The coronavirus.
For more than a year since it entered our lives, it has turned everyone's daily life upside down, especially children, young and old.
When you listen to them, everyone has a lot to say about the "corona".
"A lot, a lot, we know", support in chorus Anouk and Mira, met in the park of the Château de l'Étang, in Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis).
"In real life, he's rikiki"
Aged 8, student in CE1 in Saint-Benoît de l'Europe, round and mischievous hazel eyes, Mira sums up: “It was in China, they ate pangolin, it triggered a virus and it awakened confinement because with physical contact you can contaminate yourself ”.
For Maelia, 5 years old, a student in a large section at the Francine-Fromond nursery school in Bagnolet, it is something "that we see a lot on TV".
On the next bench, in the arms of his school carer, Ly describes “a microbe with lots of peaks”.
“He's got paws all over the place, but he doesn't look like an animal at all.
In truth, he is rikiki, ”according to Kenzi, who shows him, as thin as an ant crushed between his fingers.
Eya calls it “imaginary”, “because he cannot be seen”.
“He doesn't have a home,” Kenzi adds, “so he makes homes in humans and his favorite place is the nervous system, the place where you get angry.”
On the scale of aesthetics as cumbersome uselessness, Zoé, 5, found the comparison: "The conavirus is like a louse".
How long has the epidemic sown its disasters?
"In nine weeks, it's my birthday, so it'll be two birthdays since he's been here, so two years," Luis throws into a machine gun flow.
With her blonde hair that gives her a halo of deceptive wisdom, Joe hesitates: the notion of time is very elastic with her.
At 5 and a half, she claims to have not seen her grandparents for 7 years and spent two years in the hospital for a breakdown, she says, showing her ankle.
So the age of the coronavirus ... For Vasile, in large section at Francine Fromond, the coronavirus, "he is like my little brother, he is ageless because he is only months old".
"If we could see him, we could pour serum on him, that would be too tedious"
Some do not run any risk for themselves but pass it on if they wash their hands improperly, all see it as a big lottery that decides who gets sick or not.
Vasile and Luis imagine that covid-19 is like mini-clouds "nailed to the sky".
"Sometimes there is one who falls, we do not know on whom, he chooses who he wants".
A week earlier, because of an infected friend, they spent seven days at home.
The class lived it well, without worrying too much about this comrade.
Except June.
“I told my mom that I never wanted to go to school again,” she breathes.
The invisibility is added to chance: "if we could see him, we could pour serum on him to cure him, that would be too tedious", jeers Bilal, 5 and a half years old.
So who catches it…?
All say they know "a friend of my grandpa" or a neighbor who had him.
“Not the soldiers and the police,” insists Anouk, 7 and a half.
The opposite "would be weird because they are serious all the time."
And the plants, she wonders at once.
She and Mira, in the park, face a large tree and discuss: if an infected person touches the trunk, can she transmit it to him, then the tree to all those who touch it… Here they are silent.
Just a short moment because very quickly the ideas fuse again.
"Doctors don't catch it because they have all the gadgets and get vaccinated on their own," says Mira.
Yes, Anouk retorts, "they can get it by treating someone."
"It's true, but they put on gloves" to avoid it.
Sure, opines Anouk, who specifies that they should "nevertheless", all these caregivers exposed, "beware of double-sided masks".
Barrier gestures?
"A rock-paper-scissors, you can't do the paper"
As for the daily constraints, hand washing can turn into a puzzle.
In her class in Bagnolet, mixing small and large sections, Helicia Beghbad noted that some people no longer wanted to paint "because they saturate all those moments when you have to wash your hands".
At the Benoît-Malon school in Puteaux, hand washing is done in the large hall bordering the playground.
LP / J.Cl.
Eva and Louis would like to be able to replay "damdam-yes" or "zero-zero-seven", hand games prohibited by barrier gestures.
“With rock-paper-scissors, you cannot make the sheet”, uncheck Louis, a well of vocabulary.
They are educated at the Benoît Malon school in Puteaux (Hauts-de-Seine).
Their teacher, Olivia Mallet, told Le Parisien last year how she embarked on the great adventure from school to home.
The mask is the most visible and the most shared constraint.
Compulsory from 6 years old, Mira has not put it in the park.
Still, “I don't mind.
The mask is good when your nose is cold, and my breath doesn't smell that bad ”.
Anouk, she finds that "bad".
“When someone is humming in the classroom, the teacher can't see who it is, she gives someone else's name, it's a bit unfair.
And in the choir on Monday, I have trouble articulating, ”she complains, swaying from one foot to the other.
"My eyes are tired of seeing my mask"
In Puteaux, Alix confesses it, masks it, she is "more than fed up".
This prop kept her from seeing her teacher's face for months.
It took one Friday, during the magic activity that takes place in the library, she asks to go to the bathroom ... "The teacher was all alone in the class, she had taken off her mask, I found her too beautiful ".
Beside her, Eva scowls: "my eyes are tired of seeing my mask," she said, pointing to the blue and white line that borders her gaze.
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“With the mask, we quickly get out of breath.
If we run, he gets wet, it's quite annoying, ”says Olivia, 11, in CM2 class in Puteaux.
She would prefer a visor but accepts the rule, which applies to everyone.
“The little ones should also wear a mask,” continues Emma.
It is immediately picked up by Raphaël.
"My sister, she is 2 and a half years old, it is impossible to find a mask in her size and she will never keep it", laughs this great talker.
"The President of France must protect us"
What about the future?
"I do not know how we are going to do to extinguish the coronavirus," admits Mira, fists in her pockets, a small frowning wrinkle between her eyebrows.
"The President of France must protect us by giving injections at all ages," said Joe.
The instruction for all CP students: the mask is compulsory, even during breaks.
LP / J.Cl.
Re-define yourself?
The little ones, like Leïa, 4, hardly remember the strict confinement of spring 2019, but the others, all met before the government decided to close schools for three weeks, were unanimously in favor of schools closing their doors. doors.
"We have less homework, we can stop to drink water, eat a little something while in class we have to stay a little serious to listen to everything", detailed Anouk.
When Bilal recounts that, last year, he applauded every evening to encourage the caregivers, Joe, in Bagnolet, abounds: "I was singing
money, money, for the public hospital
".
In Puteaux, Abdellah sighs: “every morning I had to watch school on TV at 11:30 am.
But afterwards, I only did glued paper ”.
"Copy and paste, we say," reacts tit-for-tat Nahel, very surprised at one thing: "we wear high-performance masks to paint, but for a virus that kills, we have paper masks .
It does not make sense… "
"Being ends of class, it delays us"
Ten days ago, the entire Benoît-Malon school had a saliva test.
"In the last two months, we have had four cases of contamination among children, out of 186", reassured the director, Martin de la Rue du Can, convinced or tried to convince that his establishment would keep its doors open, particularly for students. single-parent families welcomed in large numbers in the neighboring social hotel.
A week ago, in the CM2B class, "there are eleven of us, there are two infected students and a lot of contact cases", explained Emma.
"I should have gone home, I saw Nicolas Thursday evening," Olivia abounded, curled up on a bench.
“Being ends of class, it delays us,” also assure Louisa and Raphaël, listing dictations, evaluations or “timed mental arithmetic challenges” that they have not been able to do for some time.
So coming home, yes, they all yearned for it.
To talk about it too ... Thirty minutes of lively discussion did not come to the end of the ideas of the four friends on the subject of coronavirus.