This is a random post. I've seen the infotainment articles on Alec Baldwin's rather harsh message to his daughter, and newspaper articles about the new ban on cellphones in schools.
Both stem from one thing, methinks - the lack of consideration, lack of manners, I see in children, adolescents and adults.
Baldwin was apparently upset because his daughter did not make herself available for a scheduled call.
Children in school should be paying full attention to the teachers, not to text messages from their friends. The full attention part is particularly important; I've met too many semi-literate university graduates to be comfortable with the education children are receiving in Canada.
Must admit, I don't understand the desperate need to "be available". Why are these kids so wedded to their cellphones?
Seguing back....Parents are failing their children badly by not teaching consideration for others, basic manners.
1 comment:
It's strange that parents and grandparents, many of whom lived through the rollicking 50s and the wild 60s, are the most fearful, over-protective, punitive generation of parents in centuries.
My mum would have laughed in my face if I had asked her to drive me around as a kid. Ditto to school. We walked, rode our bikes and actually knocked on our friends' doors. We took the bus and subway downtown, etc, from the age of about 10 onward.
And yes, there were as many pedophiles and sleazoids back then as there are now, it's just that the population has exploded.
We took a few lessons on and off, but no way would my parents have scheduled every waking moment for me - they were busy with their own lives and let me pursue my interests at will. Thankfully, I had lots of time to dream, read, observe and just be a kid.
I think that due to excessive materialism which has led to both parents working and the prevalence of single parents who have to work, guilt is firmly in control of today's parents.
As for the cell phones, well, the kids will think it's great to be able to babble away to their friends at will - it is up to the parents to say 'no' and not buy them.
I'm afraid today's kids are even more spoiled than we were but not in a good way. They are spoiled with things you can buy which is a hollow substitute for a real childhood.
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