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PONTIFICAL ACADEMY FOR
LIFE
PANDEMIC AND CHALLENGES FOR EDUCATION
Children and adolescents dealing with Covid19
A “parallel” pandemic
The impact of the Covid-19
pandemic on the lives of children and adolescents requires a focus on what has
been called a “parallel pandemic.” Even if its effects are not immediately
evident, all over the world the psychosocial stress that children are subjected
to as a result of the pandemic has resulted in distress and illnesses that have
widely differing consequences based on age and social and environmental
conditions.[1]
This parallel pandemic, which
affects generations just when they are developing the energies that will fuel
their imaginations and deal with the future, will have a profound impact on the
psychology of the youth, especially adolescents. The disorientation following
from pandemic cannot fail to attract the attention of adults. But even though
the question has been raised many times, the effects of the pandemic have not
yet become a central theme of youth development. And the principal directions
the current debate do not show an adequate commitment to taking on the task.
Children and young people, to the extent they can, are showing us that, in spite
of everything, they are hoping and implicitly trusting us to deal with the
current slowdown with the resilience and creativity that are necessary for the
slowdown to be a learning experience. Not all we do must be a return to “the way
it was.” For good practices to return, we must “come to terms” with practices
where we have not taken sufficient account of the common good and individual
vulnerability.
With this Note, the Pontifical
Academy for Life, in the exercise of it mission to protect and promote life,
wants to take advantage of the experience of recent months and be aware of the
positive resources that have been developed during the pandemic, identifying
some particularly fragile and problematic areas in order to face the immediate
future with that hope that the younger generations deserve.
1. The resources that
children and adolescents have during Covid
Children and young people, in
a situation that even adults are finding unprecedented, all-encompassing and
traumatic are showing a mature ability to be sensitized to and involved in the
understanding and interpretation of the pandemic and its effects. Among the
youngest, just when greater understanding of reality is being acquired, their
sensitivity to questions and answers concerning pain, illness and treatment
increases. This sensitivity represents a first and important step in the
development of a moral conscience. It is not true that children, including very
young ones, lack a sense of empathy and the ability to understand the pain of
others: they perceive pain as a morally relevant experience. Empathy is a human
quality that always reveals itself and always surprises. No matter how lacking
in experience and relevant applications, conscience is acting from the
beginning. From the first years of life, we perceive in depth the influence of
good and evil as an inescapable theme that gives meaning to life. It is
mysterious – and often enigmatic as well – but , this sensitivity to the moral
quality of life envelops us from infancy. When confronting death, children show
a surprising understanding of the mysteriousness of this passage as well as of
the uninterrupted closeness that it represents. The very concept of God brings
to mind spontaneously a sense of complete, caring, and tender belonging An
inborn awareness of Love, a trusting recognition of the Father that even babies
are capable of.
[2]
During these tragic months, the resilience[3] that characterizes younger generations has emerged. The youth have continued to
launch themselves toward the future, despite destabilizing events, the difficult
conditions, the sometimes even serious traumas. We have seen the implementation
of resistance to gravely negative events thanks to the strength of inner
resources and external support structures. Young people know how to resist.
Children and young people are subject psychological distress and even though
they are resilient; they should not be left to their own devices. Traumatic
events must be put into a context that recognizes the meaning and significance
of shared human experiences that have been rendered harmful because traumatic.
The exercise of empathic dialogue and appropriate narrative recounting provide
necessary attention and sharing in the form of intra-familial cooperation and
collaboration between parents and local communities, as well in the
dissemination and wider distribution of stories and encounters that give
meaning, direction, and orientation to lived-out experiences.
Reconstructing events also
provides an opportunity to develop in children a trust for science. Faced
with diseases such as Covid-19, human intelligence is finding answers that
respect the principles governing scientific research. The younger generations,
raised in a highly technological and scientifically explainable world, can be
helped to recognize that science is a process of success and failure that brings
us closer to the truth. At the same time, when ideological denials of the value
of scientific research are emerging, the pandemic presents a significant
opportunity to reaffirm the value and nobility of the human being and of the
gift of one’s own intellectual abilities. The formulation of effective vaccines
was, in addition, a result of the sharing of transnational scientific expertise
and of public and private financial resources that allowed for distribution of
vaccines without charge. These processes are characteristic of the globalized
world, and we have a responsibility to point them out as positives and
opportunities.
