Awkward?
By Ed Madison and Hans Boyle
Last week, New York City’s schools finally reopened, making it one of the country’s last school systems to open its doors for the fall. It was a welcome development for thousands of parents who’ve waited a year and a half for their kids to return to the classroom.
Of course, many parents continue to worry, and understandably so, about the dangers of COVID-19. The Delta variant rages on, and many families want schools to continue providing remote options.
But, while safety has proven to be a legitimate and significant concern for both parents and children, countless students returning to the in-person instruction for the first time in over a year are scared of something else: socializing.
“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Jazlynn Gonzalez told a New York Times education reporter this week. She’s an incoming high school freshman. “I don’t know what to do, like people come up to me and I don’t know if I should say hi, I just get confused.
Jazlynn isn’t alone. As students across the country return to the classroom, things are getting awkward. On top of the usual anxieties of the first week back at school — like finding your class before the bell rings and remembering your locker combo — K-12 students are also having trouble conversing with their peers.
To be sure, a growing body of research is painting a distressing picture of the pandemic’s academic toll. Test scores are down, and one report found students, on average, were five months behind in math and four months in reading. Marginalized students fell further behind.
But just as distressing is the drop in children’s communication skills during the pandemic. Learning how to make friends, work with groups, and play fairly on the playground are essential skills children pick up as they navigate school. These lessons serve them well as they grow up, find jobs and cultivate careers. Yet, one survey of 2,000 parents of school-aged children (5–14) found 7 in 10 parents perceived their child’s social skills to be at risk.
While, remote learning was a lifeline for millions of families as they tried to further their children’s education during a public health crisis, Zoom — for all of its merits — isn’t the best way for a child to learn basic social skills.
As 8-year-old Neriyah Smith, told the Times this week, “I made a lot of friends before I was on computers.”
This awkwardness has lasted months. Earlier this year, KUOW education reporter Ann Dornfeld recalled visiting a PK-8 school in Rainer Beach, Washington, in April when students returned for in-person learning. “There wasn’t the typical jubilation, yelling, and laughing that you’d expect to see in a group of middle schoolers who are all getting reunited for the first time in a while,” she said.
So what can we do to help students catch up? There are many at-home options, of course. Before heading back to school, parents can create exercises for their children to practice social interactions in the security of their homes. They can even help their kids learn social niceties by updating rules for board games (for example, pay your friend a compliment before they land on Boardwalk and pay you all their money).
But teachers can help too. We now live in a communication-driven world, and educators across the country have an essential role in preparing students for this new reality. Providing students opportunities to collaborate face-to-face on engaging projects, is an excellent way to develop their social skills.
The Journalistic Learning Initiative’s Effective Communicators Course is the perfect vehicle for communication development. Students engage in project-based storytelling in small groups and select local topics of interest to research, write, and ultimately publish stories about. Throughout the process, students have to communicate effectively.
Students must reconcile differences to agree on a topic, assign tasks to peers, give and receive constructive feedback, and interview an expert on their chosen subject near the end of the course. As any journalist will tell you, a good interview is like a good conversation.
Today, students need to re-learn how to socialize with their peers if they want to be successful in whatever career they desire to pursue. The group work will be worth it, even if it’s a bit awkward at first.
