POINTS OF VIEW

The problems in education: It is the adults failing us

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Much has been said about the academic toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on students. But an argument can be made that it’s actually the adults who are responsible — it’s the adults who are failing.

For starters, as difficult as the pandemic has been for students, the adult response has often exacerbated the problem, and it is far from the only major issue they face. They are equally aware of the existential threat posed by climate change, and many of them have become serious activists at a young age in this regard.

Many find it extremely exasperating that so little is being done by world leaders and other adults to solve this crisis. They wonder why schools and jobs were shut down for the Covid-19 pandemic, but not in relation to climate change. That is a legitimate question, and it would ease their frustration to see more tangible government action taken against the threat to the planet.

The fact is that although a fund was established to help poor countries facing climate disasters, the last COP27 Climate Summit in Egypt concluded with inadequate solutions for cutting emissions.

Moreover, the frequency of school shootings has not lessened in their lifetimes. In fact, they rose to their highest number in 20 years in 2020. Mass shootings, especially in schools, weigh heavily on the consciousness of American teenagers. And, as with climate change, they clearly see a void where political action belongs.

This unchecked violence is another area where students feel alarm, fury and exasperation. They feel nobody cares. And while lockdown drills and sheltering-in-place have become commonplace during their lifetimes, they surely do not help with morale.

And they imagine that students in Uvalde, Texas, were killed while doing both.

Furthermore, my students worried about the prospects of war long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While adults seem to have made an uneasy peace with the threat of another world war and the additional existential threat of a nuclear conflict, my students have not. One of them actually knew a fellow teenager in Ukraine, a connection which brought the war home to the class in a personal and disturbing way.

Add to the above concerns the notable escalation in political division and extremist right-wing violence in the United States. Plus the over-scheduled academic and extra-curricular pressure many students function under. And the broad acknowledgment of a growing mental health crisis among American teenagers. It all might seem inevitable.

Meanwhile, a college degree seems ever more competitive, crucial — and expensive.

For all of the above reasons I involved them with a time-capsule where their voices could be heard for posterity. Because to actively engage with the future is a way to foster hope and optimism about our ability to overcome the existential threats we face as a society.

“The Great Pandemics Archive” is currently under construction to document the multiple pandemics we face: chiefly, Covid-19 and racism, and to capture “the toll and enormity these last years have taken on our collective consciousness.” It is being assembled by New York City artists and social archivists Jamie Courville and Ed Woodham, who invited my students and me to participate by submitting original artwork.

The process of producing works for this time capsule highlighted the fraught environment my students are growing up in. The majority of the students chose to tackle Covid-19 instead of racism, which suggests that despite Covid’s enormous challenges, racism was perceived as even harder to confront. Their images make clear that the picture for young people is distressing, and that platforms for them to voice their feelings on the matter are tremendously useful.

It can feel shameful to be an adult among the youth when adults are so intensely failing them on so many fronts. Watching my students come of age during these difficult times can be disheartening, but it can also be inspiring. Through the arts especially, they skillfully express their creative genius, their spirited sense of humor, and their remarkable political awareness and social engagement.

They are much more attuned to more sweeping realities than I was at their age, although they are much more exhausted.

They are stressed but irrepressible, and they give me faith in the future they represent.

They are survivors. Strivers. And someday soon, I hope, thrivers.

The author is an artist and art educator in New York City

Nicky Enright, education, adults, parents, coronavirus

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