Parents in Indiana got quite a shock last week.  The results of the spring ILEARN exams showed that only 28%  of elementary and middle school students passed both the math and English portions of the test.  It’s not surprising.  In some cities and towns, children had access to classroom learning.  Other school districts were forced to on-line classes 90% of the time, due to the Covid-pandemic.  My own grandchildren out in Washington DC never saw the inside of a classroom for most of the school year.  Next year is going to be a struggle for everyone, but especially the teachers.  What will happen to these children?  Will they every catch up, go on to college, or achieve success in life?  As someone who attended high school with World War II refugees, I believe the Covid generation will do fine.

My brother went to high school with a Jewish boy from Germany.  When he was 15 years old, his mother pushed him from a death march, and urged him to hide out in a nearby barn.  I’m not sure how long he stayed there before he was found by a US Army officer, and brought to our city.  When he entered high school, I don’t know how many school years he had missed, but I’m sure it was more than one.  At the same time, he’d lost his mother to the gas chambers in Nazi Germany.  He finished high school, graduated from Purdue, and became a successful pharmacist.

I went to a parochial school with two sisters  who’d escaped from Poland.  When they started school, they could barely speak a world of English.   For whatever reason, both of them were in my sophomore class.  One of them was two years older than the rest of us..  She had probably not gone to school for a long time.   Both were very bright, but had a lot of catching up to do.  And guess what?  They graduated high school, which meant they could have gone on to college if they so desired.  I’m don’t know what happened after that , as I went away to college and lost touch.

I’m not sure how these refugee children caught up with their fortunate American classmates.  As foreigners, they  were outsiders who didn’t enjoy a normal, 50’s social life.  No  double dates, hanging out at the drug store, or attending private  parties.  They were serious,  vastly more mature than we were,   and determined to succeed.  I would imagine they spent a lot of  hours studying at home on weekends. There were thousands of youngsters like them, spread throughout the United States after World War II. But they caught up in their studies faster than anyone would have dreamed.  So now, instead of worrying  about our kids’ dismal test scores,  let’s have some faith in their youthful resilience.  With our support and understanding, the Covid generation will do fine.