Just a quick note to parents everywhere struggling with older kids’ academic progress this year: don’t. It’s going to be ok. Your kids are resilient. They will be fine. I have a 3 anecdotes for you that may give a different perspective if you’d like to read:

1) when we first moved to the USA the school system wanted to place me in ESL classes. My mom refused. I stayed home from Oct to the following Aug and skipped all of 6th grade. She made me watch a lot of Sesame Street and help her business.

It was during this time I figured out to maintain her 286 PC, her fax machine and her giant copy machine. I installed operating systems, folded biz letters and learned to type. I learned to pack and ship tile samples, and watcher her plan the booth for trading expos.

I watched her speak with customers from the home office, in three languages, and follow up on shipping , VAT, customs and learned to calculate how many pallets filled a standard sized container. I learned it took time to ship things around the world. I was 12yo.

2) when I was 16 I was stuck in Brasil waiting for immigration legal matters to get sorted out. I lost a year of school and had to restart 10th grade. I had the chance to explore my love of computers further, but most importantly watched the rebirth of the economy of Brazil

In 1994 Brazil was just coming out of a deep economic depression with hyperinflation. I watched as the news explained macroeconomics to people so they didn’t fall into old habits that would spur hyperinflation again. The gov pinned the value of of the currency against the dollar

They also froze the price of certain goods and created fiscal policies to penalize merchants that practiced gouging. I watched a country reinvent itself right before my eyes and win the World Cup. It was a lesson I never forgot

3) A year ago we had a plan to travel the country in what we thought was a road-ready motorhome. So we took our 8th grader out of school in preparation for that trip and home schooled her. Actually she schooled herself. We just looked over the plans she created

Only thing she was required to follow was the TN math standards every day. Anything else she could explore on her own. She loved it, we learned a lot about civil rights, and science was “whatever you can find on YouTube/Netflix that I can vet”. Reading was free choice.

The trip never happened because the motorhome had a fatal (unknown at the time) flaw in its fuel system. But she learned about that too, about engines and how to do basic engine maintenance. We also learned about termites and water damage and why our fuel filter kept clogging.

She wasn’t particularly self driven at the time. She learned to set goals, keep a planner, create and follow a plan. We just vetted it. She uses the same system now and has been rocking distanced learning because of it, manages her own time despite waking up at noon! (Ugh)

Yes there wasn’t a pandemic but we didn’t suffer academically from similar isolation, I’d say we expanded our knowledge beyond what school gave us. Older kids especially are getting to watch you interact with people at work just as I watched my mom speak with customers and peers.

The point is: they *are* learning! They are learning life skills. They are learning about rights and responsibilities of citizenship. They are learning how quickly life can change and they will live fuller lives because of it. It’s going to be ok.

Between election and BLM and Supreme Court and epidemiology and economic relief bills, and service industry, and ventilation these kids are learning a ton... talk to them. Hugs to all the stressed out parents out there. It’s tough now, but it’ll be ok. Grades aren’t everything