Wait- whose LEARNING LOSS are we concerned with?

A few weeks ago, a friend from the school-starting community sent me a text that actually made me laugh out loud: 

What do you think of the term “learning loss?”

I fired off a quick response about how it seemed like sort of shallow thinking- because while the pace of acquiring academic skills and knowledge has certainly slowed, it’s happened to everyone, AND has left space for kids to learn a range of life-level-lessons. 

I respect this guy a lot (and constantly have this worry about other school-starters thinking I’m a total fraud because I didn’t go to a super fancy college and don’t discuss pedagogy recreationally), so I didn’t mention the other part of my thoughts: 

Over-focusing on what didn’t happen by obsessively talking about “learning loss” is exactly the pressure that kids, parents, and teachers DO NOT NEED added on. ESPECIALLY as many are finally just seeing the inside of a school consistently again after thirteen months. I just don’t see how it’s helpful- so families who can afford fancy private tutors will make their kids work all summer to “close the gap” while the kids who can’t just fall further behind? 

Behind WHAT? What are we racing to again? Didn’t we establish years ago that it’s all a Race to Nowhere anyway?

Our kids have just been through over a year of trauma so consistent that it could often be felt like a heart beat. Shouldn’t we walk out of this time gently? With a warm hug instead of with a daunting “to-do” list? 

I became pretty ranty when I heard that MCAS tests would still be happening in Massachusetts this spring. With so few precious in-person school days this year, I could not believe they’d have to be used for standardized testing instead of healing activities like story sharing, grade-level outdoor picnics, and giant games of Capture the Flag. 

I pressed pause on my anger when I heard it was a federal mandate to measure which communities would most need funding to recover from the pandemic… even though I feel like common sense would tell us,

Um, the same communities who have always struggled? Except they will need the help now more than ever?

I accepted that MCAS would just have to be a mean-feeling way to feed the data-dependent-decision-makers what they need to help kids finally recover from this nightmare. 

Then, last night, a friend from a (very) affluent school district in a neighboring state forwarded me an email from her 4th grade daughter’s administrator. It said something like, 

Welcome back to school full-time this week! Don’t forget that we have state testing on Thursday and Friday this week- be sure to get a good night of sleep and eat a good breakfast so that you will perform well…

Wow. Here we are all worried about the kids’ “learning loss,” but per usual, it’s the adults who have learned absolutely nothing.

For a  spot-on, concise expression of similar concerns, read Stephen Merrill’s recent article in Edutopia.