Child rearing, under the pandemic’s glare

Dave Id has been ranting on Twitter since San Francisco voters recalled three school board members:^[1]

I truly don’t understand all these whiny white middle class parents who act like a year and a half with their own kids was pure hell, scapegoating local school districts for a global pandemic and their own personal attachment issues.

Granted, I don’t have kids myself and I don’t currently know a lot of families with school-age kids, but the one I am very close to, they cherished their extra time with their boys. It was a genuine bonding experience, getting to know each other in deeper ways, not torture.

Yes, it was difficult rearranging work schedules and wrangling in other family members to help, because neither parent had the privilege to work from home, but both parents and both children clearly felt closer as a family as a result of the pandemic. They didn’t become rageful.^[2]

Voters—at least those who voted—were frustrated in part over pandemic shutdowns and in part^[3] over an asinine school renaming project that had to be abandoned in the face of national ridicule.^[4] Id seems much more sympathetic to the school board members than I am. I think the entire San Francisco political establishment, which has brought us the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Gavin Newsom, and many other historical figures, needs to be recalled and sent into permanent detention; to the very limited extent it is progressive, it is so in a way that is too often idiotic, overboard, and unreflective.^[5] The San Francisco Democratic Party machine practically begs for the disdain that progressives everywhere suffer.

Coincident with this, the issues of remote schooling and mask mandates have been nationally contentious, to say the least, as children have inevitably been drawn into not-so-grown-up brawls over a profoundly politicized pandemic that some still deny is even real, even as children and school staff have been sickened, which of course meant they couldn’t attend in-person schooling anyway.^[6]

Early guidance on whether children can spread COVID-19 was mixed as even a Pediatrics journal article discounted evidence to favor denial.^[7] That changed with the delta and omicron variants as children undeniably became ill in large numbers,^[8] but public opinion, again too often in denial even that COVID-19 is even real, often refused to adapt to new information. Underlying all of this, of course, was that parents who had to stay home for children unable to attend schools often could not work,^[9] and it was of course absolutely out of the question that they should be supported to stay home and care for their children, which exposes that all of this is really about fealty to the capitalist god and the capitalist death cult.^[10]

Id, I think, hearkens to a time when parents spent a lot more time with their children, when parents were primarily responsible for raising and educating their children, when parents did not get to outsource all this to the babysitting institutions now collectively known as schools. It was a long time ago and my impression is that such child rearing practices were much more holistic and, in some ways, much more successful than what we do now. But, you know, capitalism, which is more important than sanity,^[11] more important than life itself.^[12]

Now when parents get involved in their children’s education, it’s prominently about opposing what they call “critical race theory,” but is not critical race theory, but rather a teaching of history in which wealthy white men aren’t always heroes.^[13] Or about masking. Or about anything—sexuality education comes to mind—that conservatives don’t like.^[14] Also prominently, it’s altogether too rare that parents express any concern whatsoever that schools should be equitably and adequately funded.^[15] In this light, children’s education is not really about education but really rather about advancing a specific conservative—Trumpist—ideology.

I disagree with Id about the recall but I do agree that what we’re seeing here suggests that many parents have come to despise spending time with their children. Indeed, when I see how little they care about schools, except to advance that particular ideology, I cannot imagine that they much care about their children’s education. Which is to say, they don’t give a flying fuck about their children, really, but rather about ideology. And if you dare to disagree with them, you are a “socialist” or “communist,” and you blaspheme against that oh-so-precious capitalist god.

