What I Told My Students About Why We Didn’t Have Bagels for Them Last Sunday

It’s not that you should fear getting really sick yourself, but that you have a role to play in preventing others more vulnerable than you from getting sick.

I am feeling a persistent anxiety about our capacity as a culture to pull in the same direction in order to protect vulnerable populations. Offering an explanation to teenagers about why we’re not setting out boxes of bagels and tubs of cream cheese for them feels like a constructive thing to do with that anxiety, more constructive than stockpiling Purell.

Seriously, stop stockpiling Purell.