K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE. Karol Markowicz: No sports, no clubs, no talking during lunch and other joys of COVID schooling.

We used to understand that it is important for kids to get exercise with friends. But we have forgotten everything we have ever known about child development in the name of fighting a virus that poses a minuscule risk to children.

A New York state Education ­Department health guide for the 2021-22 school year worries a lot about kids’ outrageous breathing. “Due to increased exhalation that occurs during physical activity, some sports can put players, coaches, trainers and others at ­increased risk for getting and spreading COVID-19. Close contact sports and indoor sports are particularly risky. Similar risks might exist for other extracurricular activities, such as band, choir, theater and school clubs that meet indoors.”

Kids all over the city will be eating lunch only outdoors while sitting on the ground. Some schools proscribe speaking during lunch. One Manhattan elementary school sent parents a survey asking what they should do in case of inclement weather. One of the options was actually “skip lunch.”

Exit questions: “Adults in the United States are largely moving on with their lives, going to football games, concerts and galas — while kids are treated like lepers. The real question is: When does it end? Will these restrictions ever go away? What’s the off-ramp for this level of cruel irrationality?”