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Title: I’m a Public School Teacher. The Kids Aren’t Alright.

Ramit Sharma

301232798

Centennial College

COMM 171 -039

Professor Jean Chang

Aug 5, 2022
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I’m a Public School Teacher. The Kids Aren’t Alright

The Covid-19 pandemic has seriously affected the mental and emotional well being of

students. It has changed their way of thinking and understanding. This concern is expressed

by Stacey in her article, “I’m a Public School Teacher. The Kids Aren’t Alright” in which she

explained the devastating effects of the COvid-19 pandemic and imposed restrictions on

movement on the students’ mental, physical and psychological health. The writer presents his

own personal experience about the ill effects of the pandemic on the students. The writer is

effective in delivering the message of the article with her personal life story using techniques

like anecdote, historical facts and emotional words because she engaged the audience with

her emotional appeal and experiences she had after the opening of school. (Lance, 2022)

Firstly, she describes by stating an anecdote that students perceive their schools as a hub for

infections and they are vectors of disease. This has changed the fundamental thinking of the

students and how they perceive themselves. Students are not able to concentrate on studies

after the pandemic. They fear coming to schools either due to virus infection or social

anxiety. The same thing can be seen in the secondary article “Effects of COVID-19 pandemic

and lockdown on lifestyle and mental health of students: A retrospective study from Karachi,

Pakistan” stating changes in sleep pattern and perception of time in the students. (Ali, et. Al,

2022) The students are experiencing data learning loss and mental health crisis due to the

pandemic. The author uses descriptive and imagery techniques also when she says that it was

evident that loss of human connection would be detrimental to the overall development of

students. The writer is effective in her explanation because her words are impressive and

reliable and the conviction with which she is explaining her experience makes us believe the

narrative. (Lance, 2022)

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Secondly, the writer used effective historical facts technique by stating that when she used to

remember the days of September, 2020 she was optimistic that everything will be normal.

Also she used the facts that Covid-19 killed 23 students in Canada which is also mentioned in

the secondary article “COVID-19 disruptions may have killed 228,000 children in South

Asia, flags UNICEF report” in which 2,28,000 deaths of children are reported in according to

the UNICEF report. (COVID-19 disruptions may have killed 228,000 children in South Asia,

flags UNICEF report.Downtoearth.org.in, 2021). She used her own past experience when

students were not allowed to gather in the halls. The sporting events were cancelled. The

writer explains that these things may seem small, but have long term detrimental effects on

the psychology of the children. The writer is effective as she called it “Rites of the passage”

to gain the attention of readers and to explain the seriousness of the situation. (Lance, 2022)

Lastly, the writer uses emotional words in his final message by using words like “breaking”.

In the initial stages of the pandemic, everyone was fine and following restrictions but now

students are breaking from inside. They need to play with their friends by removing masks

and socializing with friends. The writer used emotions and past experience in an impressive

manner when she tells that a 12th standard girl expressed her fear of taking the mask off as she

did not want to kill anybody or make anyone sick. These experiences truly touch the hearts of

the readers and the writer has perfectly portrayed the effects of pandemic on children’s

emotional and psychological health by using these emotional incidents in her article.

Overall, the writer was persuasive and expressive in her writing throughout the article and

used techniques like anecdote, descriptive imagery, emotional words and historical facts in a

good manner. She expressed her concern about the mental health of the students by

expressing real life experience and techniques of historical facts which was expressive and

attention grabbing of the readers. The writer was able to build an emotional connection with

the readers by getting attention through expression of the condition of students after the
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pandemic. She ends the article excellently by her emotional appeal that we should end these

bureaucratic policies which are not making students lives safer but sacrificing their mental,

emotional and physical health. (Lance, 2022)

References
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Ali, A., Siddiqui, A., Arshad, M., Iqbal, F., & Arif, T. (2022). Effects of COVID-19

pandemic and lockdown on lifestyle and mental health of students: A retrospective

study from Karachi, Pakistan. Annales Médico-Psychologiques, Revue Psychiatrique,

180(6), S29-S37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amp.2021.02.004

COVID-19 disruptions may have killed 228,000 children in South Asia, flags UNICEF

report. Downtoearth.org.in. (2021). Retrieved 19 July 2022, from

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/covid-19-disruptions-may-have-killed-

228- 000 children-in-south-asia-flags-unicef-report-76041.

Lance, S. (2022). I’m a Public School Teacher. The Kids Aren’t Alright..

Commonsense.news. Retrieved 19 July 2022, from

https://www.commonsense.news/p/im-a-public-school- teacher-the-kids.