The value of student voice during the pandemic

By Cesar Armendariz

In the middle of the pain, grief, and nonsense of 2020, we have made learning possible. In what seems like the blink of an eye, the ecosystem that makes up the world of education came together to build and sustain virtual classrooms. Parents, guardians, teachers, counselors, administrators, and classified personnel have made countless sacrifices to give children a chance to learn during this pandemic.

Teachers in particular have sacrificed sleep and quality time with family to modify virtual lesson plans to meet the unique needs of each student. Even though children have risen to the occasion and overcome many challenges, this pandemic has taken a toll on them. Many students have experienced overwhelming circumstances that have inhibited the learning process.

The easiest way to bring respite to students is to return to the classroom as soon as possible. However, the current spike of COVID cases makes a safe January return improbable. If virtual learning continues to be the only safe option for students to attend school, we owe it to them to work as a community to improve their learning experience by increasing our efforts to honor their struggles.

One of the biggest struggles students faced this semester was finding the motivation to learn. When a student consistently misses Zoom meetings or routinely turns in late assignments, it is easy to assume that the student is being lazy or that the student is not taking learning seriously.

However, it would be wrong to assume that students have an inherent character flaw, such as laziness, that prevents them from completing schoolwork. What we consider laziness is likely a behavior that represents a symptom of a problem, rather than the problem itself. To understand why students are struggling to find motivation, we must consider their physical environment and emotional state.

Even if we were to disregard the social, racial, and economic barriers and trauma that students face on a “normal” year, we cannot disregard that students are experiencing the full effects of a worldwide pandemic. Nothing about this experience feels normal to children. The simple act of showing up to school through a computer screen is a daily reminder to students that their world is not safe.

If the world was as safe as they have known it to be, they would be learning inside the classroom walls with their peers. Millions of students in the US are living in fear because they have seen their relatives and friends get sick. Hundreds of thousands of students are grieving the death of family members whose lives were taken by the virus.

This environment has created a general fear and anxiety that is overburdening the brain’s cognitive processing power. This is diminishing our brain’s ability to retain, recall, and prioritize tasks and information.

Adults who have dealt with anxiety over the years might have many tools to cope with these negative effects, but most children do not have that luxury. It is no wonder that children are feeling drained and exhausted – in addition to staring at a computer screen throughout the day, their brains are incessantly struggling to make sense of their environment day and night.

Traditionally, most children rely on the web of healthy relationships at schools to sort through complex thoughts and emotions. However, social distancing and quarantine have disrupted these relationships.

During a typical year, students eat meals together, play games together, laugh together, cry together, and grow together. This semester, students have had fewer opportunities to interact meaningfully and authentically with each other. Since the pandemic began, students have felt increasing loneliness and isolation. It has been hard for children to feel like they belong to a community of loving and caring people. This is especially difficult for many students with disabilities who are generally excluded from the school community during the typical year.

Unfortunately for students, social isolation has adverse health consequences such as anxiety, depression, and sleep impediments. On a cellular level, loneliness affects the brain’s prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala. These areas of the brain are responsible for many of the tasks that are essential for learning including, decision making, goal setting, long and short-term memory, and emotional regulation. Children who are feeling lonely and isolated might be unaware that they are fighting an invisible battle to focus on schoolwork.

Students everywhere are fighting all sorts of invisible battles during this pandemic. It is important that we, as adults, remind them they are not fighting alone. This is a good opportunity for the adults in school and at home to be vulnerable with children. It is okay to admit that we too are struggling with anxiety, depression, and stress; that we too are exhausted and overworked; that even the adults cannot get through this alone. When adults demonstrate vulnerability, it invites children to speak up about their own struggles. And in the world of education, student voice is everything. Only by sharing their challenges and struggles can students help us identify the systemic issues and barriers that are affecting their learning experience.

We must encourage every child to share their stories, and in return, we must listen with compassion, empathy, and a commitment to act. Our task as adults is to treat students as partners in our journey to improve and transform the learning environment. The most effective solutions to educational issues always emanate from the collaboration between adults and children. As children share their stories, adults can play an important role by helping children navigate the bureaucratic process so their voices can be amplified and reach the ears of the decision-makers in our community.

Throughout this pandemic, children have showcased their brilliance, creativity, compassion, and resilience. They have shown us that they are able and willing to be agents of change for themselves and for others. By listening to children and partnering with them as co-advocates for change, we help transform the institutions and the children themselves. When children believe that their voices matter, they become motivated to take charge of all aspects of their life, including schoolwork. Listening to children is not the only way we are going to help improve their lives and learning experience, but it is a good start.

Cesar Armendariz is a teacher at Downey High School. The views expressed in this article are his own and are not necessarily representative of Downey High School, Downey Unified School District, nor any other institution.