A very-widely republished and reported on April 2021 NYT Op-Ed
Parents, Stop Talking About the ‘Lost Year’
(Subtitled, “Teenagers and tweens will be fine, experts say — if adults model resilience.”)
I don’t know why, but at some point after original publication, the NYT changed both the title and subtitle to, respectively, “How to Help Your Adolescent Think About the Last Year”, and “Hint: It’s not a “lost year.” Also, the screen time with friends? It’s good for their mental health”.
Also unusual for the NYT, the NYT usually puts an editorial note up front explaining why a new version differs from the original, but this time they didn’t. [Edit - and I just found that the “original original” title, print edition, was “Casting Doubt on ‘Lost Year’ Doom and Gloom”.]
Some excerpts.
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The past year has been terrible. And most middle schoolers will be fine. Diedre Neal, principal of Alice Deal Middle School in Northwest Washington. “You had a sort of a sense of resilience and ‘grit,’ even pre-pandemic, that I think served them well,” she said. “I do see an ability to pivot.”
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They reason they’ll be fine is built right into the biology of early adolescence, explained Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University and the author of “Age of Opportunity,” the influential 2014 book on adolescent brain science. The fact that middle schoolers are going through a “critical period” of heightened brain flexibility, instability and plasticity, he said, means that they are hypersensitive and ultra-vulnerable — and also extra-primed for adaptability and resilience.
Compare to:
November, 18, 2023 NTY Op-Ed
“The Startling Evidence on Learning Loss Is In”
Some excerpts from the first few paragraphs
- In the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, Congress sent… [$38 billion to schools]… to be used for reversing learning setbacks. At the time, educators knew that the impact on how children learn would be significant, but the extent was not yet known.
[Strange, and seemingly a bit revisionist. According to the NYT Op-Ed above, published “in the thick” of the pandemic, the kids would be just fine and dandy. Resilient, ya’ know.]
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The evidence is now in, and it is startling. The school closures …may prove to be the most damaging disruption in the history of American education. It also set student progress in math and reading back by two decades and widened the achievement gap that separates poor and wealthy children.
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Economists are predicting that this generation, with such a significant educational gap, will experience diminished lifetime earnings and become a significant drag on the economy. But education administrators and elected officials who should be mobilizing the country against this threat are not. [Ed. apparently “are not” means “are not doing so”]
I should add that the current Op-Ed is not all doom/gloom and they highlight efforts in some states and localities to try to improve the situation.
going to continue to digest the stuffing I just made, randomly. Might make tea 
. It’s rainy here.
, a true respite from a world where seemingly everyone wants to argue about everything all the time. Here’s wishing you all the same 
