In Our Children's Words...
We must listen to their lockdown stories
“I was in 6th and 7th grade and being online all the time, I was unable to focus. To be frozen in place and not know what to do for two or three weeks is unacceptable. If you think school is an essential right, then you are depriving children of an essential right.” - S, age 15
“Remote school was boring and I had a lot of missing assignments because I didn’t know how to work a computer. I missed out on my big school play in 5th grade.” - V, age 12
“It was really tough because when I needed to do my work, I was trying but I didn’t really want to. I looked at my house and there were so many toys to play with. When you are at school, you see toys but you are focused on your work and you are with your friends at a table. At home you want to go outside and play.” C, age 8
“When I spoke to my friends, they had their shield blockers on so they couldn’t hear me. Sometimes I saw [them] wearing shields outside.” K, age 6
On Wednesday the Restore Childhood team joined Justin and Jenny Hart and Rational Ground for a day of meetings on Capitol Hill. We were there to speak to legislators about the impact of school closures & to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. The quotes above were shared by our children.
I tweeted about one of the particularly wild encounters we had here:
Dana, Stephanie and I are used to advocating for kids, which means speaking *for* them. But this time we brought the kids along & encouraged them to speak for themselves. Between the three of us we brought five kids (Dana’s middle two stayed home) aged six to fifteen. It was an exhausting day starting at 8:30 AM with meetings through the day, culminating in a lovely reception at Hawk n’ Dove Capitol Hill, hosted by Rational Ground.
Over the past three years, child advocates have been speaking up for children because we realize how powerless they have been at the hands of elected leaders and agencies that were meant to protect them.
It is important for the adults to speak up for the children.
We have also found that asking our children to share their lockdown experiences is important for two reasons. First, we hear their stories directly, in their own words. And secondly, we empower them to speak up for themselves and fuel change. Democracy is a participatory process and Congress is the people’s house, so this was an incredible opportunity.
We realize that not everyone will be able to take their kids to Washington but there are multiple ways to participate in civic life and encourage your children to do the same - from local schoolboard meetings to town council meetings, there are multiple government agencies that impact our daily lives. Unless they hear from you, they will assume you approve of their action/inaction.
Lastly, talk to your children. The dinner table is a great place to have these conversations, but really there is no bad place to do it.
By the end of a our long day in the Capitol, our kids were exhausted from the many meetings and all the walking! But their eyes were bright and full of hope. We asked them later if they enjoyed this opportunity — we received a unanimous YES!
Learning happens everywhere and parents are the best teachers. Take the lead and they will follow- this is their future!
Thank you for your work. I have to say the comment about people in Denmark being "clean" is beyond stupid. But I heard similar nonsense from liberals when I would bring up Sweden, where they never locked down, never closed schools and never mandated masks. People would say: " Yes, but they are a very homogeneous society." Which is ignorant, because untrue today. But is actually weirdly insulting to diversity ...So, less homogeneous and more diverse populations aren't worthy to be treated like intelligent adults who can make their own decisions ?