2. Four serious and urgent
challenges
The continuing nature of the
pandemic worldwide requires us to face the near future with a specific and
shared acceptance of responsibility for the younger generations. Four areas to
which it is necessary to pay particular attention are:
2.1
Re-Open schools as fully as possible
The decision to close schools,
implemented in different ways and at different times around the world, was
justified by the scientific community on the basis of a perceived need to avoid
the spread of contagion. Experience with previous epidemics has shown the
effectiveness of this measure in achieving infection control and a flattening of
the contagion curve. On the other hand, one cannot fail to emphasize the
seriousness of such a measure, which in the future will have to be considered as
only the last resort, to be adopted in extreme cases and only after having tried
other epidemic control measures, such as different arrangements of the
classrooms, pupil transportation, scholastic life and classroom schedules.
Where, in fact, containment
measures have forced children to the continued---and often
unpredictable---practice of remote learning, the impoverishment of academic
development, the loss of formative relationships intellectual learning and the
deprivation of formative relationships have become well-known phenomena. This
awareness does not prevent us from appreciating the technological means we have
at our disposal to preserve
teaching opportunities and
pupil socialization. We must be grateful for the resources that the internet
provides and hope that they will be strengthened in areas of the world where
they are still weak. Yet it is clear that the internet is not in itself
sufficient. Then too, we shouldn’t rule out the possibility that such extreme
electronic deprivation would perhaps have stimulated a more creative and
ingenious response. In many countries, even now, the drastic lack of
possibilities for schooling is overcome by the striking obstinacy of young
pupils who walk miles to reach school and itinerant teachers who teach small
groups of pupils in their own villages, getting there by the most diverse means.
However, what many are
seeing---educators, clinicians, parents and social workers–is growing
frustration and disorientation among, in particular, adolescents. This situation
is aggravated by precedent poverty and social hardship. Education relationships
as well as social relationships lack multidimensional interaction, and this has
a negative impact on the perception of the quality of life, on the motivations
of personal formation, and on the care for social responsibility. We must
emphasize that daily school attendance is not just an educational tool. For
everyone, but particularly adolescents, it is where “life” --- relationships,
friendly ties and affective education---is learned. The closure of schools has
severed many social relations or at lease severely disrupted them.
With respect to re-opening the
schools, another five points (which are negative) are to be considered:
1) In the countries of the
Global South, the rate of early school-leaving has grown to a troubling
extent as a result of school closures. It is estimated that at least 10 million
children in the world today will not return to school. Many of them become
victims of social conditions that force them into child labor and exploitation.[4]
2) The risk of a
significant loss of acquired skills and knowledge has increased. Closings have
limited access to education, accentuating the inequalities due to the
“digital divide”[5] identified with remote learning, with the reduced ability of parents to support
their children in remote learning, and with the inequalities related to
differing types of housing.
3) The daily caloric intake
of children who live in areas where school lunches are provided has been
reduced, thus aggravating situations of economic[6]disadvantage,
which have as well increased due to the economic crisis generated by the
pandemic. To the contrary, in more developed parts of the world the closure of
schools affects lifestyles that are unhealthy by reason of diet and reduced
physical activity. Short term weight gain,[7]
even modest, can have long-term health consequences (especially a higher
incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases). Further, the discontinuance
of athletic activities has had a negative impact on human physicality, mental
acuity, and relationships.
4) The impact on the
psycho-physical, psychological, and social health of children and on the
social interaction generated by the closure of schools has generated anxiety
disorders, depression and stress. In addition, the closure of fitness centers
and social distancing measures have led to a reduction in physical activity –
recommended by the World Health Organization to last at least sixty minutes a
day for children aged between 5 and 17 years – resulting is frequent weight gain
and negativities for mental health. A reduction in outdoor activity by children
is associated with vitamin D deficiency and a worsening of myopia. Moreover, the
limitation of physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic was greater in
children whose families had to face economic difficulties or were subjected to
greater psychological stress.[8][9][10][11]
5) The closure of schools
has increased addiction to the internet, video games or television (binge
watching). The dramatic restriction of outdoor play has had serious
consequences. Neuroscientific studies show that when limiting the experiences of
play and exploration, an over-stimulation of the areas expressing sadness and
fear prevails, with negative effects on the development of the child.[12]
Faced with this dramatic
situation, the pervasive and worldwide adoption of vaccine therapies and other
preventive measures will not—by itself—solve the problem. Reacquisition of the
formational richness of social and mental interaction that is the mark of
fundamental learning and research communities is a matter for cultural
innovation, and not just for economic policies or resource allocation.
