It's Called Covid

Teachers in England are noticing that students and their parents have been behaving exceedingly poorly over the past few years.

The story focuses on the lockdowns, and only states that, "Since Covid, people seem to be far less tolerant."

You don't just see this in schools.  You see it on the streets, where drivers are more aggressive, and in customer service, etc.

This is not people forgetting how to be social because of lock-downs, this is people suffering significant and long-lasting brain injury from Covid:

Headteachers in England have described a culture of non-compliance among pupils, as talks were held to try to avert further strikes at a school in Kent where staff walked out over student behaviour.

The Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey hit the headlines last week after members of the National Education Union took strike action over fears for their safety, complaining of assaults and threats of violence.

While the problems at the school appear particularly acute, Guardian interviews with school leaders elsewhere revealed widespread concern about deteriorating behaviour among pupils, coupled with a lack of support for school policies from some parents, both issues highlighted in the Ofsted annual report last week.

………

Student behaviour is now “completely different” from what it used to be, she said.

“In the past students were in lessons. They might be disruptive in lessons and you’d have to deal with that kind of behaviour.

“But there’s a new thing coming up in schools in the last year and a half – students are turning up to school, but they don’t go into any lessons and they just wander around the building. They want to come for the social, but they don’t want to go into their lessons.

………

Nick Hurn, CEO at Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust, which has schools in Durham, Gateshead, Northumberland and Sunderland, said it was still only a small minority causing problems in schools.

“Since Covid, people seem to be far less tolerant, certainly parents, and that communicates itself to students as well,” he said.

Everyone looks at this, and assumes that this is the result of the disruption from the lock-downs.  It isn't.

The data is very clear.  By every measure, the psychological health and well-being of students IMPROVED during lock-down. 

Covid frequently causes an insult to the brain, whether through damage of structures or through inflammation.

We see this in emotional outbursts ans difficulty focusing.

A significant portion of students, and what is probably an even larger portion of adults, are neurologically compromised.

I don't know how to address this, but wringing ones hands over the social consequences of the initial lock-down of students is about a useful as tits on a bull.