The world of children

"In their innocence, very young children know themselves to be light and love. If we will allow them, they can teach us see ourselves the same way. " "Michael Jackson The world of children, unlike the adult world, is a world full of beauty and innocence. A child is truth, honesty and sincerity. If poems be the children of fancy, a child is the embodiment of purity. Yes, until they are corrupted by adults.

The legal definition of child generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as "a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". Biologically, a child is anyone between birth and puberty or in the developmental stage of childhood, between infancy and adulthood.

Adulthood

Recognition of childhood as a state different from adulthood began to emerge in the 16th and 17th centuries. Society began to relate to the child not as a miniature adult but as a person of a lower level of maturity needing adult protection, love and nurturing.

Social attitudes toward children differ around the world in various cultures. These attitudes have changed over time. In Sri Lanka, I have noticed that most parents treat the child as an adult. Some mothers expect the child to become what they could not become. As a result, the child becomes an extension of the mother's dreams. This is more so of female children than of the male child. A child needs to develop as a child without becoming adults in childhood.

Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. Childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood (learning to walk), early childhood (play age), middle childhood (school age), and adolescence (puberty through post-puberty). The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a varying range of years in human development. Developmentally, it refers to the period between infancy and adulthood. In common terms, childhood is considered to start from birth. Some consider that childhood, as a concept of play and innocence, ends at adolescence. In many countries, there is an age of majority when childhood officially ends and a person legally becomes an adult. The age ranges anywhere from 13 to 21, with 18 being the most common.

The man usually credited with creating the modern notion of childhood is Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau formulated childhood as a brief period of sanctuary before people encounter the perils and hardships of adulthood. "Why rob these innocents of the joys which pass so quickly," Rousseau pleaded. "Why fill with bitterness the fleeting early days of childhood, days which will no more return for them than for you?"

Infant

All children go through stages of social development. An infant or very young child will play alone happily. If another child wanders onto the scene, he or she may be physically attacked or pushed out of the way. Next, the child is able to play with another child, gradually learning to share and take turns. Eventually the group grows larger, to three or four children. By the time a child enters kindergarten, he or she is usually able to join in and enjoy group experiences.

Play is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children. It offers children opportunities for physical (running, jumping, climbing, etc.), intellectual (social skills, community norms, ethics and general knowledge) and emotional development (empathy, compassion, and friendships).

Unstructured play encourages creativity and imagination. Playing and interacting with other children, as well as some adults, provides opportunities for friendships, social interactions, conflicts and resolutions.

It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practising adult roles, sometimes in conjunction with other children or adult caregivers. Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills. However, when play is controlled by adults, children acquiesce to adult rules and concerns and lose some of the benefits play offers them, particularly in developing creativity, leadership, and group skills.

Development

Play is considered to be so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child. Children who are being raised in a hurried and pressured style may limit the protective benefits they would gain from child-driven play.

The age at which children are considered responsible for their own actions (e.g., marriage, voting, etc.) has also changed over time, and this is reflected in the way they are treated in Courts of law. In Roman times, children were regarded as not culpable for crimes. In the nineteenth century, children younger than seven years old were believed incapable of crime. Children from the age of seven forward were considered responsible for their actions. Therefore, they could face criminal charges, be sent to adult prison, and be punished like adults by whipping, branding or hanging.

Today, in many countries like Canada and the United States, children twelve and older are held responsible for their actions and may be sent to special correctional institutions, such as juvenile hall.

In Sri Lanka, children had a traumatic time in the past due to the terrorist problem. However, a new dawn has come and I am sure childhood will be as it ought to be for all Sri Lankan children. Here is something worth reading, more for the parents than the children. I quote from the "Memories of a Sri LankanAmerican Woman".

Due to space constraints, I have edited and compressed it: "Looking back now it's interesting to remember the things that we had to go without during those days and sometimes we had to use food substitutes.... I think my brother and I were lucky because our parents did not believe in spoiling us with cakes, soft drinks or biscuits.

"Our diet was a healthy rice and curry and bread. Cakes were only baked by my mother for birthdays and biscuits only served for guests....Ice-cream was a rare treat.

A scoop of vanilla ice-cream was presented in a silver bowl always with a wafer sticking out.

There were also those booja packets that were available in the shops but our parents never bought them unless we went to see a movie.

I think children nowadays are so spoilt and eat so much junk food, I am not at all sorry that these so called treats were a rarity during my own childhood. Chocolates were also a rare treat and I used to suck on a piece of chocolate until it melted away, so rare was it in our household.

"Due to sugar restrictions my mother decided to make date cake as a way to save on sugar. The date cake was very rich. At the time I did not particularly like it although as an adult my tastes have changed and I'm sure I'd appreciate it more now".

Memories of a young girl, who lived perhaps in the early seventies: written, beautifully, simply and candidly.

If you read it, it tends to bring back the nostalgia of your own childhood. And one realizes how lucky we Sri Lankans are that in spite of not having as much as our western counterparts, we have not been short on our happiness index.

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking, keep laughing. Life is mostly about these two actions.

For views, reviews, encomiums and brick-bats: [email protected]