In response to a newsbite e-mail
::The quote was taken from an article about the Caribbean Film Festival and what they were hoping to achieve in terms of fostering healthy cultural identities in the region. They were also trying to combat the influx of violent tv programming coming in from North America by focusing on children during the film festival and providing more age-appropriate alternative entertainments. I had no real issues with their intentions, just the wording as you will see. I'm sure it's an unfounded rant as a lot has been lost in translation, but I think I'm just tired of the defeatism I see in adults and in particular the media these days.::
" . . . at a time when every country throughout the world was struggling with ways and means of creating a new kind of young person to mould in such a way that they would become a responsible adult who had a certain level of discipline, regard and one who could express themselves in such a way that other people may want to be like them. . . "
On a wider, general note, I find it troubling that in top-layer rhetoric there appears to be a lack of common sense surrounding education. Admittedly, my field of vision is rather narrow and does not have a great deal of depth. Most of my observations come from what I see in the world and newspaper articles, which all have their own cultural biases. That being said, I find it rather odd that words like "creating" and "moulding" are used and have been used by societies in regards to raising "productive" children. As if they are not yet individuals, but rather groups of computers that need to be re-programmed or at the very least cannot be trusted with their own agency until they are of an age the society dictates to be mature. To be sure, I have met many fully functioning five-year or fifteen-year olds while being completely baffled by the behaviors of those in their thirties or fifties.
I have pondered this paradox while observing the actions of my own age group as well older and younger compatriots and I have discovered, shock of shocks, that quite a bit of how a person turns out is dictated by how much responsibility an individual's parents took in raising him or her as well as how much responsibility that in turn engendered in said individual. On a small scale, neighborhood support networks seem to have an effect as well, i.e. if my neighbors witnessed me engaging in something they knew I shouldn't be, they had my parents' full permission to chastise me or report the behavior--and they did. No state or federal government involved. So perhaps the greater, overarching question to the universe would be: where did that balance of involvement go and how do we find it again? Some communities and individuals still have it--I notice it on the subway when someone gives up her seat to an elderly person, or holds an elevator door for a stranger even though he himself may already be late to work. I notice its absence when parents blatantly let their kids destroy books they do not own and then outright lie to the sales people who witnessed such behavior, refusing to take responsibility not only for their own lax parenting but also enforcing such behaviors in their offspring.
I agree that children of certain ages should not be exposed to more violence, foul language, etc. than they can handle; I also agree that fostering a strong sense of cultural identity is imperative in giving anyone a home he or she can go back to whether physically, spiritually, or metaphorically, (ahem, humanities/arts funding). I disagree, however, on certain media implications that a "new" type of young person must be created. Children today are the same as in past generations--they have no less nor more cells in their bodies. Their brains are no more fragile than those growing up in the '30s under harsher disciplinary strictures who went on to lift earlier generations out of the hole they'd dug themselves. It just seems more important now because a few generations later, we dug ourselves a deeper hole by not learning from our own histories. I think in general, societies should remember that like begets like, and if they wish to foster more aware and humane children they should take a look not only at external environmental factors but also at themselves and their own more subtle, yet ever-present behaviors. If anything should be moulded for a new world, it should be the societal banners these children are raised under. Perhaps the scariest thing facing everyone right now is that the diggers need to take responsibility and start constructing wings. There is a chance that if we can accomplish that much, one of those children may one day teach us to fly.
Your thoughts, everyone?
" . . . at a time when every country throughout the world was struggling with ways and means of creating a new kind of young person to mould in such a way that they would become a responsible adult who had a certain level of discipline, regard and one who could express themselves in such a way that other people may want to be like them. . . "
On a wider, general note, I find it troubling that in top-layer rhetoric there appears to be a lack of common sense surrounding education. Admittedly, my field of vision is rather narrow and does not have a great deal of depth. Most of my observations come from what I see in the world and newspaper articles, which all have their own cultural biases. That being said, I find it rather odd that words like "creating" and "moulding" are used and have been used by societies in regards to raising "productive" children. As if they are not yet individuals, but rather groups of computers that need to be re-programmed or at the very least cannot be trusted with their own agency until they are of an age the society dictates to be mature. To be sure, I have met many fully functioning five-year or fifteen-year olds while being completely baffled by the behaviors of those in their thirties or fifties.
I have pondered this paradox while observing the actions of my own age group as well older and younger compatriots and I have discovered, shock of shocks, that quite a bit of how a person turns out is dictated by how much responsibility an individual's parents took in raising him or her as well as how much responsibility that in turn engendered in said individual. On a small scale, neighborhood support networks seem to have an effect as well, i.e. if my neighbors witnessed me engaging in something they knew I shouldn't be, they had my parents' full permission to chastise me or report the behavior--and they did. No state or federal government involved. So perhaps the greater, overarching question to the universe would be: where did that balance of involvement go and how do we find it again? Some communities and individuals still have it--I notice it on the subway when someone gives up her seat to an elderly person, or holds an elevator door for a stranger even though he himself may already be late to work. I notice its absence when parents blatantly let their kids destroy books they do not own and then outright lie to the sales people who witnessed such behavior, refusing to take responsibility not only for their own lax parenting but also enforcing such behaviors in their offspring.
I agree that children of certain ages should not be exposed to more violence, foul language, etc. than they can handle; I also agree that fostering a strong sense of cultural identity is imperative in giving anyone a home he or she can go back to whether physically, spiritually, or metaphorically, (ahem, humanities/arts funding). I disagree, however, on certain media implications that a "new" type of young person must be created. Children today are the same as in past generations--they have no less nor more cells in their bodies. Their brains are no more fragile than those growing up in the '30s under harsher disciplinary strictures who went on to lift earlier generations out of the hole they'd dug themselves. It just seems more important now because a few generations later, we dug ourselves a deeper hole by not learning from our own histories. I think in general, societies should remember that like begets like, and if they wish to foster more aware and humane children they should take a look not only at external environmental factors but also at themselves and their own more subtle, yet ever-present behaviors. If anything should be moulded for a new world, it should be the societal banners these children are raised under. Perhaps the scariest thing facing everyone right now is that the diggers need to take responsibility and start constructing wings. There is a chance that if we can accomplish that much, one of those children may one day teach us to fly.
Your thoughts, everyone?