Click-bait. It's not possible.
So, my kids (like most students) thrive in a healthy school setting--having a great teacher, nice classmates, great resources....But, after last year, I'm sure the collective mental health of school aged children took a nose-dive.
We had hoped that after the vaccine was introduced to the population, there would be some reprieve. And there was, for a while (during the summer the WORLD felt like it opened up)...until duhn duhn duhn....the Delta variant popped up.
Now, I can honestly say, I had reservations about EVERYTHING, including the vaccine, because everything was a cluster.....politically, socially, environmentally......I felt like an abused member of the populace--manipulated and abused. Also it turns out that families who have been put at risk by our system’s inequalities don’t want to choose between economic and educational security and their lives.
So I was gun-shy for sure on who or what to trust. But after time, I believed in the science and stories of others in different countries and my own and hoped for others to do the same **cue Price is Right loser horn. After such a beating, many of us became the "bewildered herd" (shout out to Walter Lippman) Also, the vaccine being only eligible for adults and kids 12 and over didn't include everyone in my family, so the thought of throwing my kids out in the world with no inoculation/protection, while I have had the shot.....goes against EVERY instinct I'd had as a parent since they were born. Like, what are we doing, America?!?! And I understand statistics---I understand numbers. But no one wants to be in THAT number, and there was no way of knowing how anyone will respond to this virus because it's all over the place with who it decides will succumb to it.
The things I do take solace in, while they are in school is that:
teachers are vaccinated
facemasks are required
physical distancing is happening
That's all I got. How do you handle kids going back to school? And how long do you think it will last?
--Misty