Been thinking about the US approach to #schools during #COVID as emblematic of our devaluing of children - especially relative to the elderly. A short thread 1/n

Americans talk a lot about valuing children but the evidence suggests otherwise. We spend more on the elderly and place most of the costs of child-rearing on parents. Gormely summarizes nicely in his book "Voices for Children." 2/n

E.g. We talk a lot about how important childhood is, especially 0-5, and then pay childcare providers and teachers terribly. And time spent parenting? Oh, that's "leisure." 3/n

In one of my desert island academic articles, "Children as Public Goods" @NFolbre argues that we place the costs of raising children on parents-mostly mothers-while society gets to enjoy the benefits. 4/n https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2117807.pdf

The devaluation of children is just one of many forms of #socialinequality that COVID has brought into relief. Who knew teaching nth grade is not easy and most people aren't good at it. Also, it turns out working and parenting simultaneously is not humanely possible. 5/n

But more than anything I think the devaluation of children is apparent in how we handled #schoolsreopening. If our kids are important and their teachers are important, then the teachers would have been in the first tier of vaccinations nationally. 6/n.

Instead, we have some districts keeping schools open against public health recommendations and others providing inadequate virtual schooling. The debate has focused on community spread in schools (appears low), but why aren't schools and teachers considered essential? 7/7.