Shaking

There has been a lot of chatter, online and in real life, about doing away with the customary shaking of hands upon meeting. This would be as a direct result of the Coronavirus fears currently making the rounds of real life and online. This is the way we can create defensible space between us and the pandemic. It is also a way for some to affect the social change they have been yearning for after all these years. Avoiding a handshake could be a life-saving measure. Get it?
Well, let me off this up to anyone still listening: There are a number of videos online that show teachers giving their students a choice, upon entering the classroom in the morning, of receiving a hug, a high five, a fist bump or just a smile on their way in. It is a community-building exercise that I know by heart, having handed out my own high fives and fist bumps by the dozens over the course of a day as an elementary school teacher. And though I don't seek them out, I have certainly been the beneficiary of a great many hugs from kindergartners who are expressing the comfort and excitement they cannot name upon seeing their teacher.
And there's this: Many of these kids are experiencing the experience of human contact in one of the rare safe moments that occur in their day. If I shrank back from every runny nose or sniffly kid who crossed my path, I would spend my entire day running a gauntlet in this petri dish filled with five to twelve year olds. Do I wash my hands? A lot. Do I make a fuss about it? No. It puts me in mind of the way some kids wipe kisses off their heads when they have come in contact with an overzealous aunt. And those who choose not to.
Because of the love they are spreading.
Is it possible that all of this touching will result in my untimely death? I sure hope it won't. I hope to be able to ride this one out, while explaining carefully to kids about the way we should keep ourselves safe from germs, just as we always have. Is this a heightened example? It most certainly is. Will I be keeping children at arm's length while we anxiously wait for a vaccine? No. Will I respectfully remind them to be safe and cautious as they move through their day? You bet I will. That's what educators do.
That's what humans do.