1. ^[1]Joshua Bote, “Mayor London Breed comes out in support of San Francisco school board recall,” SFGate, November 10, 2021, https://www.sfgate.com/bay-area-politics/article/London-Breed-supports-school-board-recall-16609815.php; San Francisco Chronicle, “Endorsement: Competence matters, even for progressives. Vote yes to recall López, Collins and Moliga,” January 24, 2022, https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Endorsement-SFUSD-recall-election-16795107.php; Jill Tucker and Annie Vainshtein, “S.F. school board recall: Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga ousted,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 15, 2022, https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-school-board-recall-Alison-Collins-16922351.php↩
2. ^[2]Dave Id, [Twitter thread], Thread Reader App, February 17, 2022, https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1494221801311797250.html↩
3. ^[3]Joshua Bote, “Mayor London Breed comes out in support of San Francisco school board recall,” SFGate, November 10, 2021, https://www.sfgate.com/bay-area-politics/article/London-Breed-supports-school-board-recall-16609815.php; San Francisco Chronicle, “Endorsement: Competence matters, even for progressives. Vote yes to recall López, Collins and Moliga,” January 24, 2022, https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Endorsement-SFUSD-recall-election-16795107.php; Jill Tucker and Annie Vainshtein, “S.F. school board recall: Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga ousted,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 15, 2022, https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-school-board-recall-Alison-Collins-16922351.php↩
4. ^[4]Isaac Chotiner, “How San Francisco Renamed Its Schools,” New Yorker, February 6, 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-san-francisco-renamed-its-schools; Jocelyn Gecker, “San Francisco school board suspends plan to rename schools,” Santa Rosa Press Democrat, April 7, 2021, https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/san-francisco-school-board-to-vote-on-school-renaming-again/; Greg Keraghosian, “SF school board pauses renaming 44 schools, promises to consult historians in future,” SFGate, February 21, 2021, https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/SF-school-board-pauses-renaming-44-schools-15968504.php; Fernando Martinez, “San Francisco school board considers renaming a school after the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia,” SFGate, January 29, 2021, https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/San-Francisco-School-Board-considers-renaming-a-15909103.php; Faith E. Pinho, “San Francisco board halts renaming of public schools after months of furor and debate,” Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-06/san-francisco-school-board-suspends-renaming-public-schools↩
5. ^[5]David Benfell, “San Francisco’s political establishment doth protest too much,” Not Housebroken, March 22, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/03/22/san-franciscos-political-establishment-doth-protest-too-much/; David Benfell, “It’s fine to highlight other people. But don’t cite historical falsehoods when you do,” Not Housebroken, April 7, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/02/06/its-fine-to-highlight-other-people-but-dont-cite-historical-falsehoods-when-you-do/↩
6. ^[6]Katie Balevic, “3 Washington schools went into lockdown after far-right anti-mask protestors tried to access property,” Insider, September 4, 2021, https://www.insider.com/three-washington-schools-lockdown-proud-boys-protest-masks-enter-schools-2021-9; Scott Calvert and Ben Chapman, “Schools See Big Drop in Attendance as Students Stay Away, Citing Covid-19,” Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/schools-see-big-drop-in-attendance-as-students-stay-away-citing-covid-19-11641988802; Stephen Caruso, “Pa. GOP candidate says he’ll bring ‘strong men’ to intimidate pro-mask school boards,” Pennsylvania Capital-Star, August 30, 2021, https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/pa-gop-candidate-says-hell-bring-strong-men-to-intimidate-pro-mask-school-boards/; Erika Edwards, “More than 61,000 children got Covid-19 last week, a record,” NBC News, November 2, 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/more-61-000-children-got-covid-19-last-week-record-n1245851; Emma Goldberg and Emily Anthes, “Hospitalizations for children sharply increase as Delta surges, C.D.C. studies find,” New York Times, September 3, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/03/health/delta-children-hospitalization-rates.html; Megan Guza and Julia Felton, “Pennsylvania mandates masks in K-12 schools, day cares,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 31, 2021, https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-to-mandate-masks-in-k-12-schools-day-cares/; Maddie Hanna, “Now that Pa. has a school mask mandate, has the rancor subsided? It has not,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 3, 2021, https://www.inquirer.com/news/pa-school-mask-mandate-wolf-philadelphia-20210903.html; Maddie Hanna, “Pa. Supreme Court strikes down school mask mandate imposed by Wolf administration,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 2021, https://www.inquirer.com/news/pa-school-mask-mandate-supreme-court-lawsuit-20211210.html; Sarah Jones, “We’re Having the Wrong Conversation About School,” New York, January 12, 2022, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/01/were-having-the-wrong-conversation-about-school.html; Yoree Koh, “Child Covid-19 Cases Rise in States Where Schools Opened Earliest,” Washington Post, September 5, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/child-covid-19-cases-rise-in-states-where-schools-opened-earliest-11630834201; Tony LaRussa, “Federal court issues injunction ordering Upper St. Clair to keep mask requirement in