Students’ education has suffered during the pandemic, but it has forced schools to improve how they think about mental health, according to author and reporter Anya Kamenetz who spoke during a webinar for the Lab community hosted by the Parents’ Association on Oct. 18.

Chicago NPR reporter Sarah Karp, whose main focus is children’s education and families, interviewed Ms. Kamenetz about her new book, “The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, and Where We Go Now.”

The interview focused on the effect the pandemic had on parents around the world, including those who had to quit their jobs or homeschool their children. The speakers also discussed the heightened loss of children’s investment in school and the government’s role in education. 

Ms. Kamenetz said, “We are going to try to get our kids back to that sense of thriving. We have to do it. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen overnight.” 

Melissa McMahill, Parents’ Association co-president, said she hoped this webinar would help parents hear some new information and put their own experiences into the perspective of the wider American experience of the pandemic.

The Lab Parents’ Association hosted the event through the Family Action Network, an organization that hopes to build an informed and compassionate community through their programming.

An after-hours event was hosted for people who bought “The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, and Where We Go Now” as a Q & A with Anya Kamenetz.