Did the benefits of lockdown outweigh the harm to children’s education?

[PoisedKhakiUser]

AIBU to ask whether the benefits of lockdown - saving lives and protecting health - outweighed the damage it did to children’s education and future life chances? I feel like kids lost out on so much during this time, and I wonder if the cost was too high.

I think the main concern for most people is emotional/mental wellbeing rather than attainment.

For us personally, it was worth it. DD’s school offered an excellent online program that was a mix of zoom classes and independent study. she absolutely thrived with that system. She has ASD and It was the perfect learning environment for her, free from the annoyances of the classroom, especially misbehaving students. It worked so well we considered not letting her go back, but she missed the social aspect of school outside of the classroom and was willing to put up with the classroom experience to get it.

I sat through a really rather emotional speech by my DS's school's Head Boy a few weeks back. He lost his father from Covid.

Losing grandparents and parents is more damaging to kids than being out of school for a period.

Yes, the costs were too high.

To kids mental health the price was way too high. And I don't think we've seen anywhere near the full affects yet.

@TickingAlongNicely everyone that I knew was desperate to get their child into school and claiming to be a keyworker. Everyone knew the enormous damage that was being done to our children. I will never, ever forgive the government for opening pubs, garden centres and shops before schools. It showed quite how little value they place on the young in our society.

Everyone loses grandparents at some point.

The first lockdown I agreed with, but not subsequent ones (I was a key worker so my son's still went in for the ones after the first). I think it was unnecessary but then you had the restrictions and staff getting ill to deal with. It would have still been chaotic.

My son turned one at the start of the pandemic and he is severely disabled now (although functioned fine age 1/2) getting support in place when he did regress took ages due to the impact of the pandemic, mainly because of the economic impact on the country and the lack of services/backlog more than anything else. This has definitely set him back. Disabled children really suffered.

Well given how many children have slid into poverty in the last 14 years I would say you are right. No hope of much change in the near future either 😰

I agree. My youngest niece took her GCSEs in 2021 and A levels in 23 - she's just gone into her second year at an RG university.
She absolutely thrived on studying at home, developing methods which helped her perform beyond previous expectations and achieve outstanding A level results. She's now doing extremely well at university.

She benefited from a very settled and supportive family life.

Surely there was something to be said for opening different places when it was safe to'?

Why should garden centres have remained closed when it was possible to introduce measures that meant they could be opened safely.

Opening schools up fully with measures to keep them safe was massively more difficult than opening shops.

Insofar as they did not die of Covid - yes, they did.

Tbf we needed sectors up and running

I blame public opinion for being so demanding on lockdowns and school closures

Not even close!

In March 2020 possibly not. But by the beginning of May, after they'd been at home for 6 weeks, almost definitely.

You have no idea what’s really going on with your niece. The impact of those lost years.

@EasternStandard i do agree that the country needed to start running and making money again. It was just so sad to see schoolchildren being last on the list but we are certainly seeing the detrimental effect of that now. Schools are being crippled with the after effects of Covid, mental health services can’t cope with demand and school refusing children and absenteeism is off the scale…for a virus that didn’t affect them.

I would've gladly had mine in if it had been possible.

You have a very narrow view of education if it only comes down to exam results. All those you mention are not objective measures. Grades can be manipulated and are dependent on many factors that have nothing to do with how well children perform.

I forgot about that! Opening pubs before schools was criminal.

So she benefitted from the predicted grades and didn't take exams.

It's true, the first lockdown in particular could never have been avoided, not with that level of public sentiment. These things can only happen if the majority of the population want them and buy in. Hence we couldn't have had any more restrictions in late 2021 with omicron, because sentiment had shifted.

I'm loving the pro-eugenics opinions expressed on threads like these. Don't hold back, say how you really feel about oldies and people with chronic conditions, and the worthiness of their lives.

I wonder where you draw the line, though. As per the CDC website, ADHD and autism are a risk factor for severe Covid and Long Covid- Long Covid in children has increased a lot between 2023 and 2024 as per ONS figures actually. Do you not care if neurodivergent children were/are at risk? Or do they go into the "worthless eaters" category alongside with everyone who has a chronic condition or has already lived for too long?

Also, have you considered that maybe your children care about some oldies and people with chronic conditions? Maybe they don't see the whole effort as having been worthless?

Absolutely agree. It sounds like she is referring to the Black Death rather than the reality of Covid.

No, of course the cost was too high.

You’ve got to act in the best interests of vulnerable people but those interests don’t outweigh anyone else’s.

I’d argue being left illiterate, with damaged social skills and probably sent half mad as a child is a lot worse than dying aged 96 rather than 98.