Being There

Middle school is pretty tough for most people at the best of times. During the coronavirus, being an adolescent can be really hard. Cut off from friends, school, activities, and routines, young people are finding themselves spending WAY more time at home than they or their families are used to. For some families, this isn’t a huge deal, but for a lot of kids living in difficult situations, or who rely on school for specific forms of support, this has been an especially tense time.

To discuss this more, I’m joined in this episode by Margaret Cacchione (@MargieCashh), a middle school guidance counselor in upstate New York. We talk about how the Covid situation is affecting kids, as well as other issues facing teenagers in their day to day lives even without corona, and how counselors like Margaret are trying to support kids and families as best they can, often in massively under-funded or under-resourced schools and districts. It’s impossible to state how much I admire the work that Margaret and other counsellors and teachers do all the time, but especially in times of crisis.

Book Recommendation:

The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett