Children
Once again I react to a report, http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/report/report.php, with surprise caused by my own naivety. This time about the way the British treat their children and an apparent attempt to blame this on the poor. "It's the poor what get the blame" and old song but true, the probelm is much older and more superficial than many writers would give us to believe. I am sure it goes back to the aristocarcy and upper middle classes who have never given a cuss for their kids.
Just stop and think about it for a bit, what did these people do.
(a) When they were born, get a Nanny.
(b) Lock them in the nursery and allowed down before bedtime to give Mummy a kiss on the cheek and possibly shake hands with Papa.
(c) if boy send off to boarding school at 6.
That was that, never show emotion never even think of cuddling the chidren and allowing them anywhere near adults, apart from the servants of course. It is hardly surprising that they were great at being sent abroad and fighting wars. The idea that you would show any normal human emotions were clearly extinguished at an early stage. One old Etonian I did happy to know admitted that he only ever saw his father across a boardroom table!
Dysfunctional family life is the norm amongst people trained in such a way. Thjere advantage over the poor is that they can afford to buy themselves out of the mess they get themselves into, the rich young girl could always afford a proper abortion, the poor lived with the consequences.
So is it surprising that British policy makes, many who were drwan for this miseducated elite fail to get anywhere near solving the problems of children in Britain. We are still a society where beating children is still considered acceptable. The British have never had much time for children, seen and not heard was the view. Even if they were allowed to eat with the gown ups, any social interaction was almost certainly not allowed.
I realise that films often exaggerate but having just seen "Miss Potter" one get a very clear idea of the relationship between upper class parents and their children, it is not one to inspire any confidence in those people to have any understanding of children and to know how to cope with their needs. We see that even if the current governements policies, send the mothers out to work and pack the kids off to nursery. Not necessarily a bad thing but unless it is a good nursery wth lots of high quality care it will not work. A teacher from Norway expressed surprise at how "serious" infant schooling was in Britain, "they need to go out and run around".
We need to let children grow up in a warm, loving and financially secure environment. The attitude in Britain always seem to have been that the first two don't matter, a good beating is all that they need. A slight exaggeration, I know, but untill we see children as important people with their own needs and respect them we will go on repeating all these errors.
Just stop and think about it for a bit, what did these people do.
(a) When they were born, get a Nanny.
(b) Lock them in the nursery and allowed down before bedtime to give Mummy a kiss on the cheek and possibly shake hands with Papa.
(c) if boy send off to boarding school at 6.
That was that, never show emotion never even think of cuddling the chidren and allowing them anywhere near adults, apart from the servants of course. It is hardly surprising that they were great at being sent abroad and fighting wars. The idea that you would show any normal human emotions were clearly extinguished at an early stage. One old Etonian I did happy to know admitted that he only ever saw his father across a boardroom table!
Dysfunctional family life is the norm amongst people trained in such a way. Thjere advantage over the poor is that they can afford to buy themselves out of the mess they get themselves into, the rich young girl could always afford a proper abortion, the poor lived with the consequences.
So is it surprising that British policy makes, many who were drwan for this miseducated elite fail to get anywhere near solving the problems of children in Britain. We are still a society where beating children is still considered acceptable. The British have never had much time for children, seen and not heard was the view. Even if they were allowed to eat with the gown ups, any social interaction was almost certainly not allowed.
I realise that films often exaggerate but having just seen "Miss Potter" one get a very clear idea of the relationship between upper class parents and their children, it is not one to inspire any confidence in those people to have any understanding of children and to know how to cope with their needs. We see that even if the current governements policies, send the mothers out to work and pack the kids off to nursery. Not necessarily a bad thing but unless it is a good nursery wth lots of high quality care it will not work. A teacher from Norway expressed surprise at how "serious" infant schooling was in Britain, "they need to go out and run around".
We need to let children grow up in a warm, loving and financially secure environment. The attitude in Britain always seem to have been that the first two don't matter, a good beating is all that they need. A slight exaggeration, I know, but untill we see children as important people with their own needs and respect them we will go on repeating all these errors.
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6:46 AM
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