What have children lost?

 As most pupils continue to learn from home for the 5th week, the people that play with statistics on education are getting twitchy. They’ve done some calculations, using a magic algorithm and concluded that, even if children go back to school on the 8th of March and there are no further lockdowns then children will suffer 5-6 months of learning loss. This then, apparently, equates to a £40,000 loss in earnings over their lifetime. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like statistics and think forecasting is useful but aren’t they missing the bigger picture?

The statistics come from the studies that say that every year of schooling increases a person’s earnings by 8% and then concludes that 6 months of homeschool is the same as leaving school half a year early. It assumes that the hard work being done at home by parents, teachers and children is worthless. It assumes that any loss can’t be caught up, which anyone who had parents forced to leave school at 14 who went onto get degrees in their fifties  or any parent who is currently gaining a deeper understanding of maths than they ever thought possible, can tell you, is rubbish.

We learn throughout our whole lives and in many ways. School is just one of those ways. 

School based learning is incredibly effective and suits society. It helps to close gaps between the rich and the poor, it provides childcare for working parents and socialises children but children’s socialisation doesn’t just happen at school. The loss toddlers are experiencing through social distancing might be irreparable. One year olds might suddenly have their tiny minds blown when they realise that there are more than two tired, slightly panicked looking adults in the world and toddlers will never learn the etiquette of keeping your mate company in the toilet.

These kind of reports put pressure on the government to reopen schools before the case numbers are low enough to manage the pandemic. Boris is going to make an announcement today about how he plans to reopen schools and most of us will be watching with our head in our hands wondering why he never learns. Once you’ve promised something it’s very difficult to not do it and so it looks like further lockdowns in this country are inevitable. 

I fear that to open schools early we will all have to continue to sacrifice other things for longer to compensate. It will be longer before we can see our friends, longer before we can hug, longer before we can go to the theatre, longer before we can sing together in one room, longer before, children can learn important life skills from older children in the playground (don’t mix those bubbles), longer before we can travel, longer before team sports start again, longer before children learn about competition, longer before people can be in a room together to argue and debate, getting all the non verbal cues that are given and longer before I delete Zoom, Teams, Meet, Skype and Discord from all my devices. 

Children are missing so much more than maths and English. We all are.