Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is taking heat over a tweet he sent explaining why he loves teaching.
In a tweet on Tuesday night, Cardona wrote, “Today’s [Love Teaching] theme is ‘Tremendous Tuesday’ where we are challenged to tell a 6-word story that describes why you [Love Teaching].”
“Mine is: The smile on a student’s face,” he added.
Today’s #LoveTeaching theme is “Tremendous Tuesday” where we are challenged to tell a 6-word story that describes why you #LoveTeaching. Mine is:
— Secretary Miguel Cardona (@SecCardona) February 16, 2022
The smile on a student's face.
Cardona’s tweet did not go over well on Twitter:
— Abigail Jackson 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) February 16, 2022
i mean REALLY
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) February 16, 2022
His tweet comes off as incredibly tone-deaf as across America, the smiles on students’ faces are being hidden by masks while adults — who are shown to be at a higher risk of severe illness or death from Covid — are getting the freedom to ditch their masks.
Last week, several Democratic governors announced timelines for when they would lift state-wide mask mandates. But states such as New York and California are leaving state-wide mask mandates in place for schools for now.
Meanwhile, we get pictures that make absolutely no sense of politicians smiling unmasked near children wearing masks:
And Cardona seems to be on board with the decision to keep school mask mandates in place.
Just last week, he told ABC News that lifting mask mandates in schools could disrupt learning.
“We have to have our health experts at the table,” he said, adding, “Most importantly, we have to keep our schools open; our students cannot afford another round of disruption.”
He also addressed parents’ concerns that mask-wearing can have a negative impact on children’s ability to learn, saying, “You know what hinders kids’ learning? Being quarantined because they have COVID, or not having a teacher because their teacher has COVID.”
Cardona also nodded to concerns about children under 5 contracting the virus, as there has not been a vaccine approved yet for that age group. As he said, ‘”Many of our educators have children under the age of 5 that they go home to.”
However, data from the CDC has shown that children in that age group rank among the lowest for case counts and hospitalizations despite being unvaccinated.
As for mask mandates in schools, The New York Times’ David Leonhardt noted in his newsletter last week that “benefits of universal masking in schools remain unclear.” And the methodology of one study that found that mask-wearing in schools has a noticeable impact on the spread of COVID-19 has been called into question.
Meanwhile, NPR points out masks “can interfere with young children’s brain development,” “make it harder to hear and understand speech,” and “inhibit social interactions.”
If parents are concerned about their child’s safety, they should be able to send the kid to school with a mask if they want.
But children shouldn’t be forced to mask up and hide their smiles — which Cardona says are why he loves teaching — when the data is not definitive about the benefits of mask mandates while adults are allowed to pack into stadiums, maskless, to watch a football game.
