The big question right now for every parent is this: What in the world are schools going to do when it’s time to go back in August?
The coronavirus has created an unprecedented break in learning for students, who have been out since mid-March. The consensus from both personal observations and objective measurements is that online education simply can’t equal that of classroom instruction, for a million different reasons: access to technology, parents’ time and capabilities, and adolescent attention spans.
So everyone involved, from administrators to even the students if they’re honest, wants to go back. The question, though, is whether that is safe since the virus is spiking.
Thankfully, the data from other countries shows that it can be done. The consensus that has developed around the world is that small children just don’t pose as much of a threat for spreading the virus as adults do. Some examples:
• A study from six countries with very different cultures — Canada, China, Italy, Japan, Singapore and South Korea — showed children are just half as likely as adults to become infected, according to The Washington Post.
• An Australian study examined five primary schools and 10 high schools from March to mid-April and found that out of 863 people who were in close contact with someone with COVID-19, only two contracted the coronavirus, according to a news report on Advisory.com.
• Multiple countries that have reopened schools — including Denmark, Austria, Norway, Finland, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand — have reported no increase in infection rates, according to a Wall Street Journal article.
“Our interpretation is that it may be that the children aren’t that important for the spread of infection,” said Dr. Tyra Grove Krause, a senior official with Denmark’s equivalent of the CDC.
Why? No one knows for sure, but some have speculated it’s because children have been exposed more to other strains of coronavirus and thus have more immunity. Or it could be that children have less ACE2 receptors, which are proteins that the coronavirus uses to get into cells.
Of course, some experts disagree with all this and think children still pose a substantial risk for spreading the disease asymptomatically. They think the reason fewer children have gotten the disease is because they’ve been exposed less than adults since schools have been closed.
But that’s how science works, particularly on an issue like this: There are different opinions that get tested and results vary from place to place and in different conditions. The rational path is to take the available evidence and make the best decision you can.
For my money, it’s worth the risk at this point to proceed with opening schools. Don’t do it recklessly — work out plans to keep distances, wear masks if it works out that children can be compelled to keep them on and clean like crazy. But let’s get back to educating our kids.
