Jeremy Adams teaches civic classes at Bakersfield High School in California. In a July 24 commentary in the Los Angeles Times entitled "The Rise of the Zoombies: Lifeless, Detached Students Have Returned to My Classroom," Adams laments the fact that after the Covid-19 layoff, his students have returned to the classroom as lifeless, detached zoombies. He writes:

They now embody the detached, lifeless malaise of a hipster zombie incapable of showing the slightest patina of zest or zeal…. They are perpetually chilled out, difficult to intellectually prod or verbally poke. They resist verbal engagement with me — or with each other.

Adams blames this phenomenon on the long pandemic layoff, which including "watching Zoom classes, learning through omnipresent pixilated screens that demanded little from them and, in too many instances, taught them even less."

I hate to rain on Adams's parade but he's got it all wrong. Public (i.e., government) schooling was creating zoombies long before Covid. In fact, that's long been one of the essential features of public (i.e., government) schooling.

Every child is born with a natural thirst for learning. From birth to six years of age, children have a wide-eyed awe of the universe. They absorb every bit of knowledge available to them. They love to learn.