A few weeks ago you wrote on Facebook: “I wanted to write something smart, but today I can’t, I feel helpless. Those chairs on the desks in the classroom make me feel low.”
I’m overwhelmed by the awareness of the effects of the pandemic and remote learning on young people. And our helplessness. It reminds me of jellyfish stranded on the shore. One, two, three can be thrown back into the water, but there is no way to help all of them. It is already beyond us now. And after returning to full-time school, it will overwhelm us even more.
Why?
Not just research, but also my own experience shows that nearly half of the youth feel worse because of the pandemic. However, there has been a change in recent months. There are those who feel much worse. In the stories of my students and patients, there is a lot of depression, isolation, anxiety, anhedonia, that is a limited ability to feel joy. At the same time, a mechanism has been activated, whereby man is a creature of great adaptability. This means that although they feel bad, they are not willing to come back to full-time school any more.
When we spoke in December, you said that most of them really want to come back to school. Even those who didn’t like it before.
And now more and more people are getting used to the “benefits” that remote education gives them. They can get up at the last minute. Eat when they want to. Walk around all day in pyjamas. Lie down during lessons. Play, cheat, mess around. Chat with friends on Discord. They can say that their microphone is broken or the internet connection is down. And they can do something that many students have dreamed of for a long time – get out of the class with the press of a button if they don’t like it.
There is one more thing behind this reluctance to return. Students are simply afraid of us, teachers. That we will hold them accountable for the period of remote education, that we will ask questions and check their notes. We will do revisions that will show what we all know – that the effects of remote education are very poor. They are also afraid that we will want to catch up with the programme, make up for the whole year in a few months.
Knowing some of the teachers, I’d say they are right to be scared. In the UK, the Department for Education recommends not using terms such as catching up material or making up for lost time as this will only make things worse.
And, that’s great! However, here, a lot of teachers cannot imagine giving a lesson without reminding the students, “The final exams are getting closer,” “The eighth grade exam is getting closer.” Without saying: “You’re doing very badly,” “We’ll talk in the classroom,” “I made a note of who is not active, who I suspect of cheating,” “You got a good grade now? OK. You will prove it with your knowledge when we are back in school.”
Some have gone into two realms of delusions. Firstly, they can achieve better educational results through stress and pressure. In remote education, which is based on independence, this definitely cannot be achieved by arousing fear. Secondly, when we go back to full-time school, all the problems we have experienced so far – bad mood, anxiety, poor social relations, total immersion in technology – will be gone. And there will be a return to the past from before March last year. And that’s impossible! Because a lot has changed during this year. For everyone.
In a debate recently organised by the Empowering Children Foundation, in which you participated, psychiatrists and psychotherapists working with children and adolescents said that, in their opinion, returning to full-time school would reveal even more mental problems. And they are terrified because the system is already inefficient today. Achieving balance will take time, and this should be a priority. Meanwhile, this idea does not appear in the announcements of the Ministry of Education. There is talk of a diagnosis, but who will diagnose these children? And who will help them later, since there are no appointments available?
There is also a harm reduction programme that largely includes additional sports activities. And that’s good, but this strategy lacks at least the preparation of teachers on the basics of crisis intervention. I dream of every school having two or three teachers who would complete such a course. Because we will not be able to train as many child psychiatrists and psychotherapists as we need, even within the next dozen or so years, and studies in crisis intervention are at least a year long. And in this way, the system could be relieved quickly. Of course, a crisis intervener will not provide psychotherapy for depression, anxiety or eating disorders, but will recognise these problems. And we will be able to react in the short term. For example, suggest other ways to relieving the tension to a person who cuts themselves. Crisis interveners are also good at countering suicide attempts.
Well, maybe someone would ask: what about the teachers’ mood? How can you support them? Maybe it is a matter of creating a helpline, tele-advice, points offering psychological help? We are simply lacking a global, and now we would probably say “national,” “Back to School” programme. Maybe someone will create one, I don’t know. In any case, I would like to know that this has been thoroughly thought through.
