Learning Loss Because of the Pandemic by Madalyn

Learning Loss Because of the Pandemic by Madalyn - April 2022 Scholarship Essay

The pandemic impacted our lives in many ways, but one way it impacted that I feel will be felt for generations to come is how it impacted our education. Both of my parents are educators. I hear them discuss many things during dinners but a topic that came coming up during their conversations that had me intrigued was how literacy affected elementary students in ways that no one can imagine and I knew that I wanted to get involved.

During the pandemic, many young elementary children at my father's elementary school lost the ability to go to school because their parents didn't want to risk sending them to school due to having elderly grandparents and didn't want to risk infecting them with COVID. Staying home hurt children. Children did not have the opportunity to have a teacher for over a year, which meant that not only their literacy skills but math skills were affected. Now some people may not understand how important literacy is but I know, because I come from a home of two educators, that if you can't read by 1st grade you will struggle with school for the rest of your life. I left kindergarten reading at a 3rd-grade level because from a young age my parents instilled in me a love for reading and now I'm about to graduate high school not only as of the valedictorian of our class but with an associate's degree from South Texas College. Knowing how much it affected all these young children, I asked my father how I could volunteer.

When I began to volunteer as a reading tutor the biggest lesson I learned is not to take anything for granted. Many of these children are behind in academics because of their lack of resources to someone who knows English and can read. I live in South Texas; you can literally see the border from the town where I live. The majority, I would say 99%, of our community, is Hispanic. Many just migrated to the United States and are lacking a lot of literacy. It is very unfortunate that many of these children were never read to so therefore it is hard to make connections across the text. They lack a lot of experiences that sometimes help us as readers to understand the text. As a child who was considered middle class, I had experiences. I may not have lived in the best house and my parents didn't drive the best cars but they took us places, which in turn helped me in school. I was also read to as a baby and throughout my early years. My parents spoke about the importance of an education every single day. So if there is one thing I learned while tutoring an elementary school is not to take anything for granted. There are so many children out there who are so behind academically simply because of their circumstances and to me, that is very unfortunate. Those children have to make sacrifices and many efforts just to get ahead.