The medium that a child learns from are many; a child’s brain picks random stuff and interprets it in the way beneficial to it. The major expose to a child’s mind in the current period is the television and movies. The osmosis of the knowledge and the comprehension of the world into a child’s mind is something which occurs unimpeded. It is onto the so called ‘learned, all knowing elders’ to administer and supervise on this assimilation, but how much can a guardian/ parent take charge of the various media to which the child has access to.
We, as children had limited access to television, the hours and the content both rationed, not that there were too many options when it came to the available programs. The Doordarshan was what we were entertained with and, I still remember the informative and educational programmes on the air then. Who, from our age group will forget, ‘ Anekta mein Ekta’ a song so well animated, that it was way ahead of the technology then. The children’s programs were entertaining as well as educative in the right way.
However, the children of this day are spoilt for choices on the list of the channels and programmes available on them. Though, how good they are for them is a question that needs lot of scrutiny. Times change and with that inevitable change are also that of the moral and values which we are imparting. For instance, take the advertisements. The new Macdonald’s advertisement teaches our kids that it pays to blackmail; the fasttrack ad teaches our teens that it’s the ‘in thing’ and ‘cool’ to cheat and have multiple partners, that emotions and relations are worth but a rat’s fart.
There was a time only when school bags and shoes needed children in them, now almost every advertisement has to have a kid in it. Even for a car, which that kid will be able to drive for the next decade and half!! The children need their parents to have a car, because some kid on the television makes it appear cool. Its not just with the car, it starts from something as insignificant as detergent or toothpaste and goes all the way to real estate! Then we have reality shows that mean more then school curriculum to our children.
There were times, when ‘pastime’ and ‘hobbies’ were activities other then parking the asses on the couch and surfing the channels on the television or the Internet. ‘Games’ meant coming back sweaty, dirty and dark from the sun. My parents, when nostalgic talk of their fun childhood days and I feel my childhood was not as exciting as theirs; now I see the growing generation and feel they will never have the kind of the days I did.
My mother, to this day reminisces of the upbringing her parents gave her and that she couldn’t even bequeath a fraction of it onto me and my brother, while on the other hand, I feel I was bestowed with the best by my parents. They brought me up well, or at the least I want believe that I turned out a fine lady, with proper values and with my heart in the right place. But the ongoing trends of living and the upbringing makes me wonder if our generation has anything worthwhile to look forward to procreation!!
There are things that pass through generations, there are pearls of wisdom, there are words of experience and then there are some nostalgic thoughts that pour out at random moments that turn precious. The days of the innocent childhood now are something that I will cherish forever and it’s a gloomy realization that ‘innocence’ and ‘childhood’ aren’t together anymore.
