One of the most devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the debt it has created, a debt that we owe our kids that will be hard ever to pay back. In the past three years, much of what has occurred — school closings, lockdowns, remote learning — whether warranted or not, has had a profound academic and social effect on children, adolescents and young adults. We have an obligation to repay them.
The depressing data from the National Assessment of Education Progress demonstrates dramatic declines in reading and math scores in American grade schoolers, with students from poorer schools showing the worst declines, perpetuating an unequal two-tiered system. The quality of science education was not measured, but scientific illiteracy has been a persistent problem in American schools for decades. There is much science to be learned in the face of the pandemic, and this is a wide-ranging opportunity to improve the situation.
One way to do so is by constructing age-appropriate school curricula, taking what we have learned from COVID-19 and teaching schoolchildren about germs, hygiene, vaccines and immunity. Just as important, we must remove some of the fear of their environment that we have inculcated in them.
For the youngest children in kindergarten through third grade, the most important lesson is to teach them what germs are and that germs are a natural part of our environment not to be feared because although some can cause disease, germs are usually harmless, sometimes even beneficial.
Moreover, the best way to prevent the spread of germs is by practicing good hand hygiene and cough etiquette: how to wash hands without ritualizing the activity (teachers should continually demonstrate proper technique) and how to cover the mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.
Middle schoolers should learn that germs are specifically viruses and bacteria, identifying the differences between the two and how they both cause infection. All viruses and bacteria are not the same: The virus that causes measles is different from the virus that causes influenza. While schools should teach which germs cause specific diseases, the emphasis should again be on reassuring students that most viruses and bacteria are benign. Students generally have nothing to fear from them in their daily lives as long as they adhere to basic hygiene principles.
By junior high, students are sophisticated enough to learn more about how germs cause disease, whether by the air, droplets from coughs and sneezes or contaminated surfaces. They can be made aware that some diseases like influenza are seasonal and others are endemic to specific regions of the world, such as malaria in tropical climates. This is a good time to impart medical successes including the amazing story of one of the 20th century’s great discoveries, penicillin, which was discovered by serendipity when a mold traveled through an open window and landed on a petri dish.
They can also learn how scientists’ heroic efforts essentially eradicated diseases such as smallpox and puerperal fever. They can hear the stories of famous historical men and women such as Florence Nightingale and Ignaz Semmelweis, both of whom battled an entrenched medical establishment.
High school students are ready for more advanced issues such as how vaccines work and an introduction to human immunity, a critical factor in understanding the primary defense against germs. This is also where students can learn about subjects such as the relative effectiveness of lockdowns and masking in different settings and how those questions are studied. It is obvious that high school students should also be educated about the viruses and bacteria that cause diseases that are spread through sex — and how to prevent them.
Besides instructing our youth, the primary goal of an education campaign should be to allay the fear of infections, much of which has been instilled in children during the pandemic. Part of this involves confronting controversies. When asked about teaching and discussion around COVID-19 in school, the 9-year-old grandchild of one of us said, “I think they avoid it because it is too political.” This is untenable; it should be possible to discuss the issues without having the lessons devolve into Democrat versus Republican, but this means intellectually honest, nonpartisan lessons and instructors.
In the New Testament, it is written, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” This biblical message is that the future belongs to children, and our obligation is to guide them.
The COVID-19 pandemic offers a teachable moment to inform, educate and, most important, reassure them: There is a safe path forward, and they can make sense of the chaos in the world that we have created.
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ABOUT THE WRITERS
Dr. Cory Franklin is a retired intensive care physician. Dr. Robert Weinstein is an infectious disease specialist at Rush University Medical Center.
