Christian
I started working with babies and young children in 2019. Early on before the mask order, one of our teachers got sick and the school closed the for two months. We attempted to teach and interact with the kids on zoom, but it was futile. In the begining of our “protocals” we were temp checked daily, tested weekly, required to wear masks, and if anyone tested positive, we closed the school.
I worked as a floater and was happy to work with infants. I kept looking at those “pandemic babies” thinking these are their formative years, how are they affected by all of this? Will the smell of hand sanitizer bring back memories of this awful time? Will they be obsessive hand-washers?
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They could hear us, but they couldn’t see our facial expressions behind our masks. How could they learn how to make sounds without seeing our lips move when we spoke to them? How could they know if we were happy or sad without seeing our face? Will they be speech impaired?
I was certain they were picking up on the collective trauma we were all experiencing. These babies will need some major therapy one day.
I wore a mask for the first two years I worked there, no one really knew me and I liked it that way. I wondered why I wore lipstick but wore it anyway, I also wore blue mascara, the kids liked it, I liked it too.
When the masks came off, we were all exposed, some looked better, some worse, a few chose to still wear a mask, which was interesting, maybe they liked it that way.
Teachers have their “favorites” and I had mine. His name was Christian. He was speech impaired and probably something else too, but I loved him. Nothing phased him, he was the happiest kid I ever saw, so expressive even through his mask. I knew when he was smiling, and that made me happy.
