Many of us have been saying for years that coddling children while they're in grade school and high school is doing them a disservice. Unfortunately, the coddling has continued into young adulthood, as many colleges and universities also try to shelter their students from the harsh realities of the real world.
If a child grows up in a participation trophy environment; if safe spaces, therapy dogs and cry rooms are provided along the way toward adulthood; if teachers and parents employ undue harshness against those who make an impolitic utterance or pick a fight with another student, the coddled wimps will grow up ill-prepared to deal with life as it is, not as they wish it would be.
News flash: There are assholes out in the real world. Some people will let you down or break your heart. Some will call you vile names. Some may be manipulators, liars, slanderers, layabouts, drug addicts, rapists -- even murderers. If you've been protected from getting your feelings hurt for years,; if you've never had someone screw you over and make you angry; if you've never experienced harsh criticism, you're in for a RUDE AWAKENING when you get out on your own.
After spending years in the wimp bubble, you may well be ultra-sensitive and fall to pieces when someone yells at you, insults you or trashes your reputation. It's rough out there! Best to develop a thick skin and a healthy skepticism before venturing out on your own.
This principle also applies to the human body's ability to develop an effective immune system to ward off bacterial and viral pathogens. In short, it depends partly on being exposed to the microbes and other pathogens. But obsession with masks, social distancing, lockdowns and "deep cleaning" (is that just a B.S. marketing term?) are preventing young people's immune systems from developing, thus making them more vulnerable when they go out into the world in a few years.
Dr. Eran Bendavid, a Stanford professor, penned a guest column in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago in which he cautioned about the damage excessive hygiene can do to children. He wrote that allergic and autoimmune diseases are far less common in communities with less hygiene.
Excessive hygiene harms children in two ways: It makes them vulnerable to pathogens later on because their body never had to confront those pathogens; and it prevents a child's immune system from fine-tuning itself. The body must distinguish between disease-causing invaders and benign targets. Too much of an antiseptic environment makes one vulnerable to maladies including asthma, allergies, Type 1 diabetes and Crohn's Disease.
What Dr. Bendavid refers to is known as the "Hygiene Hypothesis," and that's fine, as far as it goes. It's a school of thought that has been around for decades, but grown in prominence during the pandemic.
But here's another aspect to masking young children that raises serious questions: Don't the masks block facial expressions and muffle speech inflections and intonations? Communication experts have long taught us that the words expressed between two people are not nearly as important as body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, among other nonverbal cues.
Children learn about interacting with other people and about how to function in the world just by communicating -- in the classroom, on the playground, at home, in the neighborhood. The masks distort and hinder this all-important psychological and social development.
In recent days, we've been hearing of more and more blue state governors backing off on mask mandates. Their talking heads on MSNBC and CNN will tell you "the science has changed," or the case numbers are down. In truth, they have zero concern for children's well being. What concerns them most are polls telling them that Democrats will get pummeled in November unless changes in policy take place.
Paraphrasing the age-old "money talks" saying, when it comes to the political class, polls talk.
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