Our own Rob Wisner, banking and financial institutions shareholder and chairman of Cherish Our Children Inc. (COCI), and Ken Wells, president and CEO of COCI, recently wrote an op-ed piece published by the Houston Business Journal.  The op-ed which is titled It’s Time to Plan for The Emotional Recovery of Our Students focuses on the emotional impact and the long-term financial effects of the pandemic on at-risk students.

Highlights from the article include:

• McKinsey & Co. predicts more than one million at-risk students may drop out of school and millions of other students will never achieve their potential. The lost economic opportunity could cost America $110 billion in lost wages.
• Cherish our Children Inc., a Houston nonprofit that works with students who have a parent in prison, found that the students they supported became increasingly distracted, disengaged and discouraged when classes went virtual in March. Media reported that many students weren’t regularly logging in to online classes.
• Technology and additional classes are just part of the solution. One esteemed educator noted that teaching only works when students are emotionally ready to learn.  Educators refer to this as social or emotional learning.  At-risk students are overwhelmed by uncertainty, loss of connection, and fear of the unknown forcing them to become trapped in survival brain, not learning brain.
• The damage caused by the pandemic to at-risk students can only be repaired when we recognize the social and emotional impact and fund the solution.

Here is our article from the Houston Business Journal in a link that you can read and send to your acquaintances:  https://www.cherishourchildren.org/post/coci-hbj-article2020

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