Our Children Might Be Doing Better Than We Think

You can throw a lot at them, and they keep bouncing back.

This week, for the first time of the pandemic, Covid-19 made its way into my child’s classroom.

Both of my sons, a fourth grader and a second grader, have been back in school for nearly a month now — we start very early down in Georgia — and it has been going as smoothly as you could reasonably expect, which is to say, not all that smoothly. Our elementary school has a mask mandate, which helps a ton, and is run by measured, careful and pragmatic administrators who are taking every available precaution but also still understand just how vital it is that these kids have the in-person school experience. They see how much was lost last year. They’ve been downright heroic in making sure that doesn’t happen again this year.

But it’s also Covid: You can only hold it off so long. So, this week, we got the letter from the school that every parent dreads: A student in your child’s class has tested positive for Covid-19. The letter explained that our son was not considered a “close contact” to the Covid-positive student and therefore did not have to quarantine, but that we should also continue to monitor our son for any Covid-related symptoms. (We are. He’s fine.) It also said that any students who were considered close…