place,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 23, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/south-hills/federal-court-issues-injunction-ordering-upper-st-clair-to-keep-mask-requirement-in-place/; Jamie Martines and Angie Couloumbis, “Pa. school mask lawsuit backed by group that challenged 2020 election results,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 12, 2021, https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pa-school-mask-lawsuit-backed-by-group-that-challenged-2020-election-results/; Laura Meckler, “With pressure and threats, Trump pushes to fully reopen schools. Schools say: Not so fast,” Washington Post, July 8, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/trump-schools-cdc-pence/2020/07/08/8a52d400-c14b-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html; Laura Meckler, “Biden administration opens civil rights investigations over bans on school mask mandates,” Washington Post, August 30, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/08/30/biden-school-masks-investigation-state/; Mary Papenfuss, “15 Miami-Dade Public School Staff Members Die Of COVID In Just 10 Days,” Yahoo! News, September 4, 2021, https://news.yahoo.com/15-miami-dade-public-school-021517732.html; Public Source, “School masking required across PA as COVID cases rise,” August 31, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/important-info-on-coronavirus-preparation-in-allegheny-county/; Brad Reed, “Georgia county shuts down all of its schools for two weeks after mass COVID-19 outbreak,” Raw Story, August 13, 2021, https://www.rawstory.com/georgia-schools/; Ivana Saric, “The fight over mask mandates in schools turns violent,” Axios, August 23, 2021, https://www.axios.com/mask-school-mandate-violence-covid-3abff916-242d-4db5-87f7-b4314dc57c3d.html; Angie Schmitt, “Why I Soured on the Democrats,” Atlantic, January 7, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/democrats-botched-public-school-covid-policy/621183/; Renatta Signorini, “Greater Latrobe, Derry Area students plan walkouts to protest mask mandate,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 6, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/greater-latrobe-students-plan-walkout-to-protest-mask-mandate/; Paula Reed Ward, “Pa. Commonwealth Court panel hears argument on masking in schools,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 20, 2021, https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/commonwealth-court-panel-hears-argument-on-masking-in-schools/; Paula Reed Ward, “Pennsylvania court throws out state’s school mask mandate,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 10, 2021, https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-court-throws-out-governors-school-mask-mandate/; Paula Reed Ward, “Federal judge rejects request to reinstate universal masking in Upper St. Clair School District,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 21, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/south-hills/federal-judge-rejects-request-to-reinstate-universal-masking-in-upper-st-clair-school-district/; Paula Reed Ward, “District court in Pittsburgh split on school masking, issue likely to be decided by appellate court,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 27, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/district-court-in-pittsburgh-split-on-school-masking-issue-likely-to-be-decided-by-appellate-court/; Leana S. Wen, “Omicron is not a reason to keep schools closed,” Washington Post, January 6, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/06/omicron-is-not-reason-keep-schools-closed/↩
7. ^[7]Peter Dockrill, “Older Kids May Transmit COVID-19 as Much as Adults Do, New Evidence Shows,” Science Alert, July 20, 2020, https://www.sciencealert.com/older-children-transmit-covid-19-as-much-as-adults-do-new-evidence-suggests; Benjamin Lee and William V. Raszka, “COVID-19 Transmission and Children: The Child Is Not to Blame,” Pediatrics 146, no. 1 (August 2020), doi: 10.1542/peds.2020-004879; Apoorva Mandavilli, “Children May Carry Coronavirus at High Levels, Study Finds,” New York Times, July 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/health/coronavirus-children.html↩
8. ^[8]Uché Blackstock, “Two words no parent of a sick child should have to hear: ‘At capacity,’” Washington Post, September 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/02/picu-hospital-beds-children-covid/; Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jacqueline Dupree, “Omicron and children: Pediatric hospitals in parts of U.S. filling fast,” Washington Post, December 24, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/24/omicron-children-hospitalizations-us/; Emma Goldberg and Emily Anthes, “Hospitalizations for children sharply increase as Delta surges, C.D.C. studies find,” New York Times, September 3, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/03/health/delta-children-hospitalization-rates.html↩
9. ^[9]Justin Lahart, “Kids at Home Could Put the Economy in Detention,” Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/kids-at-home-could-put-the-economy-in-detention-11595583001↩
10. ^[10]David Benfell, “The capitalist death cult,” Not Housebroken, January 11, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/03/27/the-capitalist-death-cult/↩
11. ^[11]Erich Fromm, The Sane Society (1956; repr., Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2010).↩
12. ^[12]David Benfell, “The capitalist death cult,” Not Housebroken, January 11, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/03/27/the-capitalist-death-cult/↩
13. ^[13]David Benfell, “Talking about critical theory—and critical race theory,” Not Housebroken, November 3, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/06/11/talking-about-critical-theory-and-critical-race-theory/↩
14. ^[14]Thomas Frank, What’s The Matter With Kansas? (New York: Metropolitan, 2005).↩
15. ^[15]Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).↩