Don't Mention The Learning Loss

The issue of government school closures and the effect of an entire generation of kids is something that I've referred to regularly. Today Steve Sailer comments on a NYT article, in which we learn that, among Liberals, there's a debate whether this issue should even be mentioned. 

What does this tell us about the state of America? Nothing good. I mean, what kind of weird country closes its government schools and then tries to cancel discussion of the obviously harmful effects? 

Sailer begins with these general comments which mirror another of my favorite themes--the denial of reality in neo-gnostic ideology:

Sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick famously said, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”

But during the Not So Great Reset, an increasingly powerful belief is that reality will go away if we just stop talking about it.

That's the Lib/Prog worldview in a nutshell.

Sailer then goes on to quote from the NYT article. It seems "educators" are leery of discussing the documented fact that kids ... aren't getting educated. This is typical of the Compassion of Liberals. They're not so much worried about the lack of education and socialization. No, they're worried that talking about this lack of learning could harm the kids. I kid you not. According to the author the "roiling debate" is not the fact that kids aren't learning and are falling behind--quite possibly permanently. No, the "roiling debate" is whether to document (what we already know) and even whether to mention it:

Does It Hurt Children to Measure Pandemic Learning Loss?

Research shows many young children have fallen behind in reading and math. But some educators are worried about stigmatizing an entire generation.

By Dana Goldstein
Published April 8, 2021

… Ms. Bonilla’s experience illustrates a roiling debate in education, about how and even whether to measure the academic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the nation’s children — and how to describe learning gaps without stigmatizing or discouraging students and families.

Studies continue to show that amid the school closures and economic and health hardships of the past year, many young children have missed out on mastering fundamental reading and math skills. ...

But others are pushing back against the concept of “learning loss,” especially on behalf of the Black, Hispanic and low-income children who, research shows, have fallen further behind over the past year. They fear that a focus on what’s been lost could incite a moral panic that paints an entire generation as broken, and say that relatively simple, common-sense solutions can help students get back up to speed. …

Others go further, arguing that regardless of what terminology is used, standardized testing to measure the impact of the pandemic is unnecessary or even actively harmful.

So these "educators" are concerned about harm to the children. Who would ever think they might actually be concerned with covering their own behinds, their own moral failure in abandoning the kids to the tender mercies of the government educratic establishment--run by the government teachers unions?

Because the self interest of government educrats is the real issue, as we learn toward the end:

Debates about the extent of missed learning are more than academic. If remote school is actively harming children’s skill development, it becomes harder for teachers’ unions, school boards or administrators to argue that schools should remain shuttered as vaccines roll out across the nation, or should operate only on limited schedules.

No doubt the argument for school closing does become harder. But where there's a will there's a way. And the will of the government teachers to continue the Covid regime as long as possible is powerful. And the will of Dem politicians to cross the government teachers unions is ... not so powerful. One way to accomplish that goal--of avoiding the debate over school closures--is simply to cancel discussion of learning loss.

Again, what does this tell us about the state of our country--that "roiling debates" like this are even taking place?