The New York Times has a story on how the coronapanic shutdowns set American K-12 students back (which is the same as killing them, by COVID standards, since people with less education tend to live shorter lives and any shortening of a life can be considered a “COVID death”). Of course, the headline is about the “surprising rebound” (every action taken by a Covidcrat was actually beneficial when viewed in the proper light).
The article has a side note that the recovery in reading ability has been weaker and then proceeds to present charts only on math test scores, where the “rebound” has been stronger. Your kids’ rebound energy may vary, depending on family wealth (like life expectancy, correlated with education). The poor kids were destroyed:
So the poor kids are now likely to have both intensified poverty and intensified ignorance as factors in shortening their lives (plus the Biden-era flood of migrants, who are correlated with unemployment and incarceration for the low-skilled native-born).
The NYT journalists and editors don’t mention what happened in the one state where school closure was limited by the governor to about 3 months: Florida. Digging into their cited data source, characterized as a “national study” and with analysis “led by researchers at Stanford and Harvard”, it appears that Florida was ignored by the academic worthies (maybe anti-Science DeSantis suppressed data?).
Sweden recently showed a decline in PISA scores, suggesting that keeping schools open is just as bad for kids as closing them.
“Dr” Phil:
Maybe Covid brain fog is a real thing, even for youngsters? I’m middle-to-older aged and the number of friends and colleagues that say their memory is declining is alarming. It could be a natural consequence of my age group but I suspect not.
It sure is a real thing for you, based on comments. And you seem to have had brain fog well before covid 🙂
We are all so suggestible. Subject to placebos and nocebos. I would not believe my own experiences let alone that of others, especially if they watch the media.
Why would Sweden’s scores dip? Economic disruption? Post-COVID brain fog?
Whatever the cause, it definitely has absolutely nothing to do with large-scale POPULATION BOMBING from countries with average IQ’s in the 60s.
Faucian Bargain: That’s a good point that I hadn’t considered. The “Swedish” population of Sweden has been enriched (not “replaced”) to the point that about 25 percent of “Swedes” are no longer of Swedish ancestry (they’re either immigrants or have two immigrant parents).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/538722/sweden-share-of-primary-school-pupils-with-foreign-background/
shows a steady rise in percentage of Swedish K-5 pupils “with foreign background” from 20 percent in 2013 to 27 percent in 2022.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/immigration-contributes-to-decline-in-school-aptitude-test-results/ suggests that all over Europe achievement and IQ test scores have declined due to “mass migration” (would “mega enrichment” be the preferred term?). The recent arrivals, according to this article, also change (enrich) the educational experience for children of European origin:
“In France, around half of the students claimed that there was noise and disorder in most or all of their classes while 39% said they had to wait extended periods for teachers to begin or resume teaching due to disruptions. “
Yes, COVID school closures have affected learning. But, as you correctly point out, PISA scores are down in many places. There are other reasons, in my opinion. Among them the change of “learning focus”. It seems to me school bureaucrats, and perhaps society at large, have learned the lessons of “The Garden of False Learning” https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/226956.
“Elegant figures in courtly dress are distracted from true wisdom and happiness by dedicating too much energy to the pursuit of knowledge through debate, philosophy, geometry, astrology and alchemy, geography, astronomy, arithmetic, and music.”
Victimhood is now the subject that all should learn, who needs math?