Or perhaps not scorned, but not listened to.
For privacy reasons I don’t discuss my location, the schools my kids go to, their names etc on the blog, so let’s lay some groundwork. For the purposes of this post I live in Average Midwest Suburb (AMS). My toddler is little E. And schools that don’t require masks for 2-year-olds are Schools With Functioning Brains. (I won’t actually use that term here, but I had to say it.)
Well, last night, AMS school district emailed parents about their COVID guidelines for the coming school year. Now, little E is little, so he was only signed up for a low-commitment preschool program through the district. But his speech therapist agrees that even that small amount of socialization is crucial for his development.
See, little E is socially average–but he struggles to form a variety of sounds that make up common words. He truly has a speech delay. So watching people talk and reading their facial expressions to learn the meaning of words is imperative if he’s going to “catch up” to his peers in speech. It’s actually the whole reason we were signed up for the program.
However, AMS schools have decided that universal masking of kids ages 2 and older is what they’re doing this year. Three weeks before the school year starts. Obviously trying to push parents to the last minute with the hopes that they’ll think: oh no, I can’t homeschool, I can’t find a new preschool, there’s no time–I guess we’ll just have to put up with masks.
Side note, can we talk about how unintelligently virtue signal-y masking a 2-year-old is? Has anyone who contributed to these guidelines met a 2-year-old before? I guarantee you those masks will not be on those little faces at least half the school day. Noses will run, coughing and sneezing in each other’s faces will happen, thumbs will be sucked, germs will be shared.
But I digress. Your girl was angry. No one impedes my child’s speech and social development on my watch.
After clarifying with the district that they did indeed intend for 2-year-olds to wear masks in preschool, I sent about a thousand emails to other preschools I’d considered for him earlier in the year. One preschool both had a couple of spots left and wasn’t requiring masks for their youngest students.
Amazingly, it’s right down the street from us, and I spoke with the coordinator on the phone today to make sure it was a good fit. And here we are–less than 24 hours later, a new opportunity for fall lined up. They even include an hour outdoors as part of their routine, which I love.
As soon as our first payment has been received, I am dropping AMS preschool like a hot potato. And I hope many others will make the same decision.
I’ve spoken with many people today–local parents, preschool coordinators, concerned neighbors–who all agree that masking young toddlers will be potentially detrimental to their social and speech development. And not one of those people is anti-mask as a rule, as they’ve been quick to clarify. But we can see through the political crap surrounding this decision, and we’re really concerned for the kids of my children’s generation and the long-lasting effects that restrictive guidelines will have.
Play with fire and get burned, AMS school district. Since hitting companies, industries, and government entities in the wallet seems to induce the biggest changes, my money will be going elsewhere from now on.