After the schools finally reopened, Lance writes, “It felt like there was no longer life in the building. Maybe it was the masks that made it so no one wanted to engage in lessons, or even talk about how they spent their weekend. But it felt cold and soulless. My students weren’t allowed to gather in the halls or chat between classes. They still aren’t. Sporting events, clubs and graduation were all cancelled. These may sound like small things, but these losses were a huge deal to the students. These are rites of passages that can’t be made up.”

A sort of psychic lethargy has replaced the spark of eagerness in children’s eyes: “In my classroom, the learning loss is noticeable,” Lance continues. “My students can’t concentrate and they aren’t doing the work that I assign to them. They have way less motivation compared to before the pandemic began. Some of my students chose not to come back at all, either because of fear of the virus, or because they are debilitated by social anxiety.” It now seems likely that some significant number of children inclined to shyness will continue wearing masks indefinitely, and as a direct consequence will never develop normal interactive skills. Social media was already nudging kids toward atomization; masking is accelerating the trend.

Yet still, in large parts of the country, there is no movement to stop the insanity. We continue to sustain a mindset of terror in our children’s minds that dwarfs whatever worries kids had in the months after 9/11. I’ve seen firsthand how small children, when they learn they have Covid, may burst into tears and ask, “Am I going to die?”