Childhood Lost
“Childhood has virtually been lost to children,” states London’s Daily Mail. “They know everything too quickly, are over-exposed to everything, and there are no social controls which guide their behaviour any more.” The reason for these conclusions lies in two reports: One is by AMMA (Britain’s Assistant Masters and Mistresses Association), and the other, an American study by Marie Winn, published in Britain, Children Without Childhood: Growing Up Too Fast in the World of Sex and Drugs.
Children as young as five years of age are increasingly belligerent, disrespectful of other children’s property; they lack respect for adults, and use obscene language, according to the many reports coming in. Most teachers surveyed by AMMA feel that parents are spoiling their children and that this is the root cause of the increase in children’s unsocial behavior. Of the teachers surveyed, 86 percent blame “lack of clear standards and expectations at home”; 82 percent point to a “lack of parental example” as the culprit.
In addition, the two reports cite broken homes, poor examples by teachers, and overindulgence in television watching as reasons for children’s appalling manners. “We are all guilty,” confesses the Daily Mail. “We have devised a society which is wholly unsuited to the raising of children. With easy acceptance of divorce and live-in relationships, we have destroyed the family. With a permissive attitude to discipline we have removed sanctions.”
Children are in constant need of kind but firm correction and discipline. As the wise man Solomon observed: “Foolishness is tied up with the heart of a boy; the rod of discipline is what will remove it far from him.” Children also need to see in their parents and teachers a good example of proper behavior because “everyone that is perfectly instructed will be like his teacher.”—Proverbs 22:15; Luke 6:40.