translated from Spanish: What about childhood?

“You can’t study hungry.” It is a phrase that, in the wake of the latest political and economic events, turned social media around. But what does this mean?
50 years ago one of the Government’s measures was the immediate implementation of ensuring the delivery of half a litre of milk daily to the girls and boys of our country. A measure that remains to this day and was supported at two points: the first, the high rate of malnutrition; the second, intellectual development.
The learning process is individual, it involves various factors and food is one of the fundamental pillars to acquire it. From a neuroscience point of view, our brain requires proper lipid intake. Poor diet can impair the synthesis of neurotransmitters by lack of essential amino acids and brain cells can be affected from their quantity and function. Therefore, we will result in poor development and, consequently, cognitive functions will be impaired.
It is the environment of a girl or a child that builds him as a human being
The economic situation, the scarcity of money and work to acquire and ensure daily eating is not the only thing that affects learning in times of pandemic, our students are also emotionally affected within their homes. Cesouts comes with a series of difficulties that have a direct impact on the family environment.
According to united nations (UN) information, domestic violence has increased significantly during the pandemic. The Ministry of Women and Gender Equity has a 70% increase in complaints. It should be noted that in abused children there are certain characteristics that show them as sensitive, withdrawn, fearful people, and symptoms such as loss of interest in any type of activity, have low self-esteem and can also be irritable, which causes their abuser.
Online education
Even so, the Ministry of Education insists on distance and online education, which also does not protect the rights of students, which also does not take into account social inequality and the technological gap that affects, precisely, the most vulnerable students. Needless to say, this decision is segregating and deprived of being able to continue curriculum learning. There is clearly a lack of reality on the part of our authorities.
The problem is the approach that is being given to education during this pandemic, education must stop being curricular and become social.
Repercursions
More than a week ago the case of Amber came to light, and we could say, like our former president, that we heard from the press about the abandonment, neglect and mistreatment to which it was subjected. Violence to children is naturalized and adultcentrism is responsible.
The biggest problem is that we need to stop seeing girls and boys as objects and start to understand that they are people with rights, voice and vote. I have been reading criticism and more criticism about Sename’s act for a week now. Intervention Programs (PIE, PRM, PPF) are criticized widely, but we forget our individual responsibilities within this hegemonic sociocultural system (adult-centering alias), responsible for how our relationships are produced and reproduced based on inequality, where the needs of NNAs are delayed because of an egoism of our adults and that adults are , whether we like it or not, it manifests itself in different scales.
But all of the above is not unpopular. Since Chile ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has meant that we are governed by four fundamental principles: the best interests of the child, non-discrimination, development and protection, and also participation in decisions involving them (UNICEF). Unfortunately, from an economic and commercial point of view this has taken a similar profile to Christmas.
I think the invitation is to reflect on this “celebration” and start to take care of educating future generations to understand children as social subjects regardless of the socio-cultural context in which they develop and start rethinking this self-centered need that fundamental learning only arises in schools.

The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.

Original source in Spanish