“Masks are too hard for little kids to manage.” My last post with the snorkel snark inspired more than one person to “agree” with me that masks are just too hard for the littlest ones in our schools. Oops. That’s definitely not what I intended to say.

Small children often struggle with masks. They also struggle with pants, shirts, backpacks, hats, coats and gloves. In early elementary grades, winter gloves can come at teachers in a tiny foretaste of the zombie apocalypse, a nightmarish agglomeration of confused, waving, tiny fingers. Then, while the classroom teacher holds the glove out, those children stick two or more fingers in one hole and she has to pull the glove away and start all over again.

My first winter subbing day in a kindergarten classroom, I ended up alone with 20-some kids at day’s end. A number struggled into their own coats and a few even managed gloves. But the majority expected me to get them ready for the snowy winter in Illinois. I had not left close to enough time. Hands, hands everywhere, a sea of hands, gloves, hats, boots and zippers galore! The crowd was a little loose on the concept of taking turns, too.

I’ll frankly confess I ended up with a small pile of random winter clothing that I simply left on the regular teacher’s desk. I looked at the clock, looked at my group, realized they all had their coats on at least, and clapped my hands to get everyone’s attention. Little arms froze in the air.

“Quick!” I said. “You have to get to the busses. We can’t do any more gloves or hats now. C’mon. We have to get out of here!” And I practically ran those guys to their bus locations.

I’ll give myself a D- in “First Day as a Kindergarten Sub in Winter.” Yes, the busses should wait. That’s too many busses to trust, though. Plus I didn’t want to be the sub who slowed down the whole end of the school day.

Trying to shove forty or fifty small hands into tiny tubes that only sometimes match the fingers takes more time than I had left that day. I trusted the kids to identify their belongings. I left the teacher a note to help her sort through the mysterious pile on her desk upon her return.

She let me teach that class again. The second time, I got the timing for those gloves … well, better anyway. As time went by, the kids were getting more adept at handling their own gloves, hats and coats too. They also listened when I told them, “I need you to help me and do as much as you can on your own.” After that first performance, I am sure they had identified me as someone who needed a little extra help.

We can handle masks. Our kids can handle masks; teaching is all about reinforcing desirable behaviors, and masking has become simply another metaphorical hill to climb in classrooms. Teachers learn. Kids learn from their teachers, from parents, from each other and from their own experience. As the meme goes,

Masks are no problem unless we make them a problem. If we purchase the right masks, masks are much easier than winter gloves and zippers. And if everyone is wearing masks, kids won’t mind wearing masks unless adults influence them otherwise. From a very early age, children somehow grasp that they should dress like their peers — even if that leads to tantrums because plain brown backpacks are much less fashionable than Paw Patrol, Spiderman or Disney princess equivalents.

Eduhonesty: Spiderman wears a mask. Captain America wears a mask. Ironman is trussed up in full body armor. I truly don’t get the fuss over masking. Kids can do this. If it makes some or most people feel safer to be masked, the cost is so small and the benefit a genuine kindness to the worried well. Besides which — the research overall says masking is safer, an imperfect method of controlling viral spread which is better than just blasting germs freely out into the air.

Please share this with anyone who might need a nudge to get behind masking. I acknowledge that as children enter adolescence the picture becomes more complicated, but at all ages we can stand up for the idea of kindness toward all.

Hugs to all my readers and anyone who stumbled into this post! Jocelyn Turner