Government minsters seem determined to keep schools open, come hell or high water, despite a pending and ill-advised relaxation of the tier regulations over the Christmas period, a rise in infections in many areas and the discovery of a new strain of Covid. The question is why?
We are being told that a relatively new phenomenon in the history of human civilisation is essential to children's wellbeing - that phenomenon is compulsory, universal education. This begs the question of what happened to children's well being before the 1880s, when education became compulsory?
Granted, many children lived in rural villages where they could mix with friends (city living being a rarity), but their social circle was much smaller than many class sizes of today, and children of American pioneers on remote farms saw no-one but their parents for weeks or months on end, having no-one to play with except their mothers and siblings. Families are, however, much smaller these days.
Many children in the Australian outback were and taught remotely for much of their education by the School of the Air system, and it was a proven system that received many awards.
Is this simply another cynical case of putting the economy ahead of people and ensuring parents are released from childcare in order to go to work?
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