The Great Mask Debate and the Impact on Public Schools

If you’ve paid attention to the news at any length over the last two years, you will no doubt have become acutely aware of the divisiveness that has occurred as a result of the decisions being made over mask-wearing. From the onset of the 15-day push to “slow the spread” which became the initial response to COVID-19 until now, masks became another thing that the public had to endure for much longer than that 15-day halt to life as we knew it.

As time passed along and people began to “follow the science, something interesting happened. People began questioning the science, as there seemed to be conflicting data and even more conflicting responses from the very experts the public was told to trust during the crisis. In March of 2020, during a 60 Minutes interview, Dr. Anthony Fauci states that the only ones that have a need to wear masks are those who are infected, to protect others from becoming infected. He would go further to state that there was no need for Americans to wear masks and that masks should be reserved for healthcare professionals.

The Great Controversy

To most people, that was common sense and seen as not only appropriate but standard healthcare practice. The controversy came in when the prevailing message a few months later, by the same Anthony Fauci was “trust the science,” as he began to shift his message to one where everyone needed to wear a mask because you don’t know who is infected and having everyone wearing a mask would better slow the spread.

The day-by-day, week-by-week, and month-by-month evidence did not bear out the claims. What’s worse is that people who desired to do their own research to determine what the real science was in relation to the wearing of masks and their effectiveness on such a grand scale were unable to find any information except what was now becoming the only one that mattered to those who saw value in flexing political muscles.

As doctors and scientists began to come forth with opposing scientific research, anecdotal evidence of alternative solutions, and a hopeful vision of a way back to normal, they began to be silenced by Dr. Fauci and others. A 2017 article in the Smithsonian Magazine reports how Canadian scientists are being silenced by the government, not just in relationship to climate change, but anything else that has a conservative basis or does not back up what the government deems to back up the claims that climate change is a genuine problem.

The Greater Hypocrisy

The great hypocrisy in the idea of “trusting the science” is that science used to be about researching, testing hypotheses, seeing what can be proven, and testing some more. There is very little in science that is concrete. Even many of the things that are deemed scientific law still come under scrutiny. Ask anyone who studies quantum physics? The science that we know as medicine is to this day still called “a practice.”

There’s another hypocrisy when it comes to the great mask debate. Those who are against the repealing of mask mandates which were instituted argue that the governors or authorities that have overturned them had no authority to do so. The hypocrisy in this is that the mandates were initiated and even enforced without justifiable authority. The Governor of Virginia is one who is facing such opposition by school boards. Virginia’s Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit filed against the newly inaugurated Virginia governor.

The Systems of Control Being Revealed

Teachers, teacher unions, and school boards fighting governors who want to get their states back to a sense of normalcy as they are becoming aware that the real data does not prove the science that has been spoon-fed to a public that has been told to just accept what they are told and not think for themselves, do their own research or trust their own judgment regarding their personal health, their parental authority, or their rights as citizens in the community.

The great mask debate reveals a system of control not just in the area of children’s health but the degree of control that has progressively grown through the bureaucracy. Virginia and Florida are but two states that have become the epicenters of the battle to restore parental authority and input in what happens in schools. The questions of what gets taught and how much or how little parents have in what goes on in schools are becoming an eye-opening event nationwide.

A California school comes under fire after offering a 12-year-old student pizza to get vaccinated and not tell his parents. A New York teacher is arrested for injecting a student with the vaccine at her home without the student’s parents' permission. Both Virginia Governor Youngkin and Florida Governor DeSantis have taken broad strokes to say that CRT is something that will not be permitted to be taught in schools. While this was met with many parents cheering, it was interesting to see how this became such a hot-button issue in Virginia. Glenn Youngkin’s election opponent Terry McAuliffe touted at one debate that parents should have no role in what curriculum is taught in schools.

The Unfolding Truth

Regardless of where you stand on the mask debate or any of the other issues that are exploding onto the education scene, there are some things that you must be aware are likely to occur. The first is a greater press by parents to have a say in what and how their children are educated. If there is anything the last two years have done, it has tested parents' patience with traditional education. Many parents learned just how little their children were actually learning in schools.

A recent article by The Daily Record reports a lawsuit that proposes that Baltimore schools are failing both students and taxpayers. Another article by Town Hall reveals that Baltimore high school students are barely coming out with 3rd grade reading abilities. Yet, last May, Fox News reported that students who failed multiple classes were still permitted to graduate in the 2020-2021 school year.

CDC reports the reality that homeschooling is on the rise as a result of COVID-19. I don’t think this is based on fear, although there could be some. I believe that there is an awakening by parents who are beginning to see how traditional education has truly failed their children.

One homeschooling site in Louisiana reports that one of the main reasons for the increase in homeschooling since COVID-19 is that parents are discovering that they are producing better-educated children when compared to others based on the standardized testing of their peers.

The next decade will see a shift in not only parent choice but parent options for education. Parents will determine whether traditional education is a format that needs to be a choice for them or whether they prefer to have more say in what and how their children are taught. I believe that as parent options open, there will also be a shift in the value of quality educators as more effective educational formats and teachers are rewarded for the value they provide to producing quality learners that are ready to enter the working community.

While the mask debate may not be resolved before the end of this school year, it will eventually end. The overall impact that this mask debate has on an awakening public will definitely be one worth keeping an eye on.