Just imagine that somewhere, somehow, deep in the recesses of Joe Biden’s White House, someone thought that this was the best Message of the Day. At the same time that the Biden administration’s other message of the day, let’s not forget, that children need masks strapped to their faces at all times — even outdoors, at times.

Either Miguel Cardona doesn’t get the daily memos, or the Secretary of Education hasn’t been educating much in the last two years:

Today’s #LoveTeaching theme is “Tremendous Tuesday” where we are challenged to tell a 6-word story that describes why you #LoveTeaching. Mine is:

The smile on a student's face.

— Secretary Miguel Cardona (@SecCardona) February 16, 2022

How does Cardona propose teachers get that view? X-ray vision?

Twitchy has collated some of the spicier responses to Cardona’s deeeeeep thought,  but author Virginia Hume hits the nail most closely on the head:

troll? gaslight? denial is not a river in egypt? https://t.co/vTXEID6T4I

— virginiahume (@virginiahume) February 16, 2022

Fair questions all, especially in light of the CDC’s insistence on masking all children from the age of 2 up in schools — even though children are at very low risk for acute COVID-19 cases, and schools are not vectors for transmission. Their current guidance, updated as late as January 12, still instructs schools not just to mask children but distance them from each other regardless of vaccination status:

• CDC recommends universal indoor masking by all* students (ages 2 years and older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.
• New CDC guidance has reduced the recommended time for isolation and quarantine periods to five days. For details see CDC’s page on Quarantine and Isolation.
• In addition to universal indoor masking, CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms to reduce transmission risk. When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully re-open while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple prevention strategies, such as screening testing.

There doesn’t appear to be much opportunity to see children smile in school for districts that follow Biden administration “guidance.” Nor has the Biden administration ever provided solid evidence for any real benefit to children from masking, given that an unvaccinated child has the same relative risk for a severe case of COVID-19 as a vaccinated adult. The only people who might benefit from masking children are the adults in the room without vaccination, namely the teachers who had priority access to vaccines from the beginning of their distribution.

This guidance only remains in place because of pressure from teacher’s unions, led in the main by Randi Weingarten. The AFT chief doesn’t want the guidance to change until transmission gets close to zero and most children are vaccinated, even though the benefit of vaccination doesn’t include an end to transmission (and is arguable for children at all, given their low risk). And yet, as Reason’s Robby Soave noticed last week, Weingarten has generously allowed lots of people to see her own face indoors when meeting with other adults:

Glad to be with D. Taylor and other @UniteHere leaders in Las Vegas talking about the path forward to help workers pic.twitter.com/LO5N8O1kYk

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) February 6, 2022

Many students have gone two years without regularly seeing the faces of their teachers and classmates. When Weingarten is speaking and needs to be heard, she understands that it’s better to remove her mask, as she did during a recent conference appearance. Why would this be any different in the classroom?

Ask Cardona, who apparently can see smiles through masks … or has no bloody idea what is happening in American classrooms.