Learning, The Hard Way

IN CONSERVATIVE STATES, where schools are being forced to open despite better judgment and against the wishes of most teachers by politicians and school administrators whoe either won't, don't, or can't comprehend simple microbiology, classrooms are crowded, hallways are crowded, and some students wear masks, and some do not.America seems to prefer hastening her return to normalcy to taking sufficient precautions to avoid millions more sick and tens of thousands more dead. Every teenager in America has a smart phone, and one community oriented high school student whipped his out in the hallway, took a pic of the crowd jammed together, and shared it on social media. Not a hint of social distancing was to be seen., but only a mass of young life, at risk. the school administrators, preferring secrecy, censorship, and concealment of its corruption to  truth telling, had strictly forbidden this, after the fashion of the Waffen SS or the Catholic clerical hierarchy. the young potential photo journalist was summarily banished from the herd, for daring to tell the truth rather then conceal it. it brought to mind my high school in 1970, when the index of forbidden books included "The Catcher In the Rye", of which every one had a copy of the small red hard cover salacious masterpiece in his or her locker, hidden inside a hollowed out Bible. Positive tests ofr teh coronavirus are already increasing in America's schools, as allegedly virtually immune prove not to be so virtually immune, and virtual immunity, which could be achieved by virtual learning from the sanctity of the home, lurks in the background, a forgotten but reasonable alternative to insanity . these politicians and administrators herding children into hallways with free floating viruses loitering - are they perhaps trump supporters, convinced that a little time, Lysol for lunch, and hydroxychloroquine will bring a hundred and sixty thousand people back to life, and prevent the same amount more from dying before Christmas? If only conservative America would awaken to the reality that the virus is real, and that real virtual immunity will require real virtual learning. bBut don't hold your breath.