How Covid-19 Plagues Us Four Years Later
Photo Credit: https://carolinaacross100.unc.edu/an-early-look-at-the-pandemics-consequences-for-north-carolina-schools/.
By Sydney Pruner
We’re approaching four years since the beginning of Covid-19, the global pandemic of 2020. For those of you who either don’t remember or blocked it out, it was the part of our lives where we collectively picked up hobbies and impulsively cut our hair. To the seniors reading this, we went through our first high school experiences virtually. We involuntarily traded walking the halls to rolling out of bed five minutes before class, and logging onto a Zoom call where your camera stayed off the entire time. It was a time when TikTok thrived, the news never got turned off, and we heard the phrase “unprecedented times” enough to make us roll with every punch. We’ve survived this long, but what are the impacts since then?
Now entering 2024, we’ve gained some distance from it all. I would like to reflect on the absurdity that was the summer of lockdown. Blinding Lights by the Weeknd was a chart-topper, next to Dua Lipa’s Levitating, and Doja Cat’s Say So. Let's not forget the shortage of toilet paper and feta cheese. And the many failed attempts to make whipped coffee. Though these seem silly to mention they brought us to where we are today. On a more serious note, it was a good wake-up call to America, to the world really, to prioritize mental health. It was the first time in my life that I had seen genuine attempts to advocate for mental health. Whether or not the commercials or celebrity endorsements made a difference, the effort was appreciated.
As a teenager who has no experience in parenting or raising a child, I think it is mind-boggling how set back Covid babies are. A 2022 study published their findings on developmental setbacks that new generations have due to the pandemic. When the rest of the world was forced to pause entirely, parents' workload was increased to a fulltime job. Babies still had to be born and toddlers still had to grow, just without social playtimes and development-enriching experiences like going outside or visiting public places altogether.
“Everyone wants to document how this is impacting child development, and parent–child relationships and peer relationships,” said James Griffin, chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland. “Everyone has concerns,” Griffin continued.
This is most prevalent on the elementary level, now four years later we’ve hit unpause, schools are back in session and teachers are seeing the effects firsthand. Students pre-k to fourth grade have issues focusing, socializing, and–on the older level–making deadlines. Administrators have vouched that they are having to discipline a higher amount of students than before Covid-19. There are more class meltdowns and tantrums on the elementary level, and more disruptive outbursts on the high school level.
“It's always crossed my mind that my daughter could’ve developed a different personality if Covid hadn’t happened. The first year of her life was spent inside, and now four years later she is so shy.” Said Katie Franco, a mom of five who raised all her kids ranging from 8 months to a 7th grader in the midst of the pandemic.
The issue itself goes so much deeper than that though, in the time of the pandemic, students living in high poverty schools were reported to have lost 22 weeks of instruction due to prioritization of politics and adults. Time was spent on legislation, neglecting to sort out the dire need to create routine education, even if it was at home. As if times weren’t hard enough, the government neglected to fund schools for students to learn virtually.
Not to mention, Black, Hispanic, and low-income students were disproportionately affected. Considering the high income schools that lost 13 weeks of in-school instruction, though both are impactful to the development of these students, there was a vast divide.
“There are significant holes in our understanding of how the pandemic has affected various groups of students, especially those who are typically most likely to fall through the cracks in the American education system.” Said edweek.org.
Reasons like this are why terms like “drop out factories” exist. These kids who did nothing but be born have to deal with generations worth of neglect from the government. The kind of neglect that compromises their future, or even cuts it off before it can form. The drop out rate, and the increase in students flunking is exponentially higher than pre-pandemic. I can see the struggle at Jenks right now as a senior. So many students work more for the grade and less for the lecture.
“I’ve had to get used to the fact that I won’t graduate with a 4.0 gpa,” said one of my fellow classmates. “Now it feels like it didn’t happen because no one wants to talk about it.”
Covid left us thinking about germs and more bacteria than we ever had. Now, it feels like we can’t talk about it, and the more we move on day by day the more we forget about it. But we’re allowed to have fears, we’re allowed to be affected, even now four years later.
“Since Covid even a cold or allergies can make me nervous to go to school, the stigma against being sick since Covid can get you shunned for lack of a better word,” Said Caleb Pratt, a Jenks Senior. “Even I cringe when I hear people cough, it's turned into second nature because of how we had to be cautious in 2020, learning will just never be the same.”
The expectation to have it all together is still hindering students. I’ve always felt like school was an ocean and my success was based on how much I felt like I was drowning. I think it's a very representative metaphor, in Covid times it felt like my stressors and workload put my head constantly under water. Now that I’ve grown into my study style and I’ve built habits, I feel as if the ocean has calmed and I’ve boarded a boat to keep me afloat.
