Ingraham: The kids aren't alright
Few disagree that prolonged absence from the classroom has profound implications for children's wellbeing, development and knowledge retention.
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Americans need to use creativity and common sense in order to bring back classroom learning for their children's well-being in a safe and intelligent way, Fox News' Laura Ingraham asserted Monday night.
In her opening monologue on "The Ingraham Angle," Ingraham explained that she was frustrated by hasty decisions to shutter schools based on an abundance of caution and not an abundance of scientific data, as about three-quarters of the world's schoolchildren remain at home.
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"Few disagree that prolonged absence from the classroom has profound implications for children's well-being, their development and their knowledge retention. At-risk kids [are] especially vulnerable. Certainly, that makes sense. But, almost all moms with whom I speak are frustrated and they're frankly frightened that these closures are going to continue indefinitely," Ingraham stated.
The Fox News host pointed out that most parents are not well-suited to be teaching an array of subjects, especially if they have multiple children or essential jobs. Plus, digital and online classes "[get] old fast," may lead to a feeling of isolation, and does not engage students like in-person learning.
"Yet, 192 countries pulled kids out of school. And, these decisions were based not so much on science, but out of an abundance of caution," she remarked.
Ingraham called for more research into the virus' infection and health risks to children and adults if they return to schools, and suggested a new way to conduct analysis.
"A comparison to influenza might be illustrative," she noted. "According to the CDC's numbers...this past flu season was a very bad one for children. Well, only a handful of children died from COVID nationwide. As of May 9th, the CDC reported 174 pediatric flu deaths this season. In addition, they had 18 million medical visits and 410,000 hospitalizations due to influenza this season..."
"Now," Ingraham continued, "on its website, the CDC estimates between...24,000 and 62,000 preliminary flu deaths. That's quite a range...Why didn't we hear more about the flu vis-a-vis kids in school given that number?... Even during the swine flu epidemic, only about 726 of the more than 131,000 K-12 schools in the country shut down."
Ingraham contended that she was not comparing COVID-19 to the flu, but highlighting that no one had seriously considered keeping most of the nation's schoolchildren at home due to the danger of influenza.
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Ingraham's worry extended to her own children, as she wondered how much they had really learned this semester outside of a classroom.
Her proposal? To not abandon classroom learning and for America to get creative.
"Kids need school at all ages. We can protect their health and we can protect their minds. We can use our innovation and we can use our common sense," she concluded. "And no, I'm sorry, Zoom is not the answer."
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