It is humid af outside beginning early in the morning. And the sun has been shining bright with no cloud coverage. Parents are dropping off their children at school and shouting at them one last time to put on the mask, pull up the mask, and/or make sure to wear the mask all day. The students fumble with the masks — all compliant though for some the delay to act on the command is a bit longer.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any stupider…Schools in Hillsborough County decided to comply with Governor Desantis’ order by making parents do more work: Either your child has to wear the mask, or you must “opt out” and submit a paper detailing such. Staff must keep up with having the students do as their parents wish for the entire day. The only mask-free break they get is while they are actively eating during meal times.
Communication is obviously hindered. But who cares? This is year two of this spectacle and the losses in education will be evident in the future. But since we are a reactionary people, the future doesn’t exist (we just talk about it fearfully as if it does). Teachers think students are listening and that they understand. Students think…that they are going to kill the loving adults around them. So, all parties spend all day touching their masks in order to facilitate communication. Up, down, up, down, up down the masks go. Over the nose, over the lips, under the chin, hanging off one ear. On the desk, on the table, in the hand, in the pocket. The sweaty faces and damp, soiled masks are constantly being touched.
Remember in science class when you went to swab random places around the school (door knobs, sinks, etc.) to then grow the specimens in a petri dish and look at them under the microscope? Can you imagine what you would find now in the masks, on the desks, and other surfaces at school? Thank goodness for the constant bombardment of sanitizing chemicals that fill the air and permeate the surfaces that are constantly being touched. Second hand smoke’s got nothing on these bronchiole-restricting clouds! Children’s hands are so sanitized that their bodies wouldn’t know endogenous from exogenous flora.
How do you know how students are feeling if you cannot see their faces? How do you know if a student is sick? How do you know if they heard anything the teachers are saying? And if they heard them, how do you know they are processing the language without the visual cues? What lessons are they learning?
During PE and at dismissal, the weather has been at near 100 degrees. Students are wearing their masks while walking around the track, and while sitting or lying on the ground waiting on their parents. Some of them barely move. It looks like they are dead. Actually, almost everyone looks dead.
