The Coronavirus crisis hit children as hard as any other segment of the population. All familiar routines were suddenly ripped away from them. Thousands are still doing school online. Many state mask mandates include young children.
For children old enough to remember it in the future, the year of Coronavirus, will be a significant event in their childhoods. They will probably tell their own children and grandchildren stories about what it was like to live through this time.
But how will they look back on this crisis when they reach adulthood? And how will it shape their worldview?
Justice as Fairness: A...
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For adults, the debate about handling the pandemic has been highly politicized for some time. However, we are now moving into a phase of the reopening where different standards about what is allowed and what isn’t will be obvious even to children.
For example, last week a kind friend wanted to organize a picnic for my three small children. She prepared little sandwiches and lots of fun snacks, yet, when we arrived at our local park a guard approached us to tell us we couldn’t bring food in. This is normally allowed, but it is forbidden during COVID-19 because eating requires removing one’s mask. My children burst into tears. My friend and I tried – in vain – to convince them that having a picnic in the living room is also fun.
The worst part of this situation, however, is that we constantly walk by restaurants in our neighborhood that are open for business – both with indoor and outdoor seating. What’s the difference between us having a picnic in the park and buying an ice cream cone and eating it on the restaurant terrace? Why is one a health hazard and not the other? I was at a loss to explain this discrepancy to my children. It is simply unfair. As young as they are, my kids intuit that.
