Schools must reopen.

[OnePercenter]

Few would argue that children are the future. Fall approaches and many schools across the nation will not reopen which means millions of children will be denied a rite of passage that runs concurrently with brain development. Neurological science has proved time and again that brain plasticity is at its apex during early childhood when learning begins at school and recent advances in MRI imaging support the science that critical windows in childhood brain growth will be missed forever via sensory deprivation if certain criteria are not met on time.

One crucial criterion is entry into a school setting where education is the important software downloaded into the hardware of a childhood brain. That educational software determines the personhood of the child as exposure not just to rote learning but to interactive relationships with others becomes paramount. Children learn to follow rules where respect for authority and consideration for peers are necessary aspects of living and learning.

Delaying this tender-age process has consequences, both interpersonal and societal. Because the neurological hardware of the developing human brain progresses at a fixed rate, it is important to target learning to coincide with the phenomenon. Both white and gray matter form in the early brain and are influenced by early experiences that have permanent outcomes on personality and intelligence.

In addition, there is considerable evidence demonstrating the importance of school breakfast programs on child brain health. Breakfast a child may not get at home provides the fuel that powers cognitive function vital to both short and long-term memory fundamental to learning ability. Any interruption in this time-tested recipe could have vast negative ramifications for a generation of children.

Going out on a limb, one can surmise that teachers are not a monolithic group under the control of public sector unions with an election-year agenda. Many have children of their own and are bright enough to realize what is at stake here if mass hysteria prevails and schools are locked down to hide from a virus that is more political than biological.

If schools do not reopen this year, innocent children will be sacrificed as human shields to unseat an unpopular president perceived as a threat to an economic and ideological corporate machine that has been running out of control for more than half a century. Schools in our state should open their doors.

Thank you to the teachers who gave me the tools to write this.

Georgia was/is a great test case.

More than 900 students and staff in Georgia school district told to quarantine after reopening last week

Cherokee County schools reopened on August 3, but now one high school is closed and hundreds of students have to quarantine for two weeks.

www.cbsnews.com