Olivia Benson: coming of age in the pandemic
“I have a photo. Christie could see him, but they wouldn’t let the kids in. The photo is of his hand on one side of the window and theirs on the other. That just broke me.”
“I have a photo. Christie could see him, but they wouldn’t let the kids in. The photo is of his hand on one side of the window and theirs on the other. That just broke me.”
There is societal dissonance between knowing children need mental health support and the lack of access they actually have. “[Students] are trying to be more present and authentic, which is really positive but also really difficult. We’re giving young people so much more emotional responsibility and not making any space for it. We’re still giving them all the responsibilities with homework and with after school activities, and yet [not giving] them time to process any of this.”
She discussed the absurdity of distancing when there were increased class sizes that were the result of the 2019 budget freeze and a growing school population. “The laughter when the policies came out about how kids are supposed to be two metres apart at school? Oh my Lord, like I mean, if you would have kept our class sizes capped?”
“When the UCP started announcing their education policies, the open hostility and contempt for educators [was] rampant editorially, in the media, and on social media. That was a really challenging time for our profession. It was a snippet of what we’re now seeing with the anti-intellectualism and anti-science and that’s been persistent for the last 18 months.”
”I always remember that moment. That’s the moment that everyone went, ‘Oh well, I guess this is what we’re doing.’ Up until then, I really felt like we were all in it together and that most reasonable people were giving it their honest best, but at that point everyone took their cue from the government and went, ‘We’re not trying.’”
She continued, “Elizabeth has the same teacher as in kindergarten, so I know her. I’ve had nothing but an email introduction from Sophia’s teacher. This is very different from in previous years.” Simonson explained, “Last year, I would pick the girls up and we talked to the teachers every day. Now there is a designated area outside for kindergarten and Sophia wanders over to the pickup point as she’s out first.”
“There was a period at the beginning where our parcel volumes met our Christmas levels. One to two million parcels per day, Canada wide. It was an incredible amount.” He continued, “But you realize all retail had closed and people were ordering online.