Is childhood an endangered species?
Hey questioning ones!
Yesterday, Jimmy and I drove by a field filled with lots of children wearing red and blue shirts doing some kind of organized exercise. Simultaneously, we turned to each other and said, “Mao’s Cultural Revolution?” Something about it left me with a unsettled feeling. The same feeling I get when I bike by a pre-school in a nearby town where the children spend 6+ hours a day “learning/playing” inside a chain-link fence. It feels like captivity has become the new childhood normal, a radical departure from my own.
I went straight to first grade without attending kindergarten. My mother thought I should climb trees and run wild as long as possible. And run I did — through the woods, the meadows and the streams — with my long hair swishing behind me like a horse’s mane. Despite not attending any kind of pre-school, I entered first grade with such strong reading skills they moved me along with 6 other kids into a second grade reading class, where we stayed for the entire year.
I get the feeling some educational experts believe children do not learn unless they are in designated learning environments. I don’t agree. Children learn naturally and the natural environment has much to teach children of all ages about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. I worry that today’s kids will be burned out and rusted out at 25 because they weren’t given the opportunity to run wild and free before beginning the now premature slog to conventional careerhood.
How often do you see kids frolicking in a meadow without an organized agenda (if you can still find a meadow)? Do you think childhood is endangered? If no, why? If yes, why?
Muse thx,
Giulietta
p.s. For any of you tree lovers reading this, please check out my latest essay, Abracadabra. Also, there’s still time to sign-up for my five week on-line class — Secrets of Personal Essay Writing! It’s a great way to reconnect with your childhood sense of wonder and wildness.
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Hey Giulietta,
I completely agree with your concerns. I’m visiting my ‘Da’ in the UK and have been a bit shocked by a current public and educational debate concerning the use of SAT’s starting at age 11 and running through secondary school, a trend mirrored in NA. At times there seems to be so much emphasis on meeting basic and arbitrary ‘norms’ of performance that there’s no longer any room for individualism or excellence.
At the same time, I think that our cultural delusion concerning how we, as adults, should be successful and busy to an ignoble degree results in a systemic parental myopathy. We don’t pay enough attention to our kids too often and expect our schools to pick up the slack.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t tons of great parents out there, but the trend is frightening. We abdicate to the TV, then the pre-school, then the kindergarten and finally breath a sigh of relief when our children get into a full time school regime so we can get back to ‘more important’ things.
While I’m no huge fan of regression, I’d like to think that we can be progressive without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Thanks, as always, for a thought-provoking perspective!
Hi Michael,
Always the thoughtful commenter! I believe we test because we know whatever we’re doing isn’t working. Perhaps, go in a different direction? I also wonder what we’re all marching toward anyway. I keep hearing that kids are falling behind. Falling behind what? Is that what worth getting in front of? Maybe we need a new what?
Thx, Giulietta
Giulietta –
I think childhood is alive and well, but underrated. Running free teaches creativity, how to fail and how to enjoy life. This needs to be part of our learning to develop into well rounded and happy adults. There is a place for structured learning here too – in balance and learning useful and sustainable skills ideally. I also like the image of you running wild with your crazy hair! Very nice!
Phil
Hi Phil,
I can always count on you to give a balanced comment. Here and on your Less Ordinary Living blog. (I tend to venture toward one extreme or the other — must be the crazy hair!).
Yes, it’s definitely underrated, yet so important. Wonder how we get it just “rated” again?
If you ask adults about some of their favorite memories, so many of them happened in childhood.
Maybe we need more childhood and less adulthood?
thx as always for stopping by! G.
I love this post! One more year until my son goes to Kindergarten and I’m in no hurry. He’s smart and I’ve noticed he learns best when he’s not pushed. My son is in a preschool program right now, three to four mornings a week, but it’s mostly so I can get some work done and he’s not stuck in the house in front of the TV while his baby brother is napping. I think it’s valuable for some kids but not necessarily necessary. I don’t buy into pressuring my children to succeed. I hope I can always support their natural curiosities, interests and abilities.
Hi Angie,
Your last line says it all – support their natural curiosities, interests and abilities. I know you will!
When kids get pressured into pursuing career paths just for the money, they run into trouble as adults. What a different world we’d have if natural curiosities were promoted throughout our lives.
Thx. G.
Good question, Gieulietta! And I loved imagining you on your romps as a wild child. I suppose we’ve taken the wildness out of childhood in some ways now. Last week my brother and I were reminiscing about our own childhoods. He told the story of launching a makeshift raft into a barely-there creek with his friends. It was made out of air mattresses and a salvaged pallet. This was not a parent-approved adventure, but what joy he still has in telling the story. I remembered how, as a pretty young child, my mom would let me roam as I pleased in the park across the street. Her only precaution: Don’t cross the street to come home without me. So I’d stand and yell for her to come and get me. And sometimes yell some more, until a neighbor popped out to escort me back home. I guess nowadays life has changed so much, there are so many dangers lurking, that parents and schools err on the side of too much caution. Which leads to boredom. You know, when I think about this topic too much, it just seems like a mess to me!
Hi Patty,
Your brother’s Huckleberry Finn adventure sound marvelous. I can feel his joy without even hearing him say it. Spontaneous, free – doesn’t get too much better than that. It does seem like we’ve removed the wildness, yet we are creatures of the wild.