There is one more idea of the ministry, so-called remedial lessons.
I’m going to start my lessons with workshops with students, not catching up. I will not go back to remote education at all. Even if I know who uploaded papers they cheated on, who did not study.
A teacher will ask: “Okay, but what am I supposed to grade? After all, I have to account for the core curriculum.”
Account for, but how? Before whom? In general, when a teacher says: “Because it’s in the regulations,” “Because I have to do it,” they aren’t really telling the truth. There is a provision in the core curriculum that says that it should be implemented “in proportion to the needs and capabilities of the student.” In the current situation, the needs and capabilities of many students are such that some of this material has to be skipped. Anyway, the core curriculum from the “formal” side is very simple. If, as a social studies teacher, I’m supposed to ensure that my students know national and ethnic minorities in Poland, I can do it within 60 seconds. “Various national and ethnic minorities live in the territory of the Republic of Poland. These are: Kashubs, Silesians, Lemkos, Czechs, Slovaks, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Germans, Karaites.” Thank you, I have completed the core curriculum.
Ha, ha, ha.
Now, come to the couch, we’ll talk. I understand that my colleagues who teach subjects for the eighth-grade exam and high school diploma may feel pressure related to the results. Even more so, when teaching social studies, I want to free up some space in the minds of my students. Okay, take care of Polish, mathematics, and English, and if you want to become lawyers, economists or politicians, the fact that you have not remembered the difference between a mayor and a starost at this given moment does not mean that you will never have this knowledge. The proverb “what you don’t learn as a child you can’t learn as an adult” is nonsense! Besides, students forget most of the material learned at school anyway.
When you say you will start your return to school with a workshop, what do you mean?
I would like to see what has changed in class psychodynamics and sociometry. Perhaps new leaders will emerge. Perhaps someone has lost their clout. Maybe during that time old friendships broke up and new ones were formed. I would like to talk to students about their feelings, emotions, and the effects of the pandemic. And prepare with them a list of interesting, pleasant and useful things that we can do together. I am curious who will come to school at all. You have to remember that they worry about things that we adults don’t even think about. Someone has acne, someone has gained weight, someone else saw something on a friend’s camera that moved them. These can also be significant barriers to returning. I accept the possibility that those for whom the return is too difficult will be able to take part in classes remotely. But only temporarily.
Do you think the number of applications for home schooling will increase?
I expect a boom not only for home education, but also for individual education. But I will repeat: if you or your child feels bad, has symptoms similar to depression, anxiety disorders, do not wait for the magical return to school, hoping that everything will be okay for them then, just seek psychological support now. Firstly, you may find that this despondency and sadness after returning to school become even greater when, for example, your child is assessed by their peers. Secondly, I’m afraid that when we get back to school, no one will help them. Not because they won’t want to, but because there will be no way to do this.
You recently took part in the “Digital Technologies or Relationships” discussion and you immediately protested that the two were not mutually exclusive. I thought that it would be easier to return to school for those teachers who were able to take care of these relationships during their remote learning period. It can be more difficult for those who only provide knowledge and enforce it. Basing education solely on providing knowledge is a bad idea in general, because it significantly reduces the role of both the teacher and the student. The student is not a flash drive, and the teacher is a USB socket, whose job it is to push through as much information as possible onto the flash drive. Remote learning is difficult, it’s true, but I really don’t feel like I’m talking to a monitor during the lesson. I am aware that there are living people on the other side with their own experiences, emotions and dreams. During remote learning, these relationships can be established and nurtured. It is only a question of the teacher’s competences and beliefs. And if someone hasn’t done it before, they can try it right away.
How?
Do not tell students about the importance of grades and the implementation of the core curriculum now. Maybe it’s worth starting the lesson by telling them what happened to you recently? Or by sharing your weaknesses and fears? Maybe it would be nice if everyone evaluated their energy in the morning? It can be done cheerfully. Smartphones have signal bars that indicate network coverage, maybe everyone can say “how many bars they are feeling”? You can also use graphics, illustrations, and wheels of fortune available on various platforms about the feelings and beliefs of students. In general, it is worth treating them holistically. The brain is important, but emotions, stories and everyday events are also important elements of education.