Young people help us out here
too. Mandatory school closings have made us realize how important it is to “go
to” school. Young people today believe reopening is a goal to be achieved
because they sense its educational and social value. Proof is the good results
of vaccination campaigns targeting young people and adolescents. Technology,
which has been very useful, particularly in the most developed countries and in
cities, has revealed the importance of a good and wise use of the internet and
of the resources it makes available. The future of school systems will benefit
from a wider exchange of skills and knowledge, made possible thanks to
innumerable links, online instruction, and sharing capabilities, all these
widely used during the pandemic.
2.2
Safeguarding family
relationships
The necessary expansion of
life activities within the family circle has offered the opportunity to
rediscover shared time as an opportunity, a time to be valued and used
fully, to bear much fruit. The pandemic challenges parents and families as
educators. ` A sudden and striking closeness between parents and children
restores to the family an understanding of its responsibilities. Parents are
realizing with imagination creativity a renewed presence in the lives of their
children. Parenting isn't just about sending one’s children to school and
making sure that they actually go. The closure of schools has returned
vocation to be parents and grandparents to the heart of the family. Parents
play the primary role in raising children and particularly in helping them
overcome the difficulties they experience in the new situation. This period of
pandemic offers an opportunity to reexamine challenge of education, starting
with families.
At the same time, studies show
how the pandemic has revealed the limitations of family experiences, with the
lifestyle and housing contexts in which they are inserted. Domestic violence
(including that due to the economic stress that weighs on families) has, in some
countries, experienced a 40-50% increase, while according to trustworthy data
requests for government assistance increased by 20% just in the first days of
lockdowns.[13]
Worrying signs of behavioral disorders have been noted worldwide. The
increase in parental stress after prolonged lockdowns has a direct
impact on the psychological well-being of children. It is unthinkable to face
the coming winter months without adequate support (social, cultural, urban,
economic) for families, who will continue to be called upon to bear the many
consequences of the pandemic.[14]
2.3
Education
toward universal fraternity
Since the beginning of 2020, the whole
world has been focused on an epochal problem of universal scope. This universal
scope also includes an educational challenge. A tendency to limit
cultural formation within educational horizons that are too provincial risks
eliminating broad and international dimensions. The phenomenon of Covid-19
represents a valuable opportunity to educators. Communicating the origin,
effects and consequences of the pandemic means rethinking educational tools in a
way that helps children discover and inhabit the world, not to feel like
strangers, to understand it. They are challenged to educate to a world-wide
dimension, to fraternity with all. We are “connected” not only and not really
much because we have the internet but because we are all inhabitants of the same
“common home.” Pope Francis writes in
Laudato
si’ (92): “We can hardly
consider ourselves to be fully loving if we disregard any aspect of reality:
‘Peace, justice and the preservation of creation are three absolutely
interconnected themes, which cannot be separated and treated individually
without once again falling into reductionism.’ Everything is related, and we
human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven
together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites
us….”We are at the theological heart of
that genuine witness of Christian fraternity shown in preaching a God who is a
friend to man and who calls all humankind His “friends” (Jn 15:15).
It is necessary to teach the younger
generations not to flee the prospects of globalization, the achievements of
science, the ecological challenge, the economic and social perspective with its
inequalities, the role of social media and technology. We can no longer, and
should no longer, just complain that our children are closed in on themselves
and within narrow cultural boundaries, outside the world and its problems. With
the pandemic the whole world has entered every home--that of the wealthiest and
oldest countries as well as that of those that are youngest but still
developing. It is up to the world of educators to translate all this and value
it so that the new generations might open their eyes and become more aware of
the world and of their responsibility as citizens and believers.
