Sacrificing Our Children on the Altar of Covid Fear

[BarryLincoln]

Saw this making the WhatsApp rounds in New Jersey and thought it was worth sharing as it reflects a different perspective...

If you don't know Gershon, he's an askan in the North Jersey community and is not afraid of challenging the status quo...

https://gershondistenfeld.blogspot.com/2020/09/sacrificing-our-children-on-altar-of.html

[EliJelly]

Let's begin by discussing the culture of fear we've created in many of our schools. Select teachers and administrators have become “Covid police”. Kids get yelled at if their mask slips off their nose. Children are told that they must sit at their desk quietly while they eat their lunch because it's too dangerous to talk without a mask. Adolescents report they are afraid to go to school because they get barked at about slight social distancing violations. Children are sent home for a runny nose being told they are a danger to everyone else. Students are told that if they don't follow all the rules, they are a "rodef" and then confess to their parents that they are afraid that they will be murderers and Hashem will never forgive them. My personal favorite; a 4 year old girl was sent home for taking too long in the bathroom as she was suspected of having diarrhea. Never mind that the child said that she didn't; she was still required to obtain a PCR test to ensure she wasn’t a public health risk.

 

Then there are the knock-on effects in the community. Families are told that they can't dine together. Children are told that they can't play together. So is it surprising that people who live alone were disinvited from meals over Rosh Hashana and literally in tears over it? Is it surprising that many children were depressed over Yom Tov, sulking in their rooms having had play dates cancelled by well-meaning parents who were just trying to "follow the rules"? Are these Torah values?

Even if a fraction of the above illustration is true it's still horrifying enough.

[Lurker]

Saw this making the WhatsApp rounds in New Jersey and thought it was worth sharing as it reflects a different perspective...

If you don't know Gershon, he's an askan in the North Jersey community and is not afraid of challenging the status quo...

https://gershondistenfeld.blogspot.com/2020/09/sacrificing-our-children-on-altar-of.html

I didn't read the whole thing, and he has a very solid point about making kids crazy, but his premise about it being harmless to children is flat out wrong. His analogy about lowering the speed limit to 35 to save lives is also wrong.

[avromie7]

I didn't read the whole thing, and he has a very solid point about making kids crazy, but his premise about it being relatively harmless to children is flat out wrong. His analogy about lowering the speed limit to 35 to save lives is also wrong.

FTFY

What's wrong about either of these? He's right on target with both of them.

[etech0]

The question is if kids spread it to adults or not

[shulemw]

He is not the only one. many prominent gedolim have the same opinion

[yitzgar]

Even if a fraction of the above illustration is true it's still horrifying enough.

I only read this excerpt. My kids school, while having plexiglass at each seat, and requiring masks, is not anything like this. Is this actually what's going on in many schools?

[yitzgar]

We keep hearing the same thing. It's all or nothing. It's not that difficult to find a happy medium, ie basic precautions, without a total lockdown or calling kids a rodef if their mask slips off their nose. This is in no way a reason to dismiss all precautions. This is a recurring theme we keep seeing from the anti maskers, and it's intellectually dishonest.

[Dan]

I only read this excerpt. My kids school, while having plexiglass at each seat, and requiring masks, is not anything like this. Is this actually what's going on in many schools?

Yup. My kids seem just fine with the present arrangement of plexiglass and masks.
Should we be telling them that it's not fine and they're actually being sacrificed?

[dasmo801]

I had a teacher, many years ago, who told all of us 6th graders that we would burn in hell for a long time if we did certain things. I'm sure some of my classmates were scarred (for at least a few days). Should we do away with teaching yiras shomayim or schar v'onesh?

Wouldn't the solution be to offer some training to the teachers and some parenting classes to the parents who are having difficulty maintaining some balance in their parenting/teaching? 

[jj1000]

Article coming soon:

Sacrificing Our Elders And Sick on the Altar of Covid Ignorance

[Afrages6]

Article coming soon:

Sacrificing Our Elders And Sick on the Altar of Covid Ignorance

Can’t they just stay home forever??

[jj1000]

I had a teacher, many years ago, who told all of us 6th graders that we would burn in hell for a long time if we did certain things. I'm sure some of my classmates were scarred (for at least a few days). Should we do away with teaching yiras shomayim or schar v'onesh?

Wouldn't the solution be to offer some training to the teachers and some parenting classes to the parents who are having difficulty maintaining some balance in their parenting/teaching? 

Sounds like this is school specific. Some schools think fear is a good thing, like in your example. Would be the same for covid attitudes.

My Mom always tells me about her classmate who couldn't focus on homework because her father dying, the teacher informed this innocent 4th grader that in fact her father is dying because she is not memorizing her rashi homework...Her father passed a few weeks later.

Same school called my Bubby while sitting shiva for her mom, because my aunt wasn't doing well in school that week (3rd grader)...

That's a teaching style...

[Ergel]

My kids (and their parent's too) seem to be handling this lockdown in Israel much better. We know what to expect, we have a cadence of how we fill the day. And a lot less video watching

[yuneeq]

Saw this making the WhatsApp rounds in New Jersey and thought it was worth sharing as it reflects a different perspective...

If you don't know Gershon, he's an askan in the North Jersey community and is not afraid of challenging the status quo...

https://gershondistenfeld.blogspot.com/2020/09/sacrificing-our-children-on-altar-of.html

I tried reading it, it's not easy reading and could not finish it. It's mostly an endless repetitive rant with points that don't address what people are actually concerned with. We don't have rules for kids to protect the kids, and we knew since the beginning that kids are relatively safe. Everything else is just assumptions that children don't spread COVID.

He may have labeled it controversial to garner some views but it's pretty much: inaccurate, poorly written, and just boring.

[EliJelly]

Yup. My kids seem just fine with the present arrangement of plexiglass and masks.
Should we be telling them that it's not fine and they're actually being sacrificed?

Good for you. The article wasn't making the case for all schools, rather specifically for his community. Still a good writing prompt on the importance of keeping a safe balance.

[Dan]

I tried reading it, it's not easy reading and could not finish it. It's mostly an endless repetitive rant with points that don't address what people are actually concerned with. We don't have rules for kids to protect the kids, and we knew since the beginning that kids are relatively safe. Everything else is just assumptions that children don't spread COVID.

He may have labeled it controversial to garner some views but it's pretty much: inaccurate, poorly written, and just boring.

👆 גם אני מצטרף להנ״ל

[pomy100]

גם אני מצטרף להנ״ל

Feh

[shaulyaakov]

His article is also logically inconsistent.

In Bergen County, the Jewish day schools are among the only schools offering 100% in person learning. Masks and quarantines are the way to ensure they remain open.

So what exactly is he fighting against? That kids shouldn't wear masks, which will obviously spread covid more, leading to school closures?

He bascially takes debated science as fact, sprinkles in a strawman about how masks are ruining kids' lives, adds in a slippery slope argument about speed limits, and references a "silent majority" that not one person here knows who's leading. Add to that how he wants the rabbis to overrule the medical consensus based on these theories.

He also doesn't understand what "cancel culture" is (hint - it's not a local paper declining to publish you).

This article is garbage, and I hope it gets the takedown it deserves.

[good sam]

He was on the ball about yeshiva tuition though.

Very good op-ed on the tuition crisis.

http://jstandard.com/content/item/putting_our_money_where_our_mouths_are/28821