However, if you want to enter the classroom and say how important the subject you teach is, work faster with the curriculum, regret that your time has run out, extend your time, give homework, scare students with tests, then you should know that it is useless. Because the students will cheat on the test when they want to. And even if they don’t cheat, they’ll forget it in a month. Which of our readers who had an A or B in biology remembers how angiosperms reproduce? Huh?
What else would you recommend to teachers as far as preparing for going back to school is concerned?
The cooperation between teachers and parents will certainly be very important. Now it looks different. Some of us write to our parents only about the task that needs to be handed in, who has not done what, sometimes with requests for clarification, sometimes with grudges. And yet it is also worth writing about the cool things going on during classes. Sharing comments, doubts. Asking parents for suggestions, showing understanding that it is difficult for them too. After all, they are not the parents of flash drives, but the parents of their children. And these children are thinking, feeling people.
I think parents would also need some kind of psychoeducation before going back to school about what might be happening to their child, how they might react, what is healthy and what should worry us. We could already start organising such webinars.
Who would do this?
In my school, I was responsible for this.
But you are an educator, a psychotherapist, you have knowledge.
Are there no pedagogues and psychologists at other schools? There are also psychological and pedagogical counselling centres that can be invited to cooperate. Besides, I don’t not believe that there are no teachers who would be able to conduct such webinars themselves. Or maybe one of the parents is a psychologist or psychotherapist?
If it was suddenly decided that we are returning to school starting on Monday, I would definitely want to meet the parents of my students on Saturday. For coffee, tea, cake. I would like to tell them about the crisis, how to overcome it, but also that I feel worse myself. And that they shouldn’t blame themselves if their child has trouble getting back to school, because it’s not their fault, it’s not that child’s malice or laziness. Above all, however, I would like us to realise that we are on the same team.
Talk to your child about how they are feeling, about any worries they might have – this is one of your recommendations for parents.
It’s fun to talk on three levels – facts, thoughts and feelings. So instead of just saying, “Look, you’re going back to school on Monday,” you should also ask, “What do you think about it anyway? If you were the minister of education, would you also issue such an opinion? What do you think is an advantage of this and what is a downside?” And, “What do you like the most? What are you afraid of? What will you do when you feel anxious? How do you imagine the moment you enter the school building?” Thanks to this, we have a chance to see what beliefs our child has about it and how they relate to reality. Do they not blame themselves? Aren’t they overly afraid? For example, someone saw them wearing funny pyjamas during remote learning and now they are imagining that the whole school is dwelling on it. This is difficult for a lot of children. It is worth dispelling these kind of fears, that others haven’t necessarily been absorbed by their pyjamas for the whole year.
Another point – “remember resources.” What are resources?
Advantages, abilities, potential of the child. We can ask them: “How do you think you will be able to prove yourself when you return to school? Because I see a lot of these things in you.” You can talk to your child about what they have learned not only about themselves, but also about others during the pandemic. And how it might be useful to them in the future. We should appreciate small steps. And most of all, talk about the fact that we all have this resource that allows us to work through various difficulties.
An anxious parent may want to let their child stay home if they say they don’t want to come back to school. You believe that a balance between support and firmness is very important.
In general, when it comes to going to school and so-called compulsory education, I must admit that, considering my fairly democratic standards, I am a supporter of a lot of firmness. Because when we have a peloton and one of the cyclists falls out of it, rests by the side of the road, they then have to go much, much faster in order to catch up with this peloton.
Of course, it can’t be authoritarian or violent. It is important not to give up immediately in such situations, but to show the child that we believe that they are capable of breaking through what they are feeling and return to school. And maybe later they will even be proud that they have succeeded? This firmness must, however, be accompanied by forbearance. Because there are situations in which you will actually have to let go.
