One is the loneliest number: What will help people connect again?

So many of the things that brought Emily Pipe joy before the pandemic have now just seemed to lose their spark.

She used to be a classic extrovert, says Ms. Pipe, a public school teacher in Delaware who works with preschoolers with disabilities. She’d charge her mental batteries with friends and social activities during the weekends and engage with colleagues at work, where there was a spirit of collaboration and common purpose. 

“Now I’m at home on weekends, recharging my battery for work on Mondays,” says Ms. Pipe, who adds she’s seemed to become “fully introverted,” preferring to stay home and scroll through TikToks. And while teaching before the pandemic had its own challenges, they didn’t compare with those she experienced during the shutdown and ever since. 

Now, being in the classroom “is lonely,” says Ms. Pipe, who has been grappling with depression and anxiety. The spirit of collaboration at work has been replaced by a sense of isolation from other teachers. Students remain disoriented and distracted, and school administrators, she says, have not quite grasped the needs of the post-pandemic classroom or provided the support teachers like her now