Children’s lifestyles have been severely disrupted with the rise of COVID-19 cases and the pandemic in general. Their education has either been halted or dramatically changed, which has negatively impacted their learning and development. Young children, till the age of fourteen, need classroom stimulation to develop and comprehend class materials. Elementary school children primarily learn through tactile stimuli, such as playdough and field trips. This is crucial for their development.

Adolescents have high energy levels, much like elementary school children, and have been known to do many extracurricular activities such as theatre, choir, volunteering, and sports. Furthermore, social interactions are crucial at these ages because school provides real-life examples of the various interactions that adults encounter. Classroom, cafeteria, and group work interactions are vital to building and maintain relationships and understanding yourself and your peers. Some of the best memories come from various aspects of going to school, such as a trip to the zoo or the museum, learning to paint, jamming with the band, or passing notes in the classroom.

Children will also find themselves extremely bored at home and may not find remote classes engaging or fruitful. This will tend to higher aggressive behavior levels, coupled with attention-seeking behavior towards parents working from home. Children may also escape any form of domestic abuse, including negligence, when sent to school. Physical abuse and mental abuse will be limited if they are in school and will be able to communicate with their school counselors to seek advice. School counselors will also be able to take action if children live in abusive homes during this period of the pandemic. Meals, stationary, and toy costs will come down significantly if children are sent to school since schools provide these things.

According to the World Health Organization, children have accounted for barely 8% of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. More than 1/3rd of children are asymptomatic, and the rest show extremely mild symptoms of cough. Children are also more resilient than most adults think. Their immunity is much stronger than adults when it comes to COVID-19, and they can fight it off with a sophisticated system of antibodies. One of the reasons is because children’s antibodies function uniquely because of their young age. Their antibodies are developed to fight the protein that SARS-Co-V-2 uses to enter into human cells, eliminating the virus before it enters their cells. Children are also reservoirs to other coronaviruses, helping them fight off this virus robustly.

Children’s smaller features, specifically their noses, are vital in warding off the virus. Since their noses are much smaller, they only have a few ACE-2 receptors in their noses, thus receiving lesser doses of the virus than adults. SARS-Co-V-2 uses these receptors to enter the human body, and the fewer receptors a nose contains, the more it can keep the virus out of its body. Children are also extremely unlikely to be affected severely by the virus because of their naive T-cells. Their T cells do not have strong memories and perceive every virus to pose the same threat as other pathogenic foreign objects. So, their cells fight off the virus efficiently, much before it has the chance to reproduce or attach itself to their body’s cells. Thus, children will be at remarkably low risk of catching the virus even if they go to school.

Children can be divided into pods and wear masks, with immunocompromised children in the same pods to significantly reduce their risk of catching the virus. Children can perform all learning and activities within these pods, and the teacher can socially distance themselves from their fellow students at all times, which is easy to do in smaller classrooms. Children have also demonstrated extremely responsible behavior during the pandemic if their parents have taught them preventive measures. Many parents have reported that their children have socially distanced and worn masks throughout their outdoor activities and have also understood the importance of avoiding crowded areas. Thus, children should go to school at this stage of the pandemic to receive a full, well-rounded education.

Whilst I understand some of your points, particularly the points about children from vulnerable homes and the impact of Covid restrictions on children, I do have some counter points.

For me, children are statistically less likely to die or be heavily affected by Covid. However, they can still pass on Covid to the people they come into contact with. So for example, if they live with vulnerable adults, children going to school may increase the likelihood of transferring the Covid virus to this adult. Therefore, whilst the children are less likely to experience major effects from the virus, the people the children come into contact with may be more likely to experience the effects from children being able to pass on the virus through going to school.

Additionally, this also puts the teachers at risk. Obviously, if children are in school, teachers need to be as well. This means children may be more likely to pass on the Covid virus to those teachers. Furthering this, if these teachers get the virus and have negative effects, in some cases whole school years have not been able to return to school anyway due to the lack of teachers. This also puts even more pressure on teachers that are left to cover absences as well as crossing school 'bubbles' furthering the risk of the spread of infection and also putting unnecessary pressure on the teachers to teach in person as well as putting resources online for the children who have to isolate due to a teacher contracting Covid.

I really enjoyed reading your opinion so thank you!

You pose a great argument! However, whilst it would be great in an ideal world to segregate children in pods while wearing mask this seems highly impractical in reality. Attempting to keep children below 11 wearing masks in supermarkets creates a challenging situation (presumably why they are exempt) wearing masks for 5-6 hours in a school day seems inconceivable.

Equally, mental health is just as important as physical health. While we would be protecting the nations physical health by segregating children in this way, it seems unfair to keep children in pods all day when they could be at home learning with family or carers.

It is understandably frustrating to be unable to send one's children to school.

I'm sure a lot of us have mixed feelings about what school meant to us based on our achievements or interactions with friends. But school provides an invaluable experience that can defines us in ways no other lifestyle can't. One example is developing one's first crush--and heartbreak. Another example is relationships with teachers over shared interests. Another is, simply, making new friends.

And that last one hurts.

If I had to guess, I'm sure most of us made our first friends in school (this counts preschool and kindergarten). Even if some of us didn't like going to school at all, we still developed friendly relationships with other people and school was the only way we could have developed them in the first place.

Evidently, in-person schooling provides numerous benefits that remote-learning can never fully compensate.

But when it comes to sending children to school even with the current situation we're all in in mind, it is still unsafe to be sending children to school.

Granted, when schools initially experimented with reopening back in the fall, the amount of COVID cases did not skyrocket. But that's because...well, there was still a lot about the transmitting of the coronavirus we did not know, such as how the disease transmits between children. (https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21494352/school-reopenings-covid-coronavirus-pandemic-in-person-teaching).

I will also grant that the infection rate is not as high as many feared, (https://www.vox.com/2020/10/1/21493602/covid-19-schools-reopening-nyc-florida-hybrid) but this is a superficial disease. It is not only the safety of the children we have to take into account, but the teachers and faculty as well.

The safety of our school teachers is just as vital as the safety of our children. Although there are some places where the coronavirus has not been as proponent as some places, it is best to play it safe and keep the process of remote learning until enough of the US population has been vaccinated.

I understand and sympathise that children are missing out a lot by being unable to attend school during the pandemic. However, in the current situation, health and safety must be number one and I believe that schools are not yet safe enough to open. Whilst the virus does not usually pose as a large health threat, children are still able to carry the virus. This meaning, that they could take the virus home with them and pass it to a vulnerable member of their family. The teachers are also vulnerable in the workplace, the virus could be a severe threat to their health. Also, if teachers were unable to attend school (due to having to self-isolate or shield), the problem arises that they might not be enough supply teachers to cover their positions - usually meaning that the school would have to close anyway. Many children, usually those in the youngest age groups, will probably have difficulty to understand the importance of wearing a mask / socially distancing. Therefore, this risks easier transmission of the virus.

Your position is quite impressive, but I am afraid I have to disagree. Children may be more immune to COVID-19, and hopefully, they recover from it quicker, but they can still spread the virus to other people. Of course its a problem not going to school for such a long time, but in my opinion, health comes first, and I do not think it is very healthy to be on a classroom for hours with all the windows open. On the other hand, going to school also implies a teacher's presence. They also are vulnerable to catch the virus and transmit it to other people.

I think its quite hard to find a medium solution to this problem because teaching the importance of a mask to children is difficult.