The School That Couldn’t Quit Covid
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https://www.thefp.com/p/the-school-that-couldnt-quit-covid
As of today, children at EACMSI are still required to mask indoors and outdoors. They are still prohibited from speaking during lunch. Second-graders who began school there as kindergarteners in fall 2020 have never experienced a normal day of school in their lives.
In addition to Stein and her children, I spoke with several parents of current students who are unhappy with the rules. “I see the current situation as ridiculous,” one parent told me. But for fear of angering the administrators of a school they otherwise love, they agreed to talk with me only on the condition that they and their children remain anonymous.
This is the story of why EACMSI is among the last schools in America to still enforce such draconian measures. It is also the story of how, when faced with a crisis, many public health authorities—along with regular people and bureaucrats following the authorities’ lead—believed that the more extreme the response to the virus, the more wise and virtuous the policy.There were many unnecessary burdens imposed on children during the pandemic. But the silent lunch—a requirement that children not speak during mealtime—has long exemplified, to me, the peak of cruelty and stupidity of child-centered Covid interventions. (It so embedded itself in my psyche that I made it the namesake of my Substack.) The policy, which many found appalling, was for too long fairly prevalent. I was astonished to find out that in April 2023 a school still enforces it.
The prohibition against lunchtime speaking varied depending on the teacher, according to Stein’s two children, and the parents of current students. (The school has no cafeteria, so lunch is eaten in classrooms.) Stein’s 13-year-old daughter said that, last year, her seventh-grade teacher often played movies like Elf and Coraline while the students ate. But, she said, there were also plenty of days where they simply ate in silence. If the students had to ask the teacher a question, she told me, they had to first don their masks, and then take them off again to continue eating. (The school administration confirmed that during lunch, if a student needs to speak to a teacher, they must first replace their mask.)
Parents of current students told me that teachers have shown TED Talks or instructional videos, or played podcasts to keep the students sufficiently entertained so they won’t be tempted to speak to each other. Teachers also conduct lessons or read a story during lunch. When the kids eat outdoors, they are permitted to talk.
Other teachers are stricter. Stein’s younger child, now 10, described the bizarre—and sad—scene during her time at EACMSI before she left for public school this fall. Last school year, in fourth grade, some kids had grown so forlorn and desperate during silent lunch that they made up their own sign language so they could communicate with each other, she told me. -
I'm guessing that one person in authority has stuck with this, and most are just going along to keep the peace.
We sent our two to a Montessori pre-K, and if they could have stayed there forever I (and they) would have been very happy.
