The Economist - USA (2020-05-16)

14 The EconomistMay 16th 2020

Lettersarewelcomeandshouldbe

addressedtotheEditorat

TheEconomist,TheAdelphiBuilding,

1-11 JohnAdamStreet,LondonWC 2 N 6 HT

Email:[email protected]

Morelettersareavailableat:

Economist.com/letters

Letters

Is it safe to go back?

I was dismayed by your leader

calling for schools to reopen

(“Open schools first”, May 2nd).

Terry Jones of the Department

of Zoology at Cambridge

University and his colleagues

in Germany studied 3,

patients with covid-19 and

found no significant difference

in the viral load in patients

among age categories,

including children. The study

reckoned that children may be

as infectious as adults. Paul

Hunter of the Norwich Medical

School found that closing

schools was one of three of the

most effective measures in

reducing the transmission rate

of the disease. (Both studies

have not been peer-reviewed.)

You speculated, moreover,

that people working from

home with young children are

less productive. I am a consul-

tant psychiatrist in a high-risk

category for covid-19 and the

mother of primary-school-

aged children. Because I now

do not have to commute nor do

the school-run my productivi-

ty has gone up. I do home visits

by computer in areas it would

otherwise take me a day to

travel to. Vulnerable children

often have health issues. Many

have to care for adults. Their

parents may be too scared to

send them to school. Single

parents worry about the logis-

tics of sending one child to

school while others stay home.

Children at home might not

all be completing worksheets

or giving thumbs-up emojis in

Zoom classrooms, but to sug-

gest they are not learning

belies the resourcefulness of

those children and their fam-

ilies. Young children, especial-

ly, learn through play and

watching adults. The unusual

situation of the lockdown is

giving them opportunities to

do that much more so than

before. Children are learning

all the time: to exercise

indoors, to negotiate with

siblings, to be patient, to be

grateful. These virtues won’t be

measured in exams.

You concluded that a

rushed return to school may

feel like “a rash experiment

with young lives”. Children

fromallsocioeconomicback-

groundslearnleastunder

stressfulconditions.Insteadof

sendingthembackonthebasis

oferroneouslyextrapolated

scientificconclusions,letus

makewise,informed,safe

choicesontheirbehalf.

sabinadosani

Consultantchildand

adolescentpsychiatrist

London

Althoughyouaddressedthe

inequitiesofreturningtothe

classroom,thebiggestconsid-

erationforAmericanpublic

schoolsremainsfunding.

Withoutadditionalresources

topayforsummerschools,

longerhoursandshorterholi-

daysthisisalla pipedream.

helenlloyd

Directorofcommunications

AlexandriaCityPublicSchools

Alexandria,Virginia

Asa 16-year-oldpupil,I cantell

youthatchildrenthriveoff

socialcontact.Somewillnot

complywithsocialdistancing.

Otherswillnotbeabletoresist

temptations.Eventhemost

conscientiouswillbreachthe

rules.It isnotrealistictothink

wecantransformcrowded

commonroomsandcorridors,

withtheirhugsandhand-

shakesandsharedsweetsand

drinks,intosafespaces.

harriswhitford

Sheffield

Theteachersatmyschoolhave

hadtorethinkhowtheyap-

proachlearning.Formypartas

a 17-year-old,I havehadto

grasphowtousetheold

technologyofemail.The

shutdownhasmadeschool

administratorsawareofthe

techdisparitiesamongstu-

dents,whichshouldhavebeen

obviousbeforethepandemic.

Allsaid,however,I amvery

muchlookingforwardto

returningtotheclassroom.

sabinezednik-hammond

Brussels

Above par

Your special report on South

Korea (April 11th) had much to

say, mostly negative, about the

plight of women in the country

as well as its growing world-

wideculturalinfluence.How-

ever,thereisoneareainwhich

SouthKoreanwomencom-

pletelydominate:golf.Four

Koreanwomen—JinYoungKo,

SungHyunPark,SeiYoung

KimandJeonEunLee—arein

thetoptenoftheRolexWorld

Rankings.Thehighestplaced

male,SungjaeIm,isranked

23rd.SouthKoreancultural

influenceontheworldofgolf

isfirmlyinfemalehands.

jameslennox

Professoremeritusofhistory

andphilosophyofscience

UniversityofPittsburgh

Smellsandbells

Thereisa basicreasonwhy

virtualworshiponlinewillnot

replacethetraditionalvisittoa

houseofGod(“OurFather,who

artincyberspace”,April11th).

Religiousritualshavebeen

designedtostimulateallfive

senses.Thinkofthespectacle

ofa Catholicmass,thecol-

ourfulreligiousprocessionsof

theHindus,theadhansofthe

mosque,thehornsofTibetan

monasteries,thecakeand

wineoftheEucharist,the

chashnioftheZoroastrians,

theincenseofShintoshrines

andthegheepouredintothe

Hinduhavan,justa fewofthe

world’sthousandsofreligious

ritualsthatstimulatethe

sensesoftheirfollowers.

Asforthesenseoftouch,

thisobviouslyneedsmore

thanoneworshippertobe

present.It isforthissame

reasonthatvirtualcompany

meetingsareinsipidcompared

withtherealthing.

nawshirmirza

Mumbai

Hail to the Saints

I read with great interest

Banyan’s column juxtaposing

the allure and perceived

immunity of remote islands in

the face of disease with the

harsh reality of history (April

11th). By fortunate happen-

stance, I recently had the

pleasure of spending five

weeks on St Helena as the

covid-19 crisis quickly

deepened. Although perhaps

best known as the home to

Napoleon in exile, St Helena

was also one of two places

unaffected by the Spanish flu

of 1918 to 1920, the other being

Antarctica.

I arrived there in mid-

March after two weeks at sea to

a world greatly changed.

Myself and dozens of other

cruising sailboats suddenly

found ourselves in limbo as

country after country along the

traditional sailing routes back

to North America or Europe

closed their ports. There are

individuals, couples and fam-

ilies around the world in their

small floating homes with no

ports at which to call for water,

fuel, or provisions (apparently

some countries now find

maritime safety conventions

to be optional).

The Saints, however,

welcomed us all with open

arms, despite a few, fortunate-

ly false, rumours that covid-

had come to the island and

some understandable

concerns about the impact on

their own scarce resources.

kennon jones

At sea, on passage from St

Helena to the usVirgin Islands

The lockdown pants

In response to your invitation

for readers to share their

covid-19 experiences (Letters,

April 11th) I am a phdstudent

and have evidently been prac-

tising for just such a scenario.

Staying indoors, reading and

writing in my underpants all

day has been almost the sole

agenda on my calendar for over

a year now.

Laundry has given rise to

mixed feelings. I have to do it

because there are only so many

pairs of underwear. However,

there is very little else to add to

the machine. A waste of $

each time. Every penny counts

on a student budget, but at

least I can put off shopping for

trousers a bit longer.

nareg seferian

Arlington, Virginia