26 Comments
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Denise Champney's avatar

I look forward to watching your documentary! One of the effects of the pandemic policies that seems to have taken hold of the education system even more is the reliance of technology to educate. Now it seems every child, as young as kindergarten have their own device and are required to use it to learn to read, write and do math. School districts now rely even more on online curriculums and I would argue these so call educational programs cause more harm than good. I believe sadly that kids will continue to fall further behind in their skills. Thank you for your voice on this topic!!

Jonni Sue Hovan's avatar

I want every single parent, educator and politician in the COUNTRY to watch her documentary!

lhw's avatar

I agree! During the pandemic, all of my 7th grader's math assignments were electronic. He never was held accountable for taking notes, or showing his work, and his quizzes and tests were all multiple choice. He pretty much guessed his way through 7th grade math and had to repeat the class. You don't learn math with a chromebook. Sometimes old school is really the best way.

Denise Champney's avatar

Exactly, never mind all the behavioral issues that arise with middle schoolers and computers. Plus all the time they spend looking at a screen rather than interacting with each other. It is really sad.

Sanity Jane's avatar

The NYT is completely compromised. Thanks for calling them out. 🙏🏾

Sanity Jane's avatar

PS new trailer is great. I’m looking forward to seeing the doc. ✨

Peter From NH's avatar

The data showed that this was a disease of the old from the beginning. And not as dangerous as the left wanted everyone to believe. Just a disgrace.

Not so young anymore.'s avatar

I would like to see a story about all the women who gave birth alone and all the people who died alone. That to me is beyond scandalous. It’s heartless. We could have allowed each mom who was giving birth one person and each very ill dying person one person to stay with them. Testing was available fairly quickly and these people could have gowned and masked.

Doug's avatar

How about the parents of those same kids who were stuck at home? Yeah, lots of professionals were able to work their “desk” jobs from home, and teachers could teach from the convenience of their living room, but there were many, many parents (single moms) who had to work in hospitals, restaurants, markets, etc. who had to arrange for someone to look after their kids, or who had to arrange to take days off so they could share responsibilities with other parents. To say I’m infuriated with the NYT and other like minded media is to truly understate my real feelings.

Meth Bear's avatar

Great point. Obviously the children and service workers you mentioned suffered the worst impacts, but as someone who has been working remotely with a laptop job for a decade, being subjected to completely unnecessary school closures for months on end put a massive strain on my physical and mental health, and my marriage. Way too many nights working til 1am after splitting a full day of childcare with my wife.

Knowing many others in society had it way worse than me only added to the fury I still feel at the NYT, government bodies, teachers unions, and everyone else who gave in to full blown moral panic, and then hounded anyone who tried to reasonably dissent.

I suspect we’re seeing this tepid walk back from elite media and politicians because they are finally realizing how much anger and distrust they have created as we approach an election year. Never let them off the hook, and vote accordingly next year.

Tina Stolberg's avatar

Not only should The NY Times and major news media apologize and report on continued harms, they should be reporting on opposition voices concerning the WHO Pandemic Treaty, the denial of harm by CDC and the fact they still push vaccines for kids, the taxpayer funding of Fauci’s celebrity tour, the continued bioengineering of bat virus, and whatever monkey business Bill Gates is into these days. There’s still plenty wrong the Times can get ahead of sooner than later.

baker charlie's avatar

Thank you. Your documentary will be a wonderful addition to our fight against this madness.

Dee Rambeau's avatar

Really? Who knew? 😫

Todd R Porter, MD, MSPH's avatar

Thank you for using your voice and the platform that you have. As a pediatrician outside of Denver at the time I worked with Jeffco Kids First and Lindsay Datko to fight for all children harmed by zero COVID policies. We were silenced, ignored, and lost job opportunities as a result of our advocacy. What was so hard to reconcile is that the very people we were advocating against were pediatricians, medical professionals, public health, and schools. All the very people one would think would stand up for children. @smalltownpeddoc

Not so young anymore.'s avatar

As a pediatrician in the Midwest I can remember epidemics or pandemics where kids got sick. We needed extra urgent care and ER sessions to take care of these kids. Trust me this didn’t happen during Covid. It was never a pediatric disease.

Jonni Sue Hovan's avatar

I don't need the NYT to tell me this. I have 85 freshman. Of that 85 (standard/not honors English) I have staggering data that shows more than 50% are not prepared for the rigors of high school. 28 cannot compose a full sentence. 5 cannot read and another 5 rely on copying peers and AI to produce assignments. But the worst part is: they re-entered the school environment addicted to screen culture. They can't get their faces out of their phones. Real life means nothing and Tik Tock (owned and operated by the Communist Chinese Party) is the law of the land. So much so that they know nothing about the world around them and only respond to what is "trending".

Herbert Klitzner's avatar

I remember reading from multiple sources that children have little risk from Covid and could never understand why they were forced to get vaccinated by a new vaccine with little history of safety. Same thought about school closures.

So why on earth would the Times push the vaccine/ closure policies? What is wrong with them?

Vulkan's avatar

Don’t ever give praise to the NYT. They hate you and will trample over you the first chance they get.

Richard Koffler's avatar

Obvious: the Times could never ever publish anything that contradicted the teachers union.

Larry Schweikart's avatar

Jennifer, thank you for your columns. I consider you the "Naomi Wolf of the West Coast." Taken together, your recent pieces on learning loss and the collapse of "elite" society in NYC, ostensibly due to Covid (or, as I prefer, the China Virus, are insightful. However, as Jean Twenge points out, this learning loss/inability to read, etc all started with the intro of the IPad and distribution of mobile phones to "youts." (My Cousin Vinny). However, I ALSO think that it cannot be understood without finally submitting to the notions that progressive liberalism in America is a thoroughly destructive force, especially in culture.

Joel Hatcher's avatar

actual journalism is dead; the media has been the propaganda arm of the government for at least two decades now

Not so young anymore.'s avatar

They fired their science reporter Don McNeil because he answered a question regarding the N word using the N word with a bunch of high schoolers on some super expensive trip. Of course they didn’t feel safe. Pitched a fit. And a really good reporter gets fired so they hired this idiot who knew nothing.

DIPPY's avatar

The obvious way to get a child, or adult for that matter, on a path to learning accountability is to increase the time or days, and limit the time in non core activity. That which gets measured, gets done.