From unjust exam algorithms to endless can-kicking and even taking astroturfing groups like Us for Them seriously, there has been no shortage of government mistakes when it comes to educating in the Covid-era.

But things can always get worse.

Having panicked our way through education policy throughout the pandemic, there are some who would now have us try to panic our way out of it. They’re talking endlessly about “lost learning”, and even a “lost generation”, and demanding longer school days, shorter holidays and intensive tutoring in response.

Presumably calls for rows of bunk beds in classrooms will be coming next.

READ MORE: Schools reach breaking point as pandemic takes its toll

Otherwise sensible people (and lots of otherwise not at all sensible people) have adopted the truly bizarre idea that if we just shove more and more schooling into kids they’ll get better and better. These people are wrong.

Everything and everyone has a limited capacity, and pushing beyond it inevitably does much more harm than good. It might be convenient to think that children (to say nothing of their teachers) are somehow, magically, exempt from this but that doesn’t make it so.

Readers may have already noted that the people who actually know the most about children’s learning – teachers – aren’t the ones engaging in this hysterical catastrophising. They know that learning might be disrupted but it is never lost, and that if you chart a child’s progress it wouldn’t look like a straight line, but rather a series of overlapping spirographs.

Most of all, they know that children are so much more than the sum of their learning, and that their schoolwork is not, and never will be, more important than their wellbeing.

But kids need to catch up, don’t they? That’s the message coming loud and clear from the hand-wringing heartlands of Scottish commentary, who are suddenly worried about inequality and a “lost generation.” Something must be done. Won’t somebody please think of the children?

Of course kids need to catch up. They need to catch up with their friends, most of whom they won’t have seen for huge chunks of the past year. They need to catch up with their families, from whom they have been necessarily but cruelly isolated for so long.

They need to catch up on all the living they’ve missed out on. Far too many people are far too willing to ignore the fact that, whether school buildings are open or shut, our kids have been suffering through this pandemic just like the rest of us.

Longer school days and shorter holidays and “intensive” catch up programmes aren’t about putting kids first, they’re about protecting the system. Scratch beneath the razor-thin progressive veneer and you see that these proposals are really all about grinding kids up as a sacrifice to the status quo. The hope is that, within a year or two, everything will be back to normal and we can forget that any of this ever happened – and if kids need to suffer even more in order to achieve that then so be it. We only need to look at the 2020 results scandal to see how much harm that ideology can do.

READ MORE: Scotland's phased school return explained — here's when your child could go back

So instead of burning time, money, good will, mental health and overall wellbeing on simplistic nonsense - all in an effort to dress up social and educational conservatism in progressive clothes - what if we channelled that same energy, and those same resources, into genuine, radical, long-term improvements to schooling? What if we took action that would actually help kids?

What if we decided that in order to mitigate the effects of the pandemic we’re going to cut class sizes, reduce teachers’ contact time, make music tuition free for all, fully fund outdoor learning, and ensure universal access to cultural experiences?

What if we confronted the fact that our kids start formal schooling too early, and that our exams system is a scam designed to protect the mediocre children of wealthy parents?

What if – and I know just how radical this sounds, so bear with me – we actually put kids’ needs ahead of our own? Just for a change? Just this once?

James McEnaney is a lecturer and freelance journalist in Glasgow. He specialises in education, public policy and freedom of information.

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