Childhood ends earlier, Adolescence extended

Take a look at this interesting news article out of the UK.

Childhood ends earlier as parents pressure children, says survey

A survey from the Cartoon Network reported that children stopped believing in magical creatures like elves and the tooth fairy four years earlier than their parents' generation.

While that doesn't necessarily worry me, these results did:

Increasing numbers of parents are pushing their children to read books aimed at a higher age to fast-track their education to the detriment of their development, it is claimed today.

Quite a few UK papers reported different aspects of this research. For example, in Away with fairies 4yrs sooner it reported this:

And while 88 per cent of parents could recall enjoying games like doctors and nurses, only half the next generation would admit to similar role-play fun.

The end of imaginitive play is a worry. Children are loosing the capacity to amuse themselves without parental direction. I've seen this with some of my friends. They schedule almost every minute of their children's time. Most unscheduled time ends up in front of the television.

Now back the the first article, here's a scary recommendation:

The IPPR report recommends that the school day be longer so pupils can develop skills through after-school arts and sports clubs or scouts, cadets and martial arts. Parents should face fines if they failed to make sure their children attended some of these clubs, it said.

Yeah, right. Let me see if I understand this. School stomps out almost all creativity and put unhealthy pressure on children. It also leaves them with almost no free time. Parents are putting more pressure on children at home to keep up with the expectations at school. This phenomenon is imparring social mobility.

To fix the lack of social development, it is suggested that the school day be extended and parents be punished for not sending their children to after school programs which will leave the children with even less free time and more pressure. A bunch of tired, stress out kids together with little adult interaction are going to teach each other skills that lead to social mobility?

Actually, I do think it will lead to social mobility. It will move the high functioning kids down. That way everyone will feel better, even if more kids are messed up.

Makes me glad I we homeschool and live on this side of the "pond."


And last but not least, the article also points out that while childhood is getting shorter, adolescence has been extended to absurdity.

"Adolescence is also being stretched at both ends, with children becoming 'teenagers' earlier and 'adults' later. For too many young people this transition to adulthood is complex, messy and unsuccessful."

Homeschool families are not immune to teens who don't transition to adulthood. It is easy to fall into the pitfalls of a "school" mentality even when your children are at home. But, that is a whole other post.


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Related Tags: homeschool, home education, public school, after school programs, Cartoon Network, failure to launch, extended adolescence, testing, academic pressure, elves, fairies, tooth fairy