Year 12: Week 22: The Process of Unmasking

"We haven't really learned anything in the past two years, have we?" 

I was at an online educational conference earlier this week. The mask mandates in school came up in a break-out room discussion. The presentation we had just finished was about getting buy-in from school community members when change happens. One of the people in my group pointed out that every single thing the presenter said to do didn't happen in most schools in the fall of 2020 when the issue of teaching in-person happened. None of this stuff is happening as society struggles with this issue of mask mandates in schools. She reflected that we hadn't learned anything after going through all of this trauma. 

I don't think we haven't learned anything, but it feels that right now.  

Think about it, all of these things are true: 

• There are reasonable and respected medical professionals who feel that masks mandates should continue in schools, and there are reasonable and respected medical professionals who feel they should end.  
• Decisions about health and safety should not be made based on public opinion, and parents should have input into policies in schools.   
• The CDC and other state and local health authorities should move cautiously to adopt new COVID-19 mitigation policies and recommendations, and they need to move faster to address the needs of children in America.  
• Cities and states should be able to make decisions around mask mitigations at schools to reflect the needs of their communities, and decisions should be considered across communities.  
• Some parents are ready to have their children go to school without masks, and some aren't. Some of these parents have very good reasons for being concerned, and some do not. But all of them deserve empathy, as do all of the people who are frustrated that their child has to wear a mask at school.   

We need to accept and acknowledge these things, many of which feel contradictory. Trying to hold all of this in your head feels dissonant. It's hard. Do you want a headache? Try to hold all of what I put above in your head simultaneously.  

This process and controversy around mask mandates in schools feel horrible to me. I don't want to go against authority, but I also think it's a ridiculous ask to have my 2-year-old wear a mask. I want schools to be as cautious as possible, but I also feel like maybe we are being too cautious. And while serious COVID-19 cases with children are exceedingly rare, I shudder to think how it might break me if a child in my school or my children's school dies from a COVID-19. At the same time, my heart is heavy thinking about all the smiles we miss every day because of masks and the incalculable cost of masking on our children.  

It's going to be harder before it gets easier, and I hope that we do learn something about what it means to do the best for our children after all of this. 

We've been through too much to learn nothing.