Links... Loneliness and Childhood..

UNICEF recently released a report the state of children in the world, and a read a piece in the Guardian asked who is the best placed to bring up children.. And how now in developed countries the "majority of parents in the developed world are farming out the care of their children to paid workers. At the same time, neuroscientific research shows - surprise, surprise - that the architecture of the brain is formed largely through the interactions of the early years; love, it turns out, is as important for intellectual as for emotional development." Its interesting looking at how this is changed, and what it means.

Also from the UK, a few pieces about loneliness and the state of solitude. An interesting one about a teacher who was sacked for saying Santa Claus doesn't exist. While I am sure that its not the wisest thing to do in a class-room, I doubt making the same claim about Jesus Christ would have the same result.

On the young ...

I read a couple of interesting pieces about young people, and growing up today, mostly sourced from the US and the UK, but I'm sure they speak to similar trends here.

:: The modern sense of self, and the 'networking sites':

Every advance in technology has raised yellow caution flags waved by old fogies like me. Autos changed the sex life of youth and made the Roaring Twenties roar, and, when I was a lad, rock and roll music eroded moral restraint while fomenting communism, acne and juvenile delinquency. But the social networking sites and cellphone culture aren't just changing habits or style; they are changing the nature of identity.

via International Herald Tribune.

:: Growing up on Anti-depressants

Antidepressants are among the most widely prescribed drugs for teenagers in the US, the below links (the first two via NPR), and the NYT article, make for interesting, albeit a saddening read.

• Growing up
• Comfortably Numb
• Coming of Age, on depressant [via NYT]

:: a wounded generation [related to a report mentioning that 1/3 of girls, and 1/5 of boys may be resorting to self harm]

This means several things. It means listening to young people and asking what support they need to put down their blades. It means working to create a culture that makes young people feel more comfortable with emotional expression, be that at home or in school. Our society tends to think there is strength in controlling and suppressing our emotions, rather than listening and working through them with others. This is something that needs to change.

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Article for the weekend...

Read an article today that covers a lot of material that I’ve been thinking about; and writing about for some time.The article to which I refer is James Murray’s Judas in the Making (The Australian May 8) James Murray begins by talking about the childhood of Hitler; Benito Mussolini and Rudolf Hess.

He moves on to discuss the children involved in fighting throughout the world; children who have not had the experience of childhood. My heart grieves as I think about the children who are taught to hate, before they learn to walk. As Murray puts it the education in hatred that so many children have experienced defines their future attitudes so disastrously.

Then Murray mentions the children in detention centres in Australia:

we play Judas to our own idea of fairness and go in for a sort of casuistry to defend the policy. The sad thing is that our politicians do not lack compassion but seem fearful of revealing it. Certainly some on the Coalition side personally deplore the detention of children behind razor wire, but party solidarity inhibits them. How do we quiet their consciences? And what burning fires of resentment may we be fuelling in the process?

As we look at the children of our world; the children we have locked up; we are caused to wonder; what sort of adults are we creating. As Murray concludes:

Give me a child until he is seven, and I will show you the man. But what sort of man?

UPDATE: The final report of Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission examining the policy of placing children in detention was tabled in parliament this week. The government's response was sadly predictable. Read the report for yourself here

Growing up in the 21st Century

Reading the newspaper today has convinced me that I would not want to be a child these days

For a start as Karen posted, there is the way our nation has been treating children. The Age today published an article tackling the mandatory detention of children with reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking glass.

The article particularly mentions the ‘double bind’ (best illustrated by a sign labelled ‘Ignore this sign’), and the classic dialogue in which the character Humpty Dumpty claims ‘When I use a word – I say what it means’ or its not about the meaning of the words, but who is in control.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with the government’s stance on border control, again the point is made; how we treat those who are the weakest amongst us; or those at the dawn of there life shows our humanity. This Christmas, there’s a sense in which I am embarrassed by Australia’s lack of Humanity, (and its’ inability to keep promises it has made). The treatment of asylum seekers, and as the article highlights, the manipulation of communication with asylum seekers goes beyond what is moral or defensible.

However one also needs to say, its not simply these children our nation has failed. A Canadian Educational Developmental index highlights, that over one third of Australia’s Children are either vulnerable or high risk of not achieving their educational potential.

The article claims: that the most protective factor – in any socio-economic circumstance - whether their mother works, or not, whether they go to child care, or not, whether they are black, white, immigrant or native born, whether they are clever or not - is an intact family. Children need both mother and father.

In this age of human liberty, it is adult needs and wants that are having a lasting impact on children. According to another article in the Australian, 90 per cent of respondents to a Relationships Australia survey believe that the trend toward dual career households was jeopardising relationships as neither partner would compromise individual goals for the sake of relationship, or family.

As I read these stories I grieve. Our papers, seemingly more each day highlight for us man’s total depravity. We desire rights, yet will not be accept our responsibility. We want the right to carry, bear, adopt or abort children, yet are unwilling to reconsider, sacrifice, or put on hold our desires, and think through the costs of raising and teaching our offspring.

Yet, there is hope, in the offspring of a virgin born over 2000 years ago, hope for restoration was fulfilled. Though sometimes, the certain hope, is hard to see.

Human Rights Day - December 10

The world speaks of rights. I have the right to an education; I have the right to believe what I can. I have rights for what I can do; and what can not be done to me. Perhaps its time for a change lets no longer talk of our rights, rather our responsibilities; that is what we should do, with what has been entrusted to us.

Our world ignores responsibility; when my team loses, it was the referee’s call; If I spill coffee, it’s someone else’s fault, or "my life is ruined because of my parents"; we fail to take responsibility for ourselves.

As a Christian, I am responsible for the way I live my life, I am responsible for every idle and considered word; I am accountable before God. I am accountable for how I respond to the responsibilities he has given to me.

What are my responsibilities as a citizen, as a son, as an employee, as a brother, my responsibilities to those who are weaker than I, to those who are come, and to those who have passed?