Or the pandemic caused a lot of stress and anxiety for children, teachers, families, basically everyone on the planet and many are still suffering with it.. let's add in depression there as well.

Also moving to a completely new system without any real planning, infrastructure, or training is completely untenable.

--- EDIT ---

Not to diminish the general advantage that in-person communication throughput can bring.

In addition to: (1) Real world vs. Virtual (2) The Stress and Anxiety of the Pandemic, there's a (3) thing that I observed. Both my kid and my wife (who's going back to higher education) both experienced instructors who were very technically illiterate. Some instructors were very capable, but others were pretty unprepared and helpless when it came to making use of digital-only approaches. I think that's in line with your last statement, cpuguy83.

The "elephant in the room" as you put it is sensible, forced lockdowns led to good results. Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore all had strict lockdowns, mandatory mask wearing laws, mandatory testing, and when available, mandatory vaccinations. This approach to the pandemic allowed them to keep their schools open.

The West? The West revealed itself to be in decay and unable to properly respond to the pandemic. By not being able to mandate lockdowns, mask wearing, and vaccinations we had to shut down our schools in order to prevent the spread.

Put another way, the West made their children pay for their freedom. To me that's a sign of a civilization in decline.

Finally, your assertion at the end is false. Children are not adults and both have different needs, especially social needs. But, you're a coward using a throwaway account so you probably know you're wrong.

Who uses a pen and paper in the real world?

I write down my tasks each day, pen and paper has been shown to increase recall, which makes it a very useful tool.

That is true - writing things down improves your recall. I learned that in college - writing, not typing, notes during lecture helped me retain the knowledge. I didn't even have to always study those notes either! Just the simple act of writing it down helped me learn and retain the information.