The COVID 19 global pandemic has affected our communities and homes. Although we are learning more about this virus every day, it is important to understand that it is a new virus and there are many unknowns, including all its immediate and long term consequences.
One of the many implications of COVID 19 is the impact on Education at all levels, from Preschools to Post Graduate Training. We believe the suddenness with how remote learning was done this last year, might not be a good comparison for future approaches. We worry that there might have been some wasted time in evaluating the lessons learned, since a lot of the attention has been focused on “going back to normal” as in other aspects of our lives.
There has been a push by many authorities, like government and the American Academy of Pediatrics, for children to return to school this fall, the rationale for this approach includes: (1) Most children learn better in a structured setting with fixed schedule, (2) most parents have to work and the school provides a form of daycare, (3) many parents don’t feel competent to assist or tutor their children, (4) many families don’t have the resources to provide adequate technology and internet connectivity to sustain online remote learning.
Recently the American Pediatric Association has also weighed in on the potential negative aspects and outcome on the child’s socialization if they are deprived of the school social environment. They note that children not attending school will be at higher risk of abuse, depression, suicidality, family violence and substance use. We don’t think that there is enough evidence that support this of children staying at home. We also note that the proponents of home schooling in several countries note that children fare equally well in social skills as those that attend school. They also emphasize that they are less affected by bullying, school violence and drug use.
These are just a few of the issues that are being considered. Other important issue are the socioeconomic disparities that affect many communities across the country including, level of parent education, family health and access to care. These and many other factors are contributing to when and how to come back to school.
We believe that all the above factors have their merit. The way our society and culture are organized, where children are attending school, allows them an opportunity to obtain their education by a certified teacher in regular, advanced or special ed modality depending on their individual needs and competencies.
The school setting organizes the child life with a schedule, structure and supervision, which some parents might not be able to provide. This also ensures that many children are able to get 2 balanced meals which off set poor nutrition which affect physical and cognitive development. And this is an opportunity for many parents to afford a daycare while they work.
For these reasons we rarely recommend home bound education, unless there is a significant medical or psychiatric rationale to offset the above reasons and this is where we believe we are at with the COVID19 Pandemic. The main concern is that this virus is transmitted via droplets from our breathing, talking, yelling, coughing and sneezing, especially in close physical contact. So the classroom and school environment are the perfect petri culture for this virus. Especially during the fall and winter season when other respiratory virus are also prevalent, which will make it very difficult to determine what is the cause of children’s symptoms.
Although many have stressed that children have better outcomes to COVID19 infection, it is clear they are carriers/vectors which will likely transmit the virus to others at school, including their vulnerable peers, teachers, families and community. So just like many health care workers are not able to do their jobs, this is likely to affect school personnel.
As child psychiatrists and behavioral experts, we think as a temporary measure, staying home another school year should not have negative implications on the child’s social development. We believe based on our knowledge of child development and other formative aspects, that it is unlikely that there will be lasting negative consequence to their social development. We worry more about the potential morbidity and mortality of COVID19 especially in communities with high numbers of minorities, for example ours in the Rio Grande Valley. Areas like ours with high incidence and prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus and other metabolic disorders are more susceptible to negative outcomes with this virus.
We believe that we need to invest more resources on improving remote learning through the next school year with (1) technology, (2)internet connectivity, (3) preparing teacher efficiency on this modality, (4) increased tutoring, (5)weekend assistance, (6) lunch delivery for those that need it, (7) development of child and family wellness programs that provide support. We are confident that by the following school year there will be better treatment modalities to deal with COVID 19 and children can safely return to school.
Shrink Box Podcast is a social and mental health initiative carried by Dr. German Corso, Dr. Daniel Gutierrez and Dr. Ricardo Irizarry. We are a group of mental health experts proudly serving our community at South Texas Behavioral Health and Tropical Texas Behavioral Health