I wonder sometimes if the reason its seems to be so dangerous is that we’ve all retreated indoors or in our cars or we’re just hearing more about things that may always have been happening. This creates these weird people-free zones that may promote aberrant behavior. Am not sure. As a child I walked quite far alone in the woods. Now, I’d never do that.
Thx! G.
Giulietta, I worry about this too. When I grew up we played outside all the time, AND we never wanted to come in! Today, I think kids have too many video games and television shows to watch; not to mention hand held devices like cell phones and other gadgets to distract them even if they do manage to get outside. I think developing imagination is critical developing creativity. Thanks for your insightful post I really enjoyed it.
Hi Angela,
Excellent point about the tech distractions! They seem to be multiplying by the minute. In the summer, I couldn’t wait to go out after dinner and play kickball with all the kids in the neighborhood. No parents. We made our own rules. Tons of fun. (and no monthly fee to pay.) And I’m so with you about developing imagination. Nature got mine going and it hasn’t let up. Talk about a magical world at your fingertips. Thx for stopping by again. G.
So much has changed since I was a child. Few families have a parent at home at all times, neighbours aren’t watching out for other people’s children like they used to, imagination and exercise are often thwarted by full schedules and exhausted or distracted caregivers and play has become so much more structured than I remember it too.
You make a great point that we seem to be pushing our children out of childhood way too fast. Age compression I think they might call it. Children can sometimes try on behaviours they’re not developmentally able for which only hurts them in the end.
Having said that, I don’t think childhood is endangered. I do think raising awareness to this trend is definitely in order as awareness can trigger engagement ~ and things have a hope of changing.
So happy to have conversed with you today!
Hi Sally,
Age compression — what a great term. Never heard that before. That’s exactly what seems to be happening. Perhaps, we can reverse this as you say, by continuing to talk about it. Life goes by so quickly. No need to speed through any of its phases. We seem to have trouble living in the moment. In this case, the childhood moment.
Great to exchange comments with you! G.
A thoughtful and insightful question that leads to other questions: Why does it seem that kids these days seem difficult and unresponsive, prefer (often violent) video games, text incessantly using gobblegook lingo, have limited reading/writing skills, etc.? Or why do parents feel the need to restrict or coordinate kids’ activities so that even playing with friends becomes a “play date” and exploring meadows, fields, surroundings is out of bounds for fear of “predators”? Those “boogeymen” were also around in the last century, but since the hype was less – what is the percentage of kidnapped children vs. the total? – that kids still enjoyed the freedom and joy of an unrestricted childhood. I’m not against early schooling, though not because it is important for later development but rather because it has become necessary due to the increased number of working mothers. I believe afterschool activities are the problem, have become a form of keeping kids from entertaining themselves in ways such as exploring meadows and woods that might be filled with predators, playing with “questionable” or not vetted friends, making up potentially dangerous games (floating mattresses), or even reading books that may isolate or distract them from more sociable activities or from following someone else’s pre-approved path.
To answer your question, I see childhood freedom as restricted rather than endangered. I mourn the loss of exploring unknown worlds in local meadows, and also the passing of one of the greatest joys of my own childhood: curling up with a book for company rather than sitting with my eyes glued to a screen. Kids of yore discovered the world outside on our own terms but these days, this discovery is vetted, controlled, and directed.
Hi Penelope,
Enjoyed your perspective of restrictive rather than endangered childhood. Makes a lot of sense. You’re right that it’s the after school programs that restrict playing in the woods or romping in the meadows. Maybe we’ve got too many programs? Maybe just simplify the lives of children — and by association — the lives of parents?
There certainly is a ton of hype. Lots of “breaking news.” So much so that the breaking news breaks into the breaking news.
Always love hearing your take on life! Thx. G.
An interesting discussion. I live in a high stress area just outside DC yet I grew up in a rural mountain town running wild. I find that parents believe that activities are wonderful – soccer, lots of homework, TV, video games, computers, more homework, music lessons,… This is childhood for many of the kids I know. Although they might not have their college choices made, many parents do with the idea that there kids must be in the best programs and therefore will go to college so that they can “succeed.”
As a working single parent – I have to admit that my daughter has her activities. She is a serious student of ballet (her choice and I don’t push) and she has a weekly art class throughout the year… and it seems like a lot to me though relatively speaking, it isn’t. When we are home, the TV is off as is the computer… and it is all about creativity and imagination and being a kid. She becomes a magician with magic spells on our balcony or uses clothing to design fashions and then performs. She draws, writes, builds… She is a kid.
Unfortunately I am less trusting of the great outdoors than my parents were due to location more than anything else, but we spend lots of time outside tracking animals and noticing the world around us. We live as much in the moment as possible.
I live surrounded by people who “succeed” in a very different way than I model for my daughter. Perhaps it is the definition of “success” that could change as it isn’t about money or 60 hour work weeks as much as it is about living a life of integrity and enrichment… and we all need time to play!
Your childhood sounds great running through the mountains, probably setting your own schedule. Love that your daughter becomes a magician on the balcony. Imagination is natural and necessary for life! I agree with you and the definition of success. That too needs to be customized! It’s too generic at this point and many who “reach” it don’t find the happiness they sought.
Here’s to play! See you at your blog.
Thx. Giulietta