Pandemic Diary: Children Are Smarter than You

Two older but ignorant people keep talking inside a train couch when it is not allowed to do so. But a smart boy keeps silent even when there is no officer around.

Recently there is this discourse about opening schools back.

In the upcoming academic year, the government is ambituously pushing teachers and school administrators to reopen their school gates for the first time after the pandemic.

But the thing is the speed of vaccination in this country is so slow even in the heart of Jakarta. So you can guess what happens in other areas.

Educators must be vaccinated and then schools are ready to open.

But then another issue comes up: how to regulate students?

Students are kids. They are not adults who can consciously keep their distance from each other, wash hands and keep their masks on.

Wrong!

I just want to say these adults are simply underestimating kids.

Kids know and practice what they know.

It is ignorant adults who know and then resist what they know.

Kids are destined to be observant. They copy adults’ behaviors.

If they see adults don’t wear masks in public, don’t wash hands after touching things or don’t keep physically distant from others, they get mixed message.

And if these kids disobey, it is their parents, their older siblings, uncles, aunts and other adults around them whom should be blamed.

In the meantime, I still believe that kids are the scapegoat. These pure souls just imitate the fucked up adults around them.