r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Sep 09 '24

Neuroscience Covid lockdowns prematurely aged girls’ brains more than boys’, study finds. MRI scans found girls’ brains appeared 4.2 years older than expected after lockdowns, compared with 1.4 years for boys.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/09/covid-lockdowns-prematurely-aged-girls-brains-more-than-boys-study-finds
29.5k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/bristlybits Sep 10 '24

out of curiosity, if distance learning and not being in a class setting is this damaging when only done for a few weeks, why do we allow people to homeschool their kids at all? surely they must show similar kinds of trouble, since they are never in a classroom, and study only at home. the same way as was done during "lockdown" (our state extended spring break and students missed one month, neighboring state was closed for about two weeks.)

if only a few weeks did this damage, certainly years of this same treatment would be even worse?

-1

u/Jah_Ith_Ber Sep 10 '24

Homeschooled kids have more involved parents than the general population. Their parents are paying attention and actively nurturing their childs mental development.

1

u/bristlybits Sep 11 '24

if this was a lock down, the parents were at home and involved, right? 

0

u/Jah_Ith_Ber Sep 11 '24

No. They were at home. But they were not involved. Parents refuse to engage with their kids material. I've met parents that pretend they can't do 3rd grade math because they don't want to sit down with their kid and help them. I teach English as a second language and the parents I know won't even sit down to study vocabulary with their kid using flashcards or word lists because "they don't know English".