Every
year at Mill Grove we put on our very own dramatic Boxing Day production.
It’s usually a pantomime like Cinderella, Snow White, Jack
and the Beanstalk or Aladdin and is a unashamedly amateur affair
with much of the fun, and some of the best lines being delivered,
during rehearsals. We try to tell the story as clearly and simply
as possible, but have a pantomime cow to which we have given the
name Claribelle that appears in every play. This requires a little
ingenuity with the script, but no one seems to mind. This year we
are performing A Christmas Carol, adapted from the story by Charles
Dickens. It’s been done on Boxing Day at least three times
before, and continues to move audiences with its enactment of the
conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge from a miser to one who genuinely
cares about the welfare of others.
I
love the story, and gather from the youngsters that they do too,
although the Muppet version seems to be the one they have in their
mind as the “original” or “authentic” script.
We were having a read-through earlier in the week and I was struck
by an exchange between Scrooge and Tiny Tim (the youngest of the
Cratchit family who walks with a crutch). Scrooge is disorientated
on account of a night full of dreams and apparitions. Tiny Tim explains
that it is Christmas Day, and the dialogue continues:
Scrooge:
"What day did you say it was?"
Tiny Tim: "Why, Christmas Day. Of course! Haven’t you
heard the church bells?"
Scrooge: "So I haven’t missed it! Fancy me not knowing
what day it was! I’m quite a baby, aren’t I? What
of it? I’d rather be a baby!"
This
isn’t by any means the most obviously arresting or dramatic
climax of the play, but it resonates pretty deep within me, and
I’d like to try and explain why.
In
the year 2000 I began working on a better understanding of the role
and insights into children and childhood in the Bible. Little did
I know then that this would take me to every part of the world,
and involve me in writing a book, papers and lecturing regularly
in Malaysia. It turned out to be a turning point in my thinking.
What I began to discover (the process is still in full swing and
is therefore far from complete) was that the Judaeo-Christian Scriptures
are teeming with rich perspectives into how God sees children and
young people. In a nutshell they are not only objects of His love
and care, but agents in His mission of reconciling the universe
to Himself. They are weak, vulnerable and in the process of becoming
adults, but at the same time they are unique signs of the Kingdom
of Heaven. You could say that they represent God’s chosen
of favourite language. Jesus called a child to stand in the midst
of His disciples (who were engaged at the time in a long-running
dispute about the pecking order in the coming Kingdom), and told
them: “Unless you change and become like this little child,
I tell you, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” and
“whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in
the Kingdom”. So perhaps Scrooge has a point in wondering
whether in certain important respects the baby has advantages over
the adult.
This
is the point of departure for much of the exploring I have done
in the past three years. I have re-examined Christian theology,
philosophies of education, theories of child development, the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, and government policies and green papers
in different parts of the world, with the single question uppermost
in my mind: “What underlying concept of child and childhood
in informing, whether consciously or not, this document or theory?”
The effect has been little short of mind-blowing, because often
there has been scant evidence of any reflection on such a pivotal
question, and one would be forgiven for thinking that childhood
was primarily a time of preparation for adulthood. What is more
sentimental views of childhood cling tenaciously to much that is
written. (Chris Jenks deals with this well in his book Childhood,
Routledge, 1996.) There is not a lot of time spent considering some
of the real issues of guilt, sin and responsibility on the part
of the campaigners for children’s rights, for example. The
predominant images are of a child who is a victim needing protection,
or a little adult deserving quasi-adult rights. It is not apparent
how the two perspectives are to be integrated.
But, as I have argued in this column before, the times they are
a’changing, and there are signs that a paradigm shift may
be underway. On February 11th 2004 the United Kingdom Christian
Child Care Forum will launch its campaign for a Royal Commission
on Children, Young People and Childhood. It will be a long struggle,
but the early indications are encouraging. There is a growing recognition
that we have all sorts of policies and laws affecting children and
young people based on rather flimsy if not shaky foundations. Education
in the U.K. lacks a philosophy of education and learning. Child
Care and Development can over-emphasise growth, attainment and progress
at the expense of the unique qualities of childhood. Politics is
dominated by liberal adult concerns and civil liberties or civil
societies, where the needs of children and young people often get
overlooked.
No
doubt there will opportunities to develop this thinking with you
in the months ahead, but for now I really must concentrate on A
Christmas Carol. We are still lacking Ebenezer Scrooge (like Hamlet
without the prince?) and we haven’t begun the props, scenery,
sound effects and lighting yet! And, of course, that’s only
a small part of our Christmas celebrations here at Mill Grove. Throughout
December we light an extra candle each day on the Advent wreath,
Christmas cards are exchanged in increasing numbers, decorations
and presents, food and drink, all take their turn. And above all
we need time and space to ponder the meaning of it all: a baby born
into an ordinary Jewish family, who, in the Bible narrative, is
God’s gift to His world. A Saviour and Redeemer. It seems
as if God’s preferred, if not the only, way to save creation
was through a baby. So Scrooge had a good point, and being born
again is a process God requires of all who would understand His
true nature and heart.
Wherever
you are on the journey of discovery about the nature of childhood,
may I wish you a very Happy Christmas, and a peaceful New Year in
which we are able to continue the conversations we have begun through
the WebMag.
Keith
J. White
P.S.
We hope Dickens doesn’t mind but we have introduced Claribelle
into A Christmas Carol. She is in the scene of a Christmas Past
when Scrooge is reminded of the village where he lived as a boy.
Had we not done so we would have had two very unhappy young people!
Keith
J. White lives and cares for children and young people in Mill
Grove where his family has lived for four generations.
Since 1899 it has been a family home where children unable to
live with their own parents have been welcomed |
