englishproblems:sailororbiter:The absolute audacity of a system that continues to fail our children,
englishproblems:sailororbiter:The absolute audacity of a system that continues to fail our children, but still tries to keep control over them. Suck my dick, disrespectfully.Yes the system continues to fail our kids and control them. But I don’t think that’s what this is. This actually could help kids, even if the school isn’t communicating that clearly. Hear me out. The reason not to wear pajamas to online school is because it’s bad for your mental health and productivity in school. By changing out of pajamas into different clothes, you send a signal to your brain that you’re entering a different part of the day and it’s time to focus. In the beginning of the 2020 school year, I worked in a high school helping students adjust to virtual learning and stay focused. Many students who weren’t changing out of pajamas or getting out of bed to do virtual learning complained that it was hard to focus and this school year was depressing. I gave them three tips to help them focus better:- Get out of bed. Your bed is too comfortable and you won’t want to work in it. Plus, if you spend all day in bed, it becomes harder to fall asleep at night, beginning a vicious cycle. Anyone who has struggled with getting out of bed due to their mental health experience knows how difficult focusing becomes on day four or five of this cycle and how much worse your mental health becomes. - Change out of your pajamas. Here’s where I differ from schools saying “no pajamas period.” As I told the students I worked with, I don’t care if you change into different pajamas. Just change out of the warm, cozy pajamas you slept in to send that signal to your brain that you’re entering a different part of the day. Sure, ideally, everyone would jump out of bed and get dressed in an exciting new outfit everyday, but we don’t always have that energy. So maybe we just start with changing our night groufit for our daytime groufit. The effect of changing your clothes and putting in effort to start the day still work. - Work at a table, not from bed. Again, this idea of having separate spaces for work and for sleep will help you work and sleep better. One of my students didn’t have access to a chair and table because of their siblings also doing school from home. There just wasn’t the table space. So they decided the end of their bed away from their pillows and with their lap desk was their school spot. Then the head of the bed with all the comfy pillows was for relaxing/sleeping. Even a small distinction like this can help.- Bonus tip! If you wear shoes in your house, try putting on shoes at the beginning of the day even if you’re likely not going outside that day. Putting on shoes is another great signal to your brain that you are getting ready to be productive. Some people wear lace up shoes to really make the commitment of tying your shoes on and starting your day. Students were usually hestitant about these tips. They liked being in their pajamas. Their bed was comfortable. They didn’t want to change, but they did want to see a change in their academic performance. And I don’t just mean grades. These students were frustrated beyond belief that they weren’t understanding the material and I could see it affecting their meantal health and view of self worth. So some of them tried these tips. For some students, the change was instant. They were able to understand the material and participate in class in a way they hadn’t been before. For some students, the change was slower. They started to see the benefits of changing out of their pajamas, but weren’t ready to try all three tips at once. They had to work up to it. And that’s fine. Honestly, that’s great! That means it was hard and they are trying to do what they can anyway to build energy to do more. What more can we ask of them during virtual learning during a pandemic than to just try?So when schools are saying “no pajamas!” I think (hope) it’s their way of trying to support the student, though the messaging likely doesn’t come through, especially when schools are so controlling about clothing for girls, trans students, etc. And there is definitely a conversation to be had about when and how they enforce clothing policies. To me (and I understand I may be naive and hopeful in this belief) this seems more like mental health care badly communicated. -- source link