The article presents the relationships among the categories of childhood, adulthood and old age, establishing economic, political and social correlations. It retraces the historical logic of the social relations among these categories and discusses the consequences of the increase of the elderly population and the decrease of the population of children, pointing out the risks that derive from this imbalance. Based on the concept of generation contract, it highlights the role of investing in children and in school work as a benefit for society at large, due to the visibility of the results of such work in the near future. The discussion attempts to embed children in their historical role as participants and contributors in society.
childhood; generation contract; social participation