America’s youngest students entered school this year with weaker math and reading skills, compared with before the pandemic(www.wsj.com)

Screen time, which should be limited to under an hour for preschool aged kids, is considerably higher than that, and it got worse during the pandemic.

It seems like parents or caregivers would be to blame for that.

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HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club

6 points

10 months ago

A lot of pre-K education comes from daycare facilities and other methods where parents give their kids to others to care for. Take those kids and put them at home with parents who still have to work and you’ll probably see a dip in education levels.

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Showroom7561@lemmy.ca

-2 points

10 months ago

Take those kids and put them at home with parents who still have to work and you’ll probably see a dip in education levels.

Still having to work, from home or otherwise (but mostly at home if we’re talking about the pandemic), and that would still leave most regular hours to be a parent (I.e. and read to your child).

I’d like to see stats and truly know what accounts for these drops. We already know that kids spent more time in front of screens during the pandemic (for entertainment, not education), but what about parents reading to their children. There should have been MORE time, not less, to do that.

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HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club

2 points

10 months ago

I’d like to see stats and truly know what accounts for these drops.

The only way to get some sort of idea is with A/B testing, which is really hard to do during a pandemic. However, there is a body of evidence to suggest that being in daycare around 3+ helps with later success in schools: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/06/quality-child-care-science-math

Also, you seem to point out to more time for parents to be able to read to kids if everyone works from home, but that may not be the case. WFH does seem to indicate that people work longer hours in total. They may also not be able to spend as much break time during the day to. Do things like read to their kids or otherwise mentally simulate them.

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Showroom7561@lemmy.ca

1 point

10 months ago

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/06/quality-child-care-science-math

The study looked at “Children who receive high-quality child care as babies, toddlers and preschoolers…”

So, is the drop in reading and math a direct result of kids not getting high-quality childcare as babies and toddlers? Because I don’t even think thay the majority of American parents ever had the means to make that happen outside of the home.

That might be something that only high income families could afford, but I’m not sure if the article reports on whether children from high income families also experienced a drop in reading and math scores.

WFH does seem to indicate that people work longer hours in total.

Without a daily commute or prep time getting ready for the office, and especially during lockdowns when people simply didn’t leave their homes, there was significantly more time for non-work related activities.

This is why so many people actually enjoyed the pandemic. They had significant amounts of free time for hobbies, exercise, etc. Bikes even sold out for like a year, because the demand for recreation cycling during the pandemic was at such a high level.

But time with your kids, even for 20 minutes of reading, offers a huge advantage to their development. This can easily be incorporated during bedtime.

In any case, I do still believe that a lack or reduction in reading at home has an impact on these scores, and I do appreciate the thoughtful discussion 🤝

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HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club

2 points

10 months ago

You keep trying to point to your theory, but you should be able to do a literary search to find if there is some evidence to back up your claim.

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1 point

10 months ago

I’m sorry, this seems a bit disconnected with the reality of actively working and simultaneously taking care of children. If you are working from home, there may be absolutely no or very little time to give quality instruction to children. Anecdotally, at the start of the pandemic, I was in a surgical residency. My specialty (otolaryngology) was locked down pretty hard across the nation, so I actually was at home a lot during the start of the pandemic, as there was a big scare about risk with routine ENT encounters and surgery. My wife worked in HR and was totally working from home.

For the first two months, I did most of the child care despite being in a busy surgical residency. Our children were about a year old and required a lot of active watching and caring for them. My wife may have been able to step away and change diapers and feed (sometimes she would be tied up). There was certainly no time to give quality education.

To give quality rearing and education to children while working would essentially be the equivalent of working two jobs. Working from home does not necessarily mean you log on, sit at home, and then go about your day as you like (i know some may have been able to do that, for better or worse). I’m not sure why you are insisting that parents taking on this extra burden while working (from home or not) is an unreasonable explanation for this.

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