Growing a Healthy Ecosystem Educating TCKs in a Pandemic By Dr. Jean Kawiecki, Psy.D. Some years ago an oil company wanted to drill for oil in the Santa Barbara Channel - an area of the Pacific Ocean between the mainland and the Channel Islands. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did a study of the ecosystem in the area and agreed that the oil company could drill for 20 years and then they would have to pull out so the ecosystem would not be destroyed. Twenty years passed, and before dismantling the platforms, the EPA once again did a study. They found that the ecosystem had unexpectedly adapted to the platforms and would actually be harmed by their removal! So the platforms remain. So why do I share this? Because educating our TCKs in the time of COVID-19 has some similarities to drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel. COVID-19 is no longer just a bump in the road of our kids’ education; it’s a whole new road. We have been forced to adapt and so have our TCKs. Sure, it has been difficult, but adaptation is a vital and even healthy part of life for both us and our children. Our kids’ way of learning and development has been forever changed, and our way of educating them has required special tailoring. The good news is, one of the greatest strengths of TCKs is their ability to adapt. TCK education was already unique even before COVID-19 came on the scene. To understand the difficulties we now face, it’s important to understand what we are already working with. The TCK’s educational experience is specially shaped by living in a country different than that of their passport. Two thirds of TCKs spend at least six years abroad, usually including at least part of their teen years.1 The vast majority live in more than one country in their developmental years and one study found that a third of them have even lived in three or more countries. They attend schools as varied as the countries they live in – from boarding schools far from parents, to international and national schools, to homeschooling in their passport language, and online schooling. They may be the only foreigner in their school, or may be in a crowd of TCKs. They may be learning in their first language or in their fifth.2 They may be learning the same subjects as their passport country peers or their host culture peers.
25
Interact
Education for all kids is so much more than academic learning. For most children, including TCKs, school is not just where they learn to read and write - it’s the central clearing house for their extracurricular activities and social interactions.3 It’s where they interact with others their own age, make friends and plan play dates; where they decide to join the football team after school. For those who attend local schools, it’s where they learn to speak the local language like a native speaker.4 Compounding the lingual, cultural, and social barriers of TCK education is the constant interruption of traveling back and forth between passport country and other countries of residence.5 At times, departures can be abrupt with little time for closure. These constant transitions can mean transferring schools, resulting in possible differences in language, what is taught and how it’s taught, leaving friends and making new ones, and much more. While there are benefits to these educational experiences – more than 90% of TCKs go on to higher education, 10% obtain graduate degrees, and many have more than one native tongue – there are also many challenges.6 Some of the greatest challenges TCKs face are transition, isolation, and anxiety. All of these hurdles affect our TCKs’ academic performance. COVID-19 has compounded these issues.
