Whitaker Institute member Professor John Morrissey, of the Social Sciences Research Cluster (SSRC), has written a new article for RTÉ Brainstorm. The piece looks at how the pandemic has helped highlight young people’s strengths.

 How the pandemic helped highlight young people’s strengths

Covid-19 has added huge anxieties on students, and has rendered their university experience socially limited in all kinds of ways. Photo: Getty Images

Opinion: Covid-19 has added huge anxieties on students but they are far more engaged and committed to thinking critically and shaping a better world than they are given credit for.

“They were reared right” is a phrase familiar to many Irish people. It is one I have been reflecting on a lot of late, in embarking upon my own journey with a young family, but also in thinking about the task of nurturing, and safeguarding the future more broadly, in the context of university teaching during the pandemic.

Covid-19 has added huge anxieties on students, and has rendered their university experience socially limited in all kinds of ways. We need to advocate strongly for their mental health support in particular. Continue reading…