We tend to forget that the major role schools play in the lives of children is enormous and most evident under crisis and when loss of schooling is evident. And this is not solely about back to basics. The COVID pandemic (2020-2021) underscored this reality in sobering ways. While we never expected closures to occur, it became inevitable over time, with the absence of schooling only highlighting the importance of public schools and our reliance on their role.

Lest we forget, public schools offer 12 years of free and universal education. It also includes meals and some support related to health care as well as counseling and mental health services for children ages five and older. As one example, school cafeterias serve about 7.5 billion hot meals nationwide during a typical school year, with every one of these meals obviously disappearing during school closures.

Under such conditions, impact was dramatic as it was deleterious. It affected academics together with every other level of schooling for each student, though more definitively for low-income and students of color.

Altogether, the toll was enormous regardless of grade. In her recent book, The Lost Year (2022), author Anya Kamenetz correctly informs that schooling is “The one service the state must provide to every child. Even teenagers in jail. Even children living in cars. Even children who are chronically ill or nonverbal. Even migrant children detained at the border.” Basically, all children were affected, bare none. Even results from the ACT exam among the best dipped to lowest levels in 30 years.

For the Nation’s Report Card, children in eighth grade mathematics were most greatly impacted, where 1-in-4 fell below proficiency levels. Worse yet was that students most behind were also the most dramatically impacted, with achievement gaps widening even further. While it may take years to determine the level of this loss as a result of prolonged school closures, it will yet take more years to recover.

During this period, numerous adverse childhood experiences occurred, what some researchers now label as ACE. For example, divorce, sexual abuse, parent mental health struggles and substance abuse rank among them, all of which increased profoundly during the pandemic, exacerbating levels of ACE.

Much of the argument for getting back to normalcy and restoring what was lost revolves around extra time for tutoring, longer school days, an expanded school year, Saturday classes, even summer school. While this is academically logical, it is not the only salve, and parents are pushing back, with little appetite for extra time at school, as polls now indicate.

Yet, beyond addressing “learning loss” from an academic perspective, we may need to focus more strongly on healing, sharing, community building, and plain old humanity. The bottom line is that we will continue to hurt from a painful crisis until we bring a supportive level of healing, as academics by itself is an insufficient response to the hurt being felt across our schools nationwide.

As evidence, teachers are complaining about their loss of control in the classroom, when only emphasizing discipline and further study. Why? The mental well-being of our children is at stake. Until solidly addressed students will emote anxiously in revolt, as they are still recovering from major disruptions and changes in activity stemming from the previous two years.

As educators, we need to humanize the process of learning through better counseling and more time on social and emotional needs. It is important to bring students together to commemorate what they have been through, share their stories, and make sense of what has occurred, rather than take the stance that this should be relegated to the past and that we must simply move beyond it.

For educators, it is important to reconnect with the higher purpose of schooling in dealing with our humanity because, after all, schools often operate like families. Feelings and emotional connections develop from social contacts, and this is often when strong working relationships and learning opportunities are formalized.

Here it is important to underscore that crisis always brings out the faults and fissures of a system, as we learn how best to improve. So, let’s move beyond testing, labeling, and grading to better serve, repair, and rethink the process of schooling, including character formation and the strengthening of resilience. As learning is in flux, let’s reimagine better than what we have done, as conditions are tenuous. Since emotional regulation is at the heart of schooling, let’s heal the human spirit and ensure a more holistic approach to learning. Once realized, the educational experience will be greatly facilitated.

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