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.

For children with unstable home lives it was difficult.

Children build relationships with their family but they also need to learn to build relationships with those outside the home, firstly extended family, but then learning to build relationships with schools and clubs and other children.

When these layers of relationships were suppressed as they were through lockdown, it made rebuilding them tricky.

The first (full) lockdown was absolutely necessary and happened too late.

But, the "powers" should have used that time wisely to make preparations for a "safer" environment everywhere at the end of it. I.e. explore options like children in schools for just 2/3 days per week on rota, allowing for fewer kids in classrooms, etc.

Instead we had crazy yo-yo of in/out lockdowns, insane "tiers" where literally people on one side of a road could do things that people on the other side couldn't, moronic rules in different nations, i.e. supermarkets in Wales blocking off aisles of "non food" items, the "eat out to spread covid" insanity, etc etc.

Some of my daughter’s friends (15) have struggled so much within their education. They went into lockdown in Year 6 and by the time we properly came out they really struggled to settle into secondary school because they had months off during Year 7 with them being closed. A handful have been either in and out of education or had up to two years away from school.

A friend of a friend struggles every single day with her child not wanting to go to school but they were great at going before Covid.

I think it’s had a huge detrimental effect on education.

Wrong. They might not have returned to school in a regular fashion they didn’t disappear and most still attend school some of the time.

fullfact.org/education/karren-brady-ghost-children/

We were very lucky that DD got a full education during lockdown as her school was very well prepared and organised. DS was in Y6 when it started and got basically nothing from his school but again he was lucky as we were willing and able to do some home educating. When he began Y7 at the same school as his sister he also got a full education if he had to be sent home due to contact etc.
A lot of families weren't as lucky as us though and some schools are still dealing with the fallout

Ir8s surely impossible to know. No one knows what would have happened without lockdown.

We can only compare the effects of lockdown with Covid never have happened. We can't predict what would have happened with Covid but no lockdown.

Not in my view no.

No. Lockdown is the biggest injustice of our time and many of our young people are still paying the price.

Kids that were cheated out of their university experience should have their loans cancelled.

Oh well that’s ok then! Jesus, how low is your bar?

I suppose it's dependent on circumstances and age. During lockdown mine was in yr 6 and yr3.

I dont feel mine have been effected because they are doing well at school, they carried on with school work that was set by me because i didn't think the work that was set by the school was very challenging.
However, had they been at high school then I wouldn't of been able to help as much as its more challenging and indepth. Though my eldest was in high school at some points of later lockdowns and lessons were held online - there seemed to be a better system later on.

I was part of the clinically vulnerable group and I think the right decisions were made in my opinion.

No probably not.

But one thing people who didn't work in a school might not realise was what a shit show it was when schools were open but all that isolating for 10 days was going on (and people were also actually ill) I think as long as the children were out the house people were happy, but there was zero continuity of learning, loads of cover lessons in the hall etc.

I do think that even without lockdown there would have been an impact on educstion whilst the pandemic went through. Just I think the social development side would have been much better.

I certainly agree about the Uni/student loan situation.

Students were conned into going by promises of "blended" learning, but once they committed to contracts, Uni websites changed to "mostly online". A blatant con job! At my son's Uni, some lecturers were very open that they'd been told in early Summer that they'd be doing all lectures etc online, which was several weeks before the website was updated to say "mostly online", after fooling students into thinking it would be "blended", i.e. a mix of online and face to face.

Add in closed libraries, closed faculty buildings, and basically a ghost town of a Uni, they certainly didn't get anything like the same "experience" as those paying exactly the same in the years before and afterwards.

And that's not to mention how some Unis refused to refund accommodation costs, even for the term when students weren't actually allowed to use them! Again, paid for by most students by student loans.

This feels goady or just another journalist!

CLEARLY the pandemic had a hideous impact on children.

That was a disgrace. I can't believe some universities padlocked their gates.

First lock down because of the sheer unknown I understood. After that nope it wasn’t fair and certainly has caused immeasurable harm to millions of children, from an education and social aspect. It will have repercussions for decades. I will forever hate that government for what they did.

I believe it has had the effect of creating holes in key development pathways, especially for my year 4 child who is dyslexic and dyspraxic which appears in his case to have an underlying tie to developmental milestones related to ‘crossing the midline’. It has taken so long to understand his issues that I fear he may never completely catch up.

its very difficult to answer but I think no. It’s not just young kids but those at uni etc.

I'm a counsellor, I work with teens and I'd say absolutely not.

It will have repercussions for decades

Thats what I fear. Children are the future & we didn’t prioritise their needs enough.

And no I don’t think it was worth saving the lives of a few elderly whether people hate me for that comment or not.

@ThisHangryPinkBalonz

I was part of the clinically vulnerable group and I think the right decisions were made in my opinion.

I was CV and OH was ECV (cancer). Neither of us thought the right decisions were made. It was all way over the top, preventing people who weren't CV from working/studying etc. It would have cost a lot less and have been far less damaging to "protect" the CV whilst allowing the vast majority of people to go about their usual business with far less draconian restrictions.

Eg my OH runs his own small business from a small office. There was no reason at all for him to be "banned" from going to/from work. He was perfectly capable of setting up his own quarantine - i.e. not letting clients etc in his office, but otherwise just carrying on working. Yet the rules said he'd be breaking the law if he went to work during lockdown. Absolutely insane. He doesn't even need to drive to work, it's within walking distance. In the event, after the first couple of weeks, he thought "sod it" and started going to work. A nutcase neighbour reported him and he ended up with a police visit, warning him he risked prosecution if he didn't stop going to work. Quite ironic, the longest "meeting" he had with another person was two police officers warning him not to have contact with other people!! At least he made them stay outside the office and insisted on talking to them over the door threshold (which they didn't like - they wanted to come into the office to talk to him - increasing the risks to a ECV person!!).

Vital to ask, but I don't think we're going to be able to answer the question for a very long time.

My dc weren't affected badly. If anything, they coped really well and did things they wouldn't have done.
I still would have wanted no lockdown as not all children were fortunate. Especially those who had no outdoor space.

When there was the "rule of six", my son was in a flat of 8 people. Uni security stopped them and reported them when they were out in their flat group of 8 just walking around the campus grounds. Apparently the Uni didn't understand that the flat of 8 was a "household" for covid purposes and wouldn't even listen to their arguments that they were together the rest of the time, so a "bubble" and could show key fobs proving they were living together, etc.