les temps changent
Sitting on my balcony with a cup of tea on a lazy Sunday morning, I was watching a group of 7–10-year-olds learning to roller skate. A coach was screaming instructions as the children gracefully circled the open space between two blocks of buildings, bent forward, elbows swinging in synchronism with their leg movements.
All the children were in full armour, – complete with helmets, padded gloves, elbow and knee guards. Most wore smart watches as well! Their parents stood anxiously by the side-lines watching how their wards progressed, shouting words of encouragement and urging them to do better than the next child. After all, it is a competitive world – can’t be left behind!
It’s time for a pit stop. Parents rush toward their wards, ready with towels and energy drinks. Some children just don’t want to skate anymore – they want to go and do their own thing. But alas, they would fail their parents in realising their dreams. They would lag behind everyone – tch, tch, not an acceptable situation. Some parents coax, some try and motivate and there are those who put them on the spot – do it or else….
And there are those children, whose competitive spirit surfeit and overflow as they race around, the need to be first being the dominant motivational force. Their parents beam proudly and look around to see if anyone else is noticing. If not, a nudge to draw attention and state – “My child”. Admiring clucks all around.
My mind wanders back many decades, as I fondly reminisce my childhood. Our parents were not as ambitious as the parents of the today. We had to coax them if we wanted to learn something outside of academics! It was not very different with my friends’ parents either. Their scale of ambition differed but not greatly. They provided us with an enabling environment, but it was really up to us to capitalise.
During play, we would fall, scratch or cut our knees and elbows, sometimes break a bone, but that was part of growing up. No one fussed over us.
Our parents and teachers let us grow up in a relaxed atmosphere. At no point did they let us forget that we need to do our best in everything that we undertake. We were reminded relentlessly that our competition was with ourselves. We were always told – if you do well, you will be noticed.
C S Lewis’s quote rings so true to me, after these many decades
“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so.”
– C.S. Lewis.
Over the years, we have successfully navigated the changing times – we have seen electronic mail become email and its transition from a luxury to a necessity, explosion of the use of the internet, the Window’s revolution, pagers followed by mobile phones, and the growth of a an electronically connected world. Not bad for a baby boomer!
Coming back to the present, I don’t think I could cope with the pressures that today’s children deal with. As I look around me, I wonder if Einstein’s quote would hold true anymore….
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
-Albert Einstein.
But then, cliched as it may sound, the only constant in life is change.
‘The times they are a-changing” – Bob Dylan
