help Your Adolescent Think about Last Year A quote from this article sums it up well:

“We have to start considering how we are going to frame this period as we emerge from it,” said Mitch Prinstein, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the chief science officer for the American Psychological Association. “We need to focus not just on hardship and tragedy. We need to praise them for their flexibility and resilience and ability to change.”

We need to remember that students have always been on a spectrum of struggling or succeeding in school long before the pandemic.  Prior, when we were at our best as educators, we would look at the needs and circumstances of each student and work toward helping them find a pathway to success. In that context, the same process applies now. The past year has impacted each student differently. However, if we are intentional about truly assessing where students are and helping them move forward in meaningful ways, they can grow stronger and wiser through the process. This gives us realistic hope that while we took a hard hit this last year, we can get back up and move forward purposefully and successfully.