"And I'm going to really learn to read,"

H... told me this yesterday.

My young friend is due to start school at the end of the month. I hope he can go. 

His mother has explained to him that the "bad Covid germs" might stop him going. He might have to do "school at home" like his siblings did. He is worried about this.

"But I need to go to school," he told her when I was listening to the conversation.

And he does need to go to school. So many other children need to go to school as well. 

We managed to keep schools open in this state. It wasn't easy but we did it. Case numbers were low then. Now they are in their thousands and may still be like that at the end of the month. The authorities are waiting to see what happens.

H... can already read a great many things. His parents have encouraged that with all three children. There are bed time stories too. Even his nine year old sister will help him "sound out" words. He wants to read "everything". 

I worry about H... and children like him. His parents worry too. He is an highly intelligent child. His sister and brother are also highly intelligent. They haven't found school easy. It is not because they cannot do the work but because they can - and they need more. They get some of it at home but, unlike so many other children,  their lives are not filled with endless out of school activities taught by adults. They all go to swimming lessons but their parents see that as an essential part of learning to be safe in the water.  They are learning to play the piano. Their grandmother is teaching them but it is being done in a slow casual sort of way that I suspect means they spend more time at the piano rather than less.

But now H... is counting the days before he can start school. He is going to be devastated if he has to wait.  How many other children are there in the same position? How is it that some adults are still refusing to get vaccinated in order to protect children - and let them go to school?