But where are you supposed to get the strength for all this? I mean both teachers and parents. They are all exhausted by the pandemic, work and remote education.
Perhaps the stronger ones can support the weaker ones? We can all approach each other with greater understanding, with acceptance of crises, without condemnation. One of the positive effects of the pandemic may be that we learn to support each other and respect that we are different.
This is also in the recommendations for students – to make them sensitive to the fact that everyone can experience their return to school differently.
And that it’s really not cool that you take it out on your classmate because they are reacting different than you are.
This problem will also affect teachers and parents. Parents whose children will have difficulties returning to school may fear that everyone will see who is absent, that this may be interpreted as their failure, that perhaps in the teachers’ room everyone will discuss how “they can’t handle it.” One has to get rid of this kind of thinking. Everyone has the right to be a crisis in such a situation. Similarly, you cannot mock your teacher colleague for having trouble getting back. Just because they are teachers doesn’t mean they are bulletproof.
Will you find it difficult to go back to school for any particular reason?
I have one micro-profit in remote learning. I can sleep longer. But I will be very happy to give it up as soon as they give the sign. In any case, I visit my school once a week, and once a month I try to do some activity with the students in the offline world. The last time we saw each other was on Fat Thursday. I drove around the neighbourhood of the school and whoever wanted to, could come down to my car and eat a doughnut with me in groups of two or three.
On the first day of spring, I had a great desire to take part in an activity with the students called “Escape from home to school.” I would have done it had there not been such an increase in infections. Unfortunately, the risk is too high. Now I’m getting ready to play Minecraft together with my students. We will be playing online, but in one room, to be together. As soon as the lockdown is over.
There is another point in the recommendations for students: “Plan your day.” And why is this so important?
Planning your day gives you a sense of security. When you plan a certain routine and carry it out, you get the feeling, “Man, I’m in control of the situation.” This point also applies to what we are experiencing now.
I see a risk here that someone very conscientious can plan a day that is beyond their capacity. And if they don’t make it, they’ll blame themselves for it.
That is why in the elaboration there is a sentence that says, “Don’t be angry with yourself if you fail.” It’s not about some big, ambitious plans, but very simple things. For instance, I get up in the morning. I take off my pyjamas. I eat breakfast until 9.00 am. I have something for dinner. I am the one going out with the dog in the evening. Twice a week I go out and see someone. Every two hours I take 20-minute breaks in front of the computer, even when I play, and so on.
How long do you think it will take for students to regain a relative state of equilibrium?
I estimate that between 5 and 10 percent of people may have real trouble coming back to school. In the sense that either they won’t leave home, or they’ll come to school and leave it right away, or they’ll show strong stress reactions at school. This group will need professional help. In theory it’s not a lot. But if it’s 30, 50, 70 people in each school, who will help them? Where are these available appointments at psychotherapists and psychologists? Especially since a miracle will not happen during one meeting.
It may also be difficult for the rest, but they will overcome it and adapt to the situation. I think it will take a few months to normalise this situation because that is how long it takes to work through a crisis in a healthy way. But normalisation doesn’t mean a return to the past, but an adaptation to the new situation. Because going to school will become a new situation. In this group there will be those who need three minutes to adapt, and others will need three weeks or three months. And if anyone continues to experience difficulties, consultation will be required.
I would very much like going back to school to be a great celebration of relationships. Not a celebration of the core curriculum. Not a celebration of exams. Just a celebration of face-to-face contacts, diversity and acceptance.
Tomasz Bilicki – therapist, educator, certified crisis intervention specialist. Since 2014, he has specialised exclusively in supporting teenagers. He was trained at the University of New York, Harvard and the University of Utrecht. He teaches at a school in the Bałuty district of Łódź and conducts training courses for teachers at the private training facility of the Innopolis foundation.
All recommendations on returning to school created by Tomasz Bilicki and Professor Beata Jachimczak can be found on the website of the Innopolis Foundation
Author: Agnieszka Jucewicz
Photo: unplash.com
The text was published in „Wolna Sobota" on 3 April 2021
