Is This The New Normal? Kids Sit In 'Boxes' To Maintain Social Distancing In School Playground

As the coronavirus curve flattens across Europe, various countries are slowly lifting lockdown and starting to go back to ¡®normal¡¯ lives. But will lives be ever normal like the pre-pandemic world?

Images from schools in France hint towards a dystopian isolated existence. As schools in France reopen, authorities have come up with ways to maintain social distancing among students.

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Images of primary school students playing, while maintaining distance, are going viral.

Images from one of the schools shared by Lionel Top, a TV journalist in France, show how children are being ¡®boxed-in¡¯ to maintain distance from each other. The pictures speak volumes, as they hint at the near future and what existing in the post pandemic world will feel like.

Les enfants font leur rentr¨¦e aujourd¡¯hui (un petite partie d¡¯entre-eux plut?t).
Ambiance tr¨¨s ¨¦trange, voire d¨¦rangeante... pic.twitter.com/g91y5hLatJ

¡ª Lionel Top (@lioneltop) May 12, 2020

The caption reads, ¡®To ensure respect for distances, while taking advantage of recreation, the teaching team drew squares on the ground for the little ones. The children play, dance, jump, laugh together ... but from this square. From what we have seen, they do not view it as a punishment¡¯.

As adults we're struggling to learn what life would be like from now on, but these children are being taught social distancing right from nascence - if no cure is found for coronavirus, ¡®social distancing¡¯ might be a rule they grow up with and the idea of crowded concerts and shows will be nothing but horrifying to them.

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In India, as we head towards the peak of the curve, the government seems to have no plans of opening schools yet, even though many shops have been allowed to open in green and orange zones.

Let's hope that this does not become a permanent reality.