Masks Children cannot be trusted to use them correctly all day every day - I don;t care that other countires have adopted their use, this still dosen't mean they are being used in the correct manner
I find this attitude so depressing. My kids grew up in a country where mask wearing is normal, and there was none of this concern about kids not “managing”. You give them the mask, teach them how to wear it safely, and off they go. They don’t fiddle with them in class any more than they start unbuttoning their shirts, or taking a shoe off and balancing it on their head.
Telling your children that they can’t possibly manage to wear a mask safely is pretty damaging to their self confidence. Teach them how to do it safely and have high expectations.
Again, where my kids grew up, elementary school kids walked to school by themselves, sometimes alone, usually in a walking bus with one adult. Elementary students caught trains completely alone and walked to school at the other end. They wore masks without fiddling with them and spreading infection.
As a teacher, we get a lot of training on how we can build resilience in our students as some really need help with this, and with attitudes like “children cannot be trusted to use a mask properly” I’m not surprised!
I mean, my 11 year old will have to wear a tie next term. Not an elastic or clip on, but a “proper” tie. He has no idea how to put it on. That doesn’t mean I throw my hands up and say “well you can’t possibly be expected to learn, so don’t even bother trying, it’s beyond you,” and watch his self esteem crash through the floor.
Our kids’ current school put in their newsletters that “describing our students as a lost generation, and telling them that their education has been irretrievably damaged is incredibly damaging to their emotional/mental state” and parents need to be as positive as possible that their children can still have a positive future. I think that’s a really important message.