CHINA, NATIONAL, SOCIETY, EDITORIAL: Shouldn’t Childhood Be the Happiest Time of Life?
By Yu Feng
It's about time somebody overthrew that old myth about childhood being the happiest period of life. Children are supposed to live in a colorful world full of happiness. However, look at the children around us, we seldom see innocent and carefree smiles on their faces.
A Child's life is not as easy as we thought. Kindergarten is a successful documentary film directed by Sun Yiqing. It is not a big work, the director snapshot trivial things of a group of children in a boarding kindergarten, but it shows us the true world the children live in, and stimulates us to think what else we should give children except material provisions.
Children in the kindergarten, aged from 3 to 6, are divided into different classes according to age. Most of the time, they are confined to a classroom where they have classes, play games, and have three meals. We can feel the abject fear a child may get in such an environment. We can even find the shadow of ourselves in their childhood.
Nowadays, many parents are busy handling their own businesses; they have no time to look after their children. To concentrate on their jobs, parents leave their children in kindergarten five days a week. However, they don't know how children feel in those five days without their parents' caress. Children often suffer from terrible, illogical fears, which are the result of ignorance and an inability to understand the world around them. Adults can share their fears with other adults; children invariably face their fears alone. They look forward to being brought back home on Friday when they are sent to kindergarten on Monday. Facing a new environment and new friends, they will suffer more than adults.
It is true that they will be taught to become more independent and how to communicate with other children, but they indeed suffer a lot when they can't put on their coat without encouragement and comfort. It can also leave an incurable scar on the young heart if he or she is the last one to be brought back on Friday afternoon.
Children shoulder heavier burdens than ever before. All parents hope their children will have a bright future, however, they put too much expectation on their children. Many children have four classes on weekends; they have English class, and dancing class on Saturday, and have piano class and calligraphy class on Sunday. They are just like little puppets manipulated by their parents.
Adults will say that the competition is furious nowadays, that learning more skills will do them good when they grow up. However, parents should be aware that people only have one childhood. It is a regretful memory if the only thing children recall about their childhood is that they were forced to learn all kinds of boring skills everyday.
I know my five-year-old niece is not happy. She learns piano, drawing and dancing twice a week separately. Once I asked her whether she liked to learn, she said she had no idea. Actually, children have opinions, but nobody notices. Parents choose the clothes their children will wear, the books they will read and classes they will learn. Children are deeply loved, but they are also deeply hurt. What children really need are their parent’s company and a carefree childhood.
It is said that the character fostered at childhood will influence a person's whole life. If we pay more attention to children's feelings and opinions and give them more freedom, they will have a happier childhood and thus grow up to be happier adults
It's about time somebody overthrew that old myth about childhood being the happiest period of life. Children are supposed to live in a colorful world full of happiness. However, look at the children around us, we seldom see innocent and carefree smiles on their faces.
A Child's life is not as easy as we thought. Kindergarten is a successful documentary film directed by Sun Yiqing. It is not a big work, the director snapshot trivial things of a group of children in a boarding kindergarten, but it shows us the true world the children live in, and stimulates us to think what else we should give children except material provisions.
Children in the kindergarten, aged from 3 to 6, are divided into different classes according to age. Most of the time, they are confined to a classroom where they have classes, play games, and have three meals. We can feel the abject fear a child may get in such an environment. We can even find the shadow of ourselves in their childhood.
Nowadays, many parents are busy handling their own businesses; they have no time to look after their children. To concentrate on their jobs, parents leave their children in kindergarten five days a week. However, they don't know how children feel in those five days without their parents' caress. Children often suffer from terrible, illogical fears, which are the result of ignorance and an inability to understand the world around them. Adults can share their fears with other adults; children invariably face their fears alone. They look forward to being brought back home on Friday when they are sent to kindergarten on Monday. Facing a new environment and new friends, they will suffer more than adults.
It is true that they will be taught to become more independent and how to communicate with other children, but they indeed suffer a lot when they can't put on their coat without encouragement and comfort. It can also leave an incurable scar on the young heart if he or she is the last one to be brought back on Friday afternoon.
Children shoulder heavier burdens than ever before. All parents hope their children will have a bright future, however, they put too much expectation on their children. Many children have four classes on weekends; they have English class, and dancing class on Saturday, and have piano class and calligraphy class on Sunday. They are just like little puppets manipulated by their parents.
Adults will say that the competition is furious nowadays, that learning more skills will do them good when they grow up. However, parents should be aware that people only have one childhood. It is a regretful memory if the only thing children recall about their childhood is that they were forced to learn all kinds of boring skills everyday.
I know my five-year-old niece is not happy. She learns piano, drawing and dancing twice a week separately. Once I asked her whether she liked to learn, she said she had no idea. Actually, children have opinions, but nobody notices. Parents choose the clothes their children will wear, the books they will read and classes they will learn. Children are deeply loved, but they are also deeply hurt. What children really need are their parent’s company and a carefree childhood.
It is said that the character fostered at childhood will influence a person's whole life. If we pay more attention to children's feelings and opinions and give them more freedom, they will have a happier childhood and thus grow up to be happier adults
1 Comments:
At 12:48 PM , Anonymous said...
I would love to learn more about today's childhood as it pertains to Children's literature versus the childhood of a 30 year old in China . books available ? red scarf society? can you help? pls. email me mshook99@charter.net
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