Children a Soft Target

Children are the purest and most innocent of all of God's creations. They open their eyes in a completely new and surprising world where they learn from their mistakes and continue that learning process till the very last breath.
 
All this while, they mould their attitude, behavior, thought process and discretion based on what they see, hear and experience from their immediate surroundings. The mind of a child is extremely vulnerable. Though some virtues are inherent, the rationality that the child would develop as an adult is primarily based on heuristics and past experiences. And this rationality would decide the future course of that person's journey of life, since most of the decisions would be 'rational' and not impulsive or instinctive.

Do we seriously give it a thought about the kind of surroundings we are providing our children? Do we expect children to maintain their morality being raised in a society where corruption has even crept in the family, leave alone the judicial system, political system or the educational system?

In the family –

The family atmosphere is most crucial in shaping one's personality. But very often we find that the family system is not conducive to good confidence building and instilling morals among the kids. We have a tendency to dominate children at home and make them believe that they cannot take their own decisions. They are expected to follow what their elders perceive is wise and not use their own mind. We, no doubt, are thinking of their well being but, for them, we are shutting down the possibility of using their own conscience.

They are left to think that the adult world is different from the world they reside in and hence they start disconnecting from social life at a very young age. This is the reason they do not regret making overt demands and wrecking havoc if not fulfilled. And we have our own methods of fooling and appeasing them. We offer them something else and make up stories to supplement our lie. We don't regret telling a simple lie to them either.
All these things lead us in creating a world of disillusions for them, something which they later discover to their utter dismay.

Then there is teaching kids the hard way, corporal punishment. The infliction of physical harm to children leaves a long lasting impact on their mind which may later cause them to become destructive.


In school –

When children reach the age of being able to attend school, they are pushed in it instantly. This implies only to the families who can afford to send their children to high profile schools for more 'effective learning'. But the truth is; all schools, that is, the ones that extract huge amount of school fees from the parents and the ones that run on minimum resources to which the poor go, are alike. It may sound strange but it is true, for all these schools do the same when it comes to killing the curiosity of children. Children are not encouraged to ask questions 'outside the syllabus' and if they do get the answers to their questions outside the syllabus, they are strictly instructed not to waste much energy going deep in something they wont be asked in the examination. Students are bound in chains as soon as they step in a school for the first time.

Students suffer intellectual inflictions at school. Their ideas hardly ever go noticed in a world where everything is already printed in the form of a book and they simply have to gulp the facts down.

The very place where individuals should develop their inborn talents becomes a place where individuality is least considered. Students excelling in sports usually lose out on academics and are barred from entering the next class on the basis of poor academic record. Schools should make special arrangements for these children instead of leaving them to pursue sports at their own risk. Same implies to children with other exceptional talents. Schools, these days, judge merit only in the form of marks and rarely in the form of skills and this trend has to change.

The society –

The society one grows up in is a prime contributor to the process of attitude building and outlook formation. It is what one sees around himself that makes him reconsider his inner instincts and act more in accordance with the given norms. Children are witness to an array of phenomena in our society that have nothing but long term negative impacts on them.

It is very clear from our surroundings that money drives the world around. Money is obviously essential for a good life but somehow an image has been created of it which is not that of a tool for survival but that of a messianic commodity which is a solution to all our problems. Perhaps this very image of money, luxury and materials drives the youngsters crazy towards achieving them and in the process they forget to achieve what is actually more important for a human being, that is, ethics, conduct, responsibility and a moral soul.

And how would children mould themselves to become people with high morals when all they find around them are corrupt politicians and rich movie stars being worshipped as Gods? It is very obvious for anyone to get attracted to the glitz, glimmer and glamour of such people's lifestyle and make them want to emulate it. It is our fault to have continued this trend for ages. We must glorify people rich with hearts of gold rather than chests full of gold stacked in their homes.

We also find almost everyone around us trying to get what they want done in the most unacceptable manner. Everyone wants to be the first in everything. Everyone wants a hassle-free life and hence people never hesitate to either give or take a generous sum of bribe every now and then. Children of such families who openly acknowledge this fact have a tough time deciding what actually is right and just or wrong and immoral. They are also well aware of the fact that the people who are accepting and offering bribes are not illiterate; rather they are the top notch professionals having made it to their position because of a good amount of 'education'.

And not to mention, children are the easiest prey when it comes to crimes such as abduction. Children growing up in this age of terror would not remember much of what the society offered them when they were young and hence would hardly think of offering anything back to the society once they grow up and occupy key positions.

Child labor –

We are well aware of the predicament of those millions of children in our country who have no other option but earning a living themselves. Their financial condition does not allow them to afford an education. What future will these kids have? We would never come to know about the hidden potentials trapped in them since they'd hardly ever get to escape the daily drudgeries of their life to go about exploring their talents. We have no idea what human resource we are putting to waste. It is often observed that the children who are not able to receive an education due to their adverse circumstances are the ones who show great affinity towards learning. If they are only provided with a slight boost up in the form of aid, they'll certainly excel in some way or the other, making maximum use of their available opportunity.

On the one hand where we have these children who are eager to learn the way their well off counterparts do, on the other we have these children who are forced into schools and tuitions as soon as they open their eyes. It is not necessary that a child in a good school would develop a propensity towards learning only because of the virtue of being able to afford it. And very often it turns out so. Half of the children attending elite schools do not deserve to be there in terms of interest towards learning but are fortunate enough to have parents who can send them there. These children, unlike their illiterate and working counterparts, will never understand the true worth of money, dignity of labor and the importance of such an education.

Every child is an asset for the nation. We have to decide whether we want to make use of our human resource or let it to waste. The population of our country can be a boon instead of a curse for us if we only mange the vast sea of people more efficiently, providing equal opportunity to each child.

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