Otha Thornton, a past-president of the National Parents Teachers Association and a national education advocate, told Dr. Chavis that he\u2019s advising organizations nationwide on mental issues in the African American community.<\/p>\n
He said there\u2019s been an increase in mental health problems since the pandemic began.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s being aggravated because of the challenges due to mental health,\u201d Thornton mentioned. \u201cKids with special needs are getting their needs met, and we have a large number of kids falling behind their grade level.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe education gap is widening because these kids don\u2019t have support within the public school. Education begins at home, whether informal or formal. If the child comes from a home that doesn\u2019t have resources, even magazines to read, it sets back reading skills and abilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents are working or stressed because they don\u2019t have jobs. One of the things I\u2019m pushing as an advisor is to focus on mental issues because it\u2019s my assessment that when [in-person learning] returns, students will be behind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe education gap is widening because these kids don\u2019t have support within the public school. Education begins at home, whether informal or formal. If the child comes from a home that doesn\u2019t have resources, even magazines to read, it sets back reading skills and abilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362,27,31,576,1519,36,1051,1832,39,932,1553,1844,1102,1816,415],"tags":[2330,75,2548,79,2550,2508,2551,84,2547,2549,1396,420],"class_list":["post-1943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-education","category-featured","category-k-12-education","category-k-12-public-schools","category-national","category-national-news","category-news","category-nnpa","category-public-schools","category-standardized-tests","category-stem","category-teachers","category-technology","category-video","tag-dr-benjamin-f-chavis-jr","tag-education","tag-education-gap","tag-featured","tag-grade-level","tag-in-person-learning","tag-kids-falling-behind","tag-national","tag-otha-thornton","tag-public-school","tag-students","tag-video"],"yoast_head":"\n