Want to come out and play? Fancy building a tree house? Or going to the park to play with my new toy boat? No thank you! Far too dangerous. Trees are high and parks are full of child molesters. I'll stay in and worry about The Environment instead.
For many of our children, or young people as government lackies prefer them to be known, childhood is now mere preparation for a life of ideological servitude. It's about being trained up for meaningless certificates in trivial skills that most people acquire anyway; getting good grades.
For maybe 100 years after they stopped being sent up chimneys, children were allowed - even encouraged - to be childish. Left to find out for themselves why, for example, it's a good idea to build a buggy from old pram wheels and scrap wood but a bad idea to drive it down a steep hill (take it from me). Unstructured play is where new ideas are created, tried out and adopted or thrown out. There may be the odd graze or bruise along the way but there isn't a more effective way of learning than by experience.
Over tha past decade, egged on by Government micro-managers, social trendies have now moved to obliterate childhood altogether. Parents are browbeaten into larnin' their little darlings how to read even before they can walk.
Even foetuses are subjected to Mozart. To give them a head start.
Soon we will have to study calculus during the act of procreation.
There is no escape for today's children. The information invasion brings nasty news into every bedroom. Childhood obesity, lead painted Barbies, bird flu, terrorism: scare stories permeate the meeja.
A recent radio programme included an item on an inventor who had come up with a talking playground that lets children interact with its exhibits. A bit high tech but maybe good news for those who don't want to bring up troglodytes.
The reporter wanted to know if the children had any questions for the inventor. First up - from a little girl - 'is it environmentally friendly?'.
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