Reading these just makes me sad and angry. I don’t think I can ever forgive the people who demanded schools close. It was always obvious that it was the wrong thing to do. I remember sending my own school board the data from Sweden in July 2020. They had almost 2 million kids in school with no issues. It was ALWAYS obvious. I will never allow someone to claim they didn’t know.
“This is something that my generation will not forget. This is also something that my generation will not forgive." Then why did Gen Z vote overwhelmingly for the Democrats who ruined their lives?
My son was a college sophomore in March 2020, home on spring break. He had a rough, rough first semester. Bad breakup, falling grades, etc. But spring semester he was turning it around. He was home feeling great, because he had just had several interviews for a summer co-op and that gave him a huge boost. He had figured out classes and had a plan. Three days later the school told everyone to pack up your stuff and go home. He hated online classes, the professors didn't know what to do... and how do you do engineering labs online?! Then we heard lots of co-ops were cancelling. His summer co-op was delayed but not cancelled. The company finally had him come on working on a jobsite and I'll tell you that SAVED him, getting out of the school environment and into the work environment. That was one semester, the next semester he was back online. Eventually everything got back to "normal" but it has never felt normal again, especially with pressure to get vaccinated (he didn't) and wear masks. It's like college campuses are just out to be vile and controlling, operating in a universe outside any common sense. He's graduating in May and can't wait. My youngest is now getting ready to choose a college. Her top choice requires vax, which she isn't. So here we go with trying to get exemptions for a 3-year old vaccine that doesn't work even though she's already had COVID. Or just settle for the school without the requirement. I feel like I'm living in a clown world and I'm so angry.
Heartbreaking. I hope people will listen to these voices and be more open to acknowledging this failure. We won’t be able to fully focus on mitigating its adverse effects on children or learn from it, so we can do better next time, if we don’t confront the reality of the harms caused by school closures and how misguided they were. To that end, I appreciate that you continue to talk about this issue instead of letting it go.
These are so painful to read. My son plays football. He was fortunate that his junior season in 2020 was allowed to continue (shortened) despite being in remote school. I remember picking up his yearbook that fall when he was in practice. The teacher handing it out said “are you OK with him playing?” - and she wasn’t talking about concussion risk. Trying not to snap back, I said “thank God he’s playing, without football we would be in a very dark place.” I will never forgive the cowardice of so many adults, the craven motives of “public health”. I am ever thankful for the coaches, parents and teammates who kept those boys on the field. My heart breaks for those kids in the bluest cities who were robbed of so much. And I worry that we haven’t done enough to prevent it from happening again. Thank you for continuing to give the kids a voice.
Even more egregious to me, as a Christian, was the ZOOM youth group meetings at church. AT CHURCH!!! The Bible says not to fear. The churches that caved to the narrative should apologize and never repeat that mistake.
I pray that the kids who survived the crimes against humanity will emerge stronger.
Jennifer: As a physicist very interested in our education issues, THANK YOU for writing this. You and your readers might be interested in a major education Report I just issued "https://c19science.info/Education/Fixing_Education.pdf".
I also have a free substack that you and your readers should be interested in. It's about critically thinking about societal issues "https://criticallythinking.substack.com".
This isn't even the tip of the tip of the iceberg, either.
My son felt ripped off; like his entire Senior year was just stolen from him. No Homecoming. No Senior Ball. No campus life. No opportunity to be social with teachers, or anyone else, in the cracks between classes. A months-delayed, half-hearted joke of a Commencement Ceremony. Just -- wiped out. Gone in a puff of vile, ham-fisted, "RESISTANCE IS USELESS!!" bureaucracy.
Damn them. Damn them all.
He was tracking to get an award for studying the same foreign language for all four years, but the isolation, the utter lack of human interaction, the fantastical contrivance of faking along with everyone else that tiny thumbnail images on a computer screen could -- in any way, shape, or form -- fill in for living human beings sharing a class hour together in the same room with their teacher... The entire escapade was a complete sham and a mockery; a mockery of the bureaucracies who crapped it out into their hands and threw it onto us all, and -- worse -- a mockery of a witless society, affrighted by government busybodies blindly citing "the science," that feebly bowed down and took it from them.
We were duped, and the kids took the brunt.
Honestly.... there should be trials, and imprisonment.
But there won't be. The greater majority of society have become so self-righteous amidst our mass plague of psychologically convoluted explanations for why barefaced insanity is actually sane, that we have lost even the desire to connect to a moral compass capable of directing us aright. Expect the very suggestion to be met with snark and derision, and you will not be disappointed.
There will not be a way out of this other than to engage in Herculean individual efforts at self-reconstruction; as persons emerging from the rubble in the wake of a war. The kids have suffered the calumnies of a politically-fueled social blitzkrieg, and each one's rehabilitation will demand nothing short of a personal, moral, social, educational Marshall Plan.
We should pray they are up to it, encourage them mightily, and aid as many as we know are struggling.
Excellent to “hear” from those most directly impacted. The known losses will grow, we can never undo yet we can never do it to them (and us all) again.
I am so glad I didn’t have a senior graduating high school. I can’t imagine not being able to watch my child experience that milestone. So much was lost.
