Children Webmag - Editorial

Great literature often uses long journeys as a simile for life - Homer’s Odyssey, and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, for example, or more recently, J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The heroes travel through difficult situations and great perils that are intended to match the trials and tribulations of our lives. The hobbits’ struggle through Fangorn Forest, the battle at Helm’s Deep, the deadly ambush in Shelob’s lair and Frodo’s personal challenge at Mount Doom symbolise our less dramatic conflicts.

In this issue, we have some examples. Chris Hanvey speaks of the battle against a new enemy, the threats posed by IT, and Kathleen Lane writes of the struggles faced by staff dealing with violent young people. These conflicts may not be on an epic wide-screen scale with thousands of massed orcs, but they are real and just as challenging for the individuals involved.

The epic stories often have their victims trapped in caves, forests or castles, but at times the heroes reach points of vantage where they can take a broader view of the scene. (The New Zealand mountains provided some excellent mountain scenery for The Lord of the Rings.) Then the heroes can see where their route has brought them, and more important, the way ahead. These viewpoints allow them to envisage the coming problems, get a sense of direction and plan ahead before they have to plunge back into the forest and swamps of the lower ground with all their dangers.

Similarly, we need at times to stand back from the daily grind of work with children and young people - the physical care, the teaching, the activities, the problem behaviour, the bureaucratic paperwork, the complaints and the hassle from managers and colleagues. We need to get up to a mountain top and see the scene as a whole, to decide whether we are going in the right direction and where we want to go next. Training often gives opportunities to ask the Big Questions and to think broadly, but we can all take time out to think, even without training.

There are a lot of Big Questions to ask about children and young people, their roles in society, what should be expected of them, how they should be educated, and where we (and they) should be going next. It is time for us to get up onto a high mountain and view the whole scene.

There have been many models of childhood in the past. For much of history, children have been seen as an inferior sort of adult who could not take on a full workload. During much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries children were expected to conform and obey, and learn from their elders and betters. Over the last half century, children have been increasingly encouraged to think for themselves, make choices and have rights. Where do we go next? How should children and young people be best prepared for life in the new millennium?

The world in which children and young people live has changed dramatically, with increased travel, worldwide economic interdependence, concerns about ecology and the IT revolution. Old social orders have melted away; power structures have changed; new ways of communicating have emerged. Where will it all lead? What does it mean for children and young people? Do we understand the future clearly enough to know how to educate and bring up children?

Keith White has pointed out that a few decades ago there was no sociological literature worth speaking of about women, but there is now a welter of feminist literature and a much better understanding of the roles of women in society. This revolution has not yet taken place in relation to children. They remain the largest disenfranchised minority in society.

The Christian Child Care Forum will be initiating a debate on The Future of the Nation’s Children and Young People in the Twenty-First Century in a couple of weeks’ time, but whether you are Christian or not, it is time to take the wider view, observe, analyse, develop ideas and look ahead.

When we have done our thinking, we will still need to get back to the actual work with children and young people, and struggle through the swamps and caves and forests, but if we have got our sense of direction, it is more likely that we will be heading effectively towards our aims, and the journey will have a greater sense of purpose.

We look forward to participating in the debate about the Big Questions.