Louise Roberts: Covid generation lost in a miasma of political posturing

We must give up waiting for Covid to ‘go away’ or risk creating a generation scared of their own shadow, academically and socially fallen not just through the cracks, but into a deep ravine they may never climb out of, writes Louise Roberts.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian went for the jugular when she said it “broke my heart” to see 3500 anti-lockdown protesters swarm the CBD on Saturday.

Fronting the camera for her regular 11am roll call, Gladys said: “Can I say how absolutely disgusted I was, it broke my heart.

“Millions and millions of people across our state are doing the right thing. And it just broke my heart that people had such a disregard for their fellow citizens.”

In our democracy people have a right to protest but there’s no ­question this illegal march obliterated the entire point the crowd – chanting “my body, my choice” and “you serve us” at the police – was trying to make.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was disgusted by the protests on Saturday. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams Pool/Getty

But what made my heart break, Premier, was seeing adults happily wading into the chaos arm in arm with children.

And there were toddlers aloft on shoulders, their tiny feet anchored by grown-up hands.

These self-styled anarchists and freedom fighters might not care about the education of their sons and daughters but the rest of us sure as hell do.

Because if they did, they would be doing everything within their power to help our children get back to face-to-face learning.

Our kids, our school students, our future generations are lost in the headlines about infected venues, political posturing between the states and a Prime Minister who kinda sorta finally said sorry for our shambolic vaccine rollout.

It’s as if when lockdown strikes, kids get banished to their bedrooms or kitchen tables, that’s one problem off our plate and (wipes hands together) we can get on with the next issue.

Our teachers are frontline workers and there is little being done to prioritise their vaccination, leaving the burden of responsibility on many to get the jab privately.

How on earth are schools not classified as an essential industry?

NSW independent Education Union president Mark Northam says: “It is self-evident that if you want schools to be places of education and learning, then you have to waterproof those school communities and the very first step is to vaccinate the staff.”

It’s fascinating to observe how uncomfortable the whole ‘when will schools open again’ questions makes our bureaucrats and politicians.

Protesters at Town Hall in Sydney on Saturday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

The safety first card is always immediately played, with Dr Kerry Chant telling reporters on Monday: “Whereas with the previous strains we didn’t see children (impacted), we’re seeing a young age cohort impacted down to very young babies.

“Therefore, that’s the basis of why we recommended that school not go back to face-to-face learning.

“And I would urge anyone, schools are only open to the most ­essential.

“And if you can avoid sending children to school, that is an appropriate response.”

Last May, when the school gates swung open after a four week lockdown, it transpired that a month out of the classroom equated to four months of school time lost, such was the adjustment

We are facilitating a dangerous decline in not only their learning but their mental health and social ­interactions.

I have two teenagers homeschooling and although they are trying their best, we’re all anxious about this rumbling on until the end of term three on September 17, let alone beyond that.

Earlier this month the Royal ­Australasian College of Physicians argued that school closures “should only be used as a last resort in containing Covid-19 outbreaks, and only occur on a case-by-case basis such as when a case or contact is detected within a school setting”.

Professor Robert Booy, Sydney University’s vaccination and infectious disease expert, also supports the view that teachers should be ­vaccinated and schools should be opened up as soon as possible.

The Sydney lockdown protest on Saturday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

There’s a meme floating around social media: “You think things are bad now? In 20 or 30 years the country will be run by kids who were homeschooled by drunks.”

Yeah, I’m not laughing.

We all talk about learning to live with Covid-19. And if the events of the past 18 months have taught us anything it is that this virus mutates at the drop of a hat, creating new ­variants that are scarier than their predecessors.

We must give up waiting for Covid to “go away” and find a way to allow our children to continue to be educated, to be afforded opportunities to socially interact within their own age group, to allow them to make mistakes and grow in their ­resilience.

We’ve had our personal development, we’ve had our school journey but our kids have not.

Kids’ wellbeing has been sacrificed to protect us and we have absolutely no appreciation of the damage this will cause.

We can’t give them these opportunities inside the home, despite our best intentions.

We risk creating a whole generation that is scared of their own shadow, that has academically and socially fallen, not just through the cracks, but into a deep ravine I fear they may never be able to climb out of.

We also risk becoming the ­ultimate collective helicopter parent.

Our children will not thank us. Their mental health will not flourish

And we no longer have excuses. We have vaccines.

We need to treat our teachers as we would our frontline health ­workers.

Because they are ones who can set our children free in a way we as parents cannot right now.