Reading these just makes me sad and angry. I don’t think I can ever forgive the people who demanded schools close. It was always obvious that it was the wrong thing to do. I remember sending my own school board the data from Sweden in July 2020. They had almost 2 million kids in school with no issues. It was ALWAYS obvious. I will never allow someone to claim they didn’t know.
“This is something that my generation will not forget. This is also something that my generation will not forgive." Then why did Gen Z vote overwhelmingly for the Democrats who ruined their lives?
My son was a college sophomore in March 2020, home on spring break. He had a rough, rough first semester. Bad breakup, falling grades, etc. But spring semester he was turning it around. He was home feeling great, because he had just had several interviews for a summer co-op and that gave him a huge boost. He had figured out classes and had a plan. Three days later the school told everyone to pack up your stuff and go home. He hated online classes, the professors didn't know what to do... and how do you do engineering labs online?! Then we heard lots of co-ops were cancelling. His summer co-op was delayed but not cancelled. The company finally had him come on working on a jobsite and I'll tell you that SAVED him, getting out of the school environment and into the work environment. That was one semester, the next semester he was back online. Eventually everything got back to "normal" but it has never felt normal again, especially with pressure to get vaccinated (he didn't) and wear masks. It's like college campuses are just out to be vile and controlling, operating in a universe outside any common sense. He's graduating in May and can't wait. My youngest is now getting ready to choose a college. Her top choice requires vax, which she isn't. So here we go with trying to get exemptions for a 3-year old vaccine that doesn't work even though she's already had COVID. Or just settle for the school without the requirement. I feel like I'm living in a clown world and I'm so angry.
Heartbreaking. I hope people will listen to these voices and be more open to acknowledging this failure. We won’t be able to fully focus on mitigating its adverse effects on children or learn from it, so we can do better next time, if we don’t confront the reality of the harms caused by school closures and how misguided they were. To that end, I appreciate that you continue to talk about this issue instead of letting it go.
These are so painful to read. My son plays football. He was fortunate that his junior season in 2020 was allowed to continue (shortened) despite being in remote school. I remember picking up his yearbook that fall when he was in practice. The teacher handing it out said “are you OK with him playing?” - and she wasn’t talking about concussion risk. Trying not to snap back, I said “thank God he’s playing, without football we would be in a very dark place.” I will never forgive the cowardice of so many adults, the craven motives of “public health”. I am ever thankful for the coaches, parents and teammates who kept those boys on the field. My heart breaks for those kids in the bluest cities who were robbed of so much. And I worry that we haven’t done enough to prevent it from happening again. Thank you for continuing to give the kids a voice.
Even more egregious to me, as a Christian, was the ZOOM youth group meetings at church. AT CHURCH!!! The Bible says not to fear. The churches that caved to the narrative should apologize and never repeat that mistake.
I pray that the kids who survived the crimes against humanity will emerge stronger.
Jennifer: As a physicist very interested in our education issues, THANK YOU for writing this. You and your readers might be interested in a major education Report I just issued "https://c19science.info/Education/Fixing_Education.pdf".
I also have a free substack that you and your readers should be interested in. It's about critically thinking about societal issues "https://criticallythinking.substack.com".
Feel free to email me any questions.
Word.
This isn't even the tip of the tip of the iceberg, either.
My son felt ripped off; like his entire Senior year was just stolen from him. No Homecoming. No Senior Ball. No campus life. No opportunity to be social with teachers, or anyone else, in the cracks between classes. A months-delayed, half-hearted joke of a Commencement Ceremony. Just -- wiped out. Gone in a puff of vile, ham-fisted, "RESISTANCE IS USELESS!!" bureaucracy.
Damn them. Damn them all.
He was tracking to get an award for studying the same foreign language for all four years, but the isolation, the utter lack of human interaction, the fantastical contrivance of faking along with everyone else that tiny thumbnail images on a computer screen could -- in any way, shape, or form -- fill in for living human beings sharing a class hour together in the same room with their teacher... The entire escapade was a complete sham and a mockery; a mockery of the bureaucracies who crapped it out into their hands and threw it onto us all, and -- worse -- a mockery of a witless society, affrighted by government busybodies blindly citing "the science," that feebly bowed down and took it from them.
We were duped, and the kids took the brunt.
Honestly.... there should be trials, and imprisonment.
But there won't be. The greater majority of society have become so self-righteous amidst our mass plague of psychologically convoluted explanations for why barefaced insanity is actually sane, that we have lost even the desire to connect to a moral compass capable of directing us aright. Expect the very suggestion to be met with snark and derision, and you will not be disappointed.
There will not be a way out of this other than to engage in Herculean individual efforts at self-reconstruction; as persons emerging from the rubble in the wake of a war. The kids have suffered the calumnies of a politically-fueled social blitzkrieg, and each one's rehabilitation will demand nothing short of a personal, moral, social, educational Marshall Plan.
We should pray they are up to it, encourage them mightily, and aid as many as we know are struggling.
Excellent to “hear” from those most directly impacted. The known losses will grow, we can never undo yet we can never do it to them (and us all) again.
Hi Jennifer,
If you care about school closures and the harm done to our children……and I know that you do…….well, this report will scare the daylights out of you:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-admin-negotiates-deal-to-give-who-authority-over-us-pandemic-policies_5066631.html?utm_source=share-btn-copylink
I am so glad I didn’t have a senior graduating high school. I can’t imagine not being able to watch my child experience that milestone. So much was lost.