Anya Kamenetz: We Didn’t Prioritize Kids — COVID, The Stolen Year, and Where We Go Now

In her new book The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children's Lives, and Where We Go Now – a book that is already an Amazon “best of the month” selection – Anya Kamenetz writes that in March 2021, experts in pediatric infectious diseases reported that American youth were experiencing food insecurity, lack of socialization, depression, isolation....and were suffering academically, emotionally, socially and physically.

Nonetheless, she laments, "our country has continued failing to put children at the center of our decision making to prevent or remedy these eventualities even though they were foreseen from the very beginning. We did grave harm to children simply by failing to consider their needs at all."

Certainly the pandemic has a profound effect on every person around the globe, uprooting routines and cutting us off from vital networks. Teachers and experts Kamenetz interviewed revealed the cascading losses of delayed emotional development, learning loss and social disconnection as schools shifted operations to remote learning.

But what about now? Have children – and schools – rebounded? What lessons for learning came out of the pandemic – and how are parents, educators and administrators applying them to everyday teaching?

To learn more about how to transform 21st century education using 21st century science, go to turnaroundusa.org.