Academic knowledge is important, but what else have students learned during the COVID shutdowns? Stay tuned to find out, coming up next.

Ep 124 show:

Welcome to The Perna Syndicate! All week, we’ve been covering the COVID slide and how we as parents, educators, and stakeholders can approach it. Young people are resilient and they will bounce back—and it’s our job to help them make up this lost ground.

But while the loss of learning is real, I think we can lose sight of the fact that academic learning isn’t the only kind of education. Young people haven’t stopped learning this past year—it’s just that the lessons have gone beyond the academic.

They have been watching the role models in their lives—parents, educators, and others—deal with unprecedented difficulties. They have watched YOU show up, work hard, and keep making a difference.

Even if their academic performance is temporarily set back, they are learning life skills about perseverance, creative problem solving, adjusting to circumstances we would not choose, keeping a positive attitude, and more.

And they’re going to need all these lessons as they learn to navigate life in a post-pandemic world. The skills they’re learning now will serve them the rest of their lives—and may help them approach their academic learning with more maturity when regular in-class instruction can resume.

We shouldn’t just focus on what they’ve lost this past year. Consider what they’ve learned, and the positive difference it can make in their future lives.

Tomorrow, we’ll wrap up the week with one last thought on approaching the COVID slide constructively. Tune in, and we’ll see you then!