How are teens mental health and learning journey going after the pandemic and what changed about their motivation for school 

Students at Carver have experienced depression and social anxiety due to the pandemic in 2020. While some people think that it's gotten better, other people are still struggling to get back to how they were before.

Covid-19  has had  a very big impact on students at Carver regarding their education, social anxiety, and mental state. Students till this day are still being affected by it because they can't seem to find that same motivation they had for school before the pandemic 

“ My social anxiety has definitely gone up because of the pandemic. I got so used to not being   around people for so long that it affected how I operated talking to people in person.”

As children get back into the routine of being at in person school some of those habits from quarantine are still stuck with them and are still in the nature of it. 

“Once we got back to in person school i struggled with being on top of my work and lost motivation to get it done because i was so used to being in the house and not doing as much work so the workload definitely hit me really hard but overtime it got better as i started to get used to it again”.

Some students were not comfortable about going to the counselor with their problems that they were having with adjusting to being back in school after the pandemic, they weren't as open to talking about what they went through and how it affected them and is still affecting them.

“I think that as a counselor we really have to be there for the kids and make sure it's not too overwhelming and that they are able to get their work done without too much stress. The pandemic had such a big impact on the kids at the school they started to fall back on work , not be as social , also acting out a little bit more.

It's hard for kids to actually open up about how they feel especially in high school so once the pandemic happened they kind of lost touch on how to express themselves and how they felt about what they went through , that's why we have school counselors so that way we have someone to talk to outside of home and they can be a safe space , this one particular topic was very emotional for a lot of people so talking it out would help a lot get off their chest.

“I feel as if being inside and not being able to have a social life was hard on them because it's all about growing up and being able to converse with different people, and they got so used to hiding  behind the screen that they lost their way. When kids did come to me about how they were feeling I got a lot of insight on how they lost their motivation to get their work done and to socialize. I did make sure that they knew that overtime we will get back to how it used to be, and be right back to normal”.

Being behind the same four walls of your home for over 2 years stuck behind a screen and not having any real connection to people anymore feels weird and can be hard especially for students. Students' mental health went all over the place and there were lots of depression cases for kids which was a horrible thing which made a lot of things difficult.

“Students' mental health was raging through the roof after quarantine and coming back to in person school. It took a big toll on them and it was hard to actually get used to being back in school and being around people again but over time it did get back to the way it was even though some kids still have trouble with actually wanting to do their work”.

This pandemic has caused deaths, mental strains, depression , and unemployment. For everyone it was very hard to deal with getting used to that norm but everyone did their best to get things back to the way that they were while doing what had to be done and following the rules even though it was hard.

“Yes this pandemic has done a lot of damage but we can't let that affect the young minds of today because they are the future and we need them to be as strong as possible so whatever we can do to help them get through these hard times then we must do it”.