As we prepare to "reopen" businesses and counties throughout the US after shelter-in-place orders made self-quarantining a way of life, there are copious considerations to ponder as we move forward: the possible resurgence of another COVID19 outbreak; increased hassles in performing everyday tasks due to new precautions and protocols; reliance on technology to supplant face-to-face meetings in which real human bonds are formed, and mitigating concerns about contracting the coronavirus in daily work situations - are all perturbing thoughts.
While those are legitimate concerns for most adults, those adults with children have two additional concerns: How will post-pandemic life impact school operations, and how will new schooling guidelines affect their child/children?
41% of parents who home-schooled the 8.5 million children that completed homeschooling this Spring, said that they are likely to continue homeschooling in the Fall. I don't know any of these parents. The parents I know are (desperately) hoping that their children's schools will resume the business of teaching their children - even if that resumption does not entail doing business as usual.
When children do go back to school, administrators, teachers, and parents need to seriously reevaluate the issue of wearing masks; not as a policy issue, but as a psychosocial issue. Yes, I concede that wearing masks is a health issue, first and foremost; however, the type of masks that kids are exposed to daily in schools is a judicious choice that can and should be made based on emotional intelligence.
Children have seen others wear masks for the last 3 months. How they have been affected by a cataclysmic shift in their worlds during a tender stage in which they are just beginning to recognize and identify emotions, has not been adequately addressed or publicized.
One day they were playing with each other during recess. The next day they were sheltering-in-place with family members and receiving something called "homeschooling." The next day everyone was wearing masks. Conversations with them centered on the emergence of the pandemic; not on the abrupt changes that took place in their lives almost over night, or the emotional and mental states that they were experiencing.
One day they were playing with each other during recess. The next day they were sheltering-in-place with family members and receiving something called "homeschooling." The next day everyone was wearing masks. Conversations with them centered on the emergence of the pandemic; not on the abrupt changes that took place in their lives almost over night, or the emotional and mental states that they were experiencing.
Masks, the ones that you may own or have seen commonly worn, diminish a child's ability to recognize and read faces and the emotions that they convey. Because the face communicates a wide array of emotions including happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and approval, children are denied social cues that can influence their behavior(s) when communicating with mask-wearing adults, and friends who will suddenly become less friendly (in appearance) with classmates who will dawn masks.
These social cues are vital in establishing emotional well-being, and social development - especially for children ages 4-7 who are just beginning school and may not view it as a safe or welcoming environment. Older children, those 7-11, are not exempt. It takes years for children to become adept at reading emotions that will allow them to acquire the social intelligence that they can benefit from later in life. A school year in which masks are mandatory will inevitably hinder this development.
And it's a two-way street.
Teachers who know how critical emotions are in the learning process also know that they need to be able to read the faces of their students to detect their corresponding emotions; thus enabling them to be proactive in relieving classroom frustrations, assisting with learning difficulties, or seeing the light bulb that goes on in a student when they "get it." That light bulb is a metaphor for the radiance displayed in their smiles; the smiles that will be covered in masks.
These smiles, for the teachers and their students, are barometers of good intentions and well-being. The significance of a smile on the life of a child, especially those who may not see many smiles at home, might be understated, but it's well-researched.
Paul Ekman is widely regarded as the leading researcher in the facial expression of emotion. He has written about facial expressions for decades in numerous books and articles. In the discussion of school reopenings, this should be the first step in that process. His work needs to be distributed to teachers and read by administrators in all schools before children are allowed to return.
The second, and most crucial to this blog entry, are the masks that districts will require students and teachers to wear throughout the day when schools reopen this Fall.
The social science contained in this blog entry should be enough to warrant the appropriate action that's called for, or at the very least, taken under advisement. So the question comes down to this: Which do you want to teach your child all day, the teacher on the right or the one below?
In closing, the issue of wearing masks that conceal half of one's face is not a trivial one; it's a psychosocial one that is scientifically linked to the (greater) well-being of our children. They need it. They deserve it - especially when you realize that, historically, 30% of children quarantined met the clinical criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, have been at higher risk for acute stress disorder, adjustment disorder, and grief.
Consider the situation.
Consider the psychology.
Consider the well-being of our children.
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