Covid-19 is an emergency that has changed people's behaviour, their way of life, and even political agendas, in almost all corners of the world. Listening to and capturing the experiences and perspectives of all citizens on the pandemic seems consistent with our sense of an inclusive, democratic society, but the voices of children are often left out. Research led by the University of Central Lancashire shows that, of the 95 professionals, from 16 sectors and 20 countries across Europe, surveyed in April 2020, there is little evidence of children’s views informing public decision-making (Larkins, 2020). Around seventy per cent of survey participants said that there is no attempt was made to take the child's perspective in making policy (local or national) relevant to children (Larkins, 2020).

In the UK, the Prime Minister announced to close schools to control the pandemic on 18th March 2020. Instead of giving priority to children's welfare and opinions, stopping schooling is to "make sure the critical parts of the economy keep functioning and public services keep functioning." (Prime Minister’s statement on coronavirus (COVID-19), 2020) And also, schools open for key workers' children because "we need health workers who are also parents to continue to go to work. And we need other critical workers with children to keep doing their jobs too – from police officers who are keeping us safe to the supermarket delivery drivers, social care workers who look after the elderly and who are so vital".

In this way, children are not only unheard of in coronavirus political and ethical discussions but are often seen in a deficit manner - as the burdens that prevent parents from working for society, or as potential carriers of the virus and need to be protected and restricted to protect themselves and others. For instance, many policies, such as school closures, are developed based on the model's assumption that children's presence in school accelerates the spread of the virus (Panovska-Griffiths et al., 2020).

From children’s perspective, children may accept this kind of adult view, seeing political and ethical issues as irrelevant and distant, therefore, rarely thinking and saying about them. However, children are a part of society and a significant component of citizens. Although children do not have as many political responsibilities and obligations as adults, they share social welfare. Also, children are future voters and legal participants in politics. Thus children's political and ethical education is also a political issue. I suggest that, on the one hand, adults are supposed to pay attention to children's role in the community; on the other hand, it would be valuable for children to think about their position in the community, take responsibility and ask for rights.

The pandemic could be a valuable opportunity for children to realise the necessity of their engagement in political and ethical discussions. Many of these issues may seem to arise from the pandemic, but they are, in fact, issues that are rooted in our society. Before the pandemic, they already existed in society, but may be distant and vague to most children. The pandemic has made them more visible and more relevant to a wider range of children, so I discuss those issues in the context of the pandemic and post-pandemic era.

In this paper, I will introduce several political and ethical issues that might be related to children in terms of the pandemic: the distribution of social resources, the debate between individual freedom and collective responsibility, and the technology divide in education.

Theoretical paper in Philosophy of Education

The pandemic could be a valuable opportunity for children to discuss many political and ethical issues since, compared with passive learning or the discussion of less relevant and abstract issues, children's experience about the pandemic as a part of the social members provides evidence of debate and resource of communication.

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