2.4
Transmitting
faith in the God of life
We cannot deny that even with
many virtuous examples of creativity and renewed pastoral imagination, the
pandemic has proved to be a serious source of stress for too many
ecclesial realities and has generated, not infrequently and with some reason, a
suspension of educational activities ordinarily offered by Christian communities
to children and young people. Our recent experiences require, for the immediate
future, a dutiful and urgent re-thinking of the pastoral care of the younger
generations.
The pandemic itself, as a
complex event, needs to be considered an opportunity to deepen and focus on
themes of enormous importance for education in the faith. Covid-19 offers the
opportunity to propose to the youngest children themes that perhaps have been
left too much at the margins of pastoral care before the pandemic broke out:
Where does evil come from? Where is God in this pandemic? What is the healthy
and balanced relationship that the Church proposes between science and faith?
What pages of Scripture help us understand these times? What can we say in the
face of this illness, and what can we do to accompany the sick? These are some
questions whose answers, if sought and found together with children, in a way
that is appropriate and respectful of differing age groups, will undoubtedly
constitute a source and an opportunity for growth in the faith.
The pandemic, moreover, by
keeping us at home, has re-proposed the home and the family as a “sapiential
space” of assimilation and participation in the faith, where there are gestures
and words that support, arouse and respond to the profound questions our
children raise. To this end, it is urgent to work so that, within the Christian
community, families emerge as “network nodes” on the paths of formation and
accompaniment. That way, families will give better witness of the link between
family life and community life, than does an individual family dealing with the
parish administration. In this way, we will begin to heal and life of the
community and that within the walls of the home, we will begin to heal and
bridge the excessive distance that—even before the pandemic—has separated the
life of the community from the life within the four walls of the family home,
and has impoverished both. In fact, this is what Pope Francis refers to in
Amoris Laetitia (279):
“To help expand the parental
relationship to broader realities, ‘Christian communities are called to offer
support to the educational mission of families,’ particularly through the
catechesis associated with Christian initiation. To foster an integral
education, we need to ‘renew the covenant between the family and the Christian
community”.
Conclusion
The roots of the Church's
educational concern for her youngest children reach into the very pages of the
Gospel.
“And people were
bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked
them. When Jesus saw this, he became indignant and said to them, ‘Let the
children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such
as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a
child will not enter it.’ Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his
hands on them.” (Mk 10:13-16)
The disciples did not want the
children to approach Jesus, but He rebuked them. Human society sometimes appears
more like a wicked stepmother than a mother. It leaves the little ones alone and
without answers; and the answers it offers are often dangerous and harmful.
The Catholic Church, learning
from the experience of the pandemic, points out the urgency of removing the
serious obstacles that prevent, in the world, a healthy and positive entry of
children and adolescents into society, and calls for the creation of all the
conditions necessary for this to happen. Children must attend school. Let the
children go to school! This is the renewed appeal that comes from the pandemic.
Let the school be a healthy environment, where knowledge and the science of life
together, and of relationships, are learned. Let the little ones have good
teachers, aware of the talents of each pupil, able to be patient and to listen.
It is also necessary to feel in our
hearts – and in our pastoral action – the commitment to bringing the young to
Jesus and to teaching them in His school. Let the children know Jesus, healer of
souls and bodies, let them go to Him with their questions, their resilience and
their own journey of faith. The pandemic has reminded everyone of the need to
face the authentic and heartfelt questions of young people that are their
response to a sudden and collective evil. Addressing the answers to these
questions as part of the initiation into the faith is an opportunity not to be
missed. The Covid-19 epidemic is a global phenomenon that once again lays down
the challenge of opening minds and hearts to a broad and world-wide reality.
Pope Francis reminded us of this in his message of October 15, 2020, on the
occasion of the Global Compact on Education: “We
also know that the journey of life calls for hope grounded in solidarity. All
change requires a process of education in order to create new paradigms capable
of responding to the challenges and problems of the contemporary world, of
understanding and finding solutions to the needs of every generation, and in
this way contributing to the flourishing of humanity now and in the future.”
Vatican City,
December 22, 2021
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