However, there is another war they must contest. It is far more insidious and demands that we all take notice and come to their aid. It is the war that is being waged on their childhood and we, as adults, are the ones willingly inflicting it on them. Our children’s worlds are being deluged with adult information, pressures and stress, all in the name of education.
The truth is, the ecowarriors we are rearing are increasingly depressed, anxious, stressed, behaviourally out of control and being set up for future failure.
It is a naive to think we are raising socially conscious global citizens by exposing our children to an adult world of concerns. Inundating them with information does not equip them better for the future – it paralyses them. Furthermore, the notion of sharing such information with them is a falsehood as it, by definition, denotes an equal and mutual exchange. Children simply are not capable of having such complex and nuanced debates, and neither should we expect them to. Not only are they not equipped neurologically to process complex issues but they also do not have the context given by experience by which to view such topics.
What we as adults often fail to recognise is the important role that childhood serves. It is one of exploration, of play, of physical development, of interaction, of dexterity, of creativity, of observation and of imagination.
The brain has more to accomplish in the first decade of life than at any other time. As adults, our role is simply to provide the fertile ground that will support the growth of these naturally occurring vital processes. The bombardment of additional complex information may in fact act as a pollutant to a young mind, pulling it off the track it naturally wants to pursue, forcing it forward into territory it cannot cope with.
When students are being encouraged to skip school to fight for environmental action one must ask what the role of our education system is.
As Australian children are struggling academically to keep up with the rest of the world, surely it would be best for us to focus on fostering inquisitive minds that have the ability for critical analysis, and possess a solid foundation in a traditional academic skill set that they then might apply creatively in their future to the problems of the globe.
Of course, we can’t discuss the possibility of children electing not to attend school this week without a sobering reflection on not only all the face-to-face teaching hours they have missed out on during the past two years of the pandemic but also the great efforts to return them to the normality of the classroom.
It alarms me, as a psychologist working clinically with children, to see the lack of value they place on basic academic learning because they don’t believe they will even have a future should the government not “act more”. Sadly, many of them have little understanding or awareness of the science behind climate change, let alone what they would prefer Scott Morrison do beyond signing up to net zero carbon emissions. To even consider that it is the role of a teacher or, worse, government-funded public schooling to discuss, encourage and promote contentious social-political agendas is beyond inappropriate – it is dangerous. A preschooler is a blank slate of neural pathways waiting to be connected and is ripe for the picking to implant ideas and world views – just take their firm belief in Santa. A jolly man bringing gifts is one thing, but if our schools start promoting political agendas surely we are on a path to socialist dictation?
By not sharing information with our children, by withholding and by shielding them from the latest news cycle emergency, we open the door of freedom to them; freedom to explore, to learn, to grow and to live. We unshackle children from the burden of premature knowledge and allow the development of a solid healthy mind that will serve them well into adulthood. Let us return to observing the sanctity of the two worlds – the adult world and the world of the child. So fleeting, so precious are childhood years, let’s not cheat our children out of them. A pause on the fast pace of life that dictates that more is more will not spell an end to our world for future generations – it will save it.
Clare Rowe is a Sydney-based child and family psychologist.
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This week we saw a return to children striking from school in protest against the supposed lack of action on climate change. Worldwide, children dutifully took their places in a call to arms. Some may have thought they fought bravely and fiercely in defence of their natural environment as yet again they lobbied government and private business to do more when it comes climate change.