Children’s University
Under a teasing sun warming
behind the classroom glass
the glacier slow drag to term’s end
and then, just when it seemed that
the final day would never arrive,
it did. Freedom day, best day of the year
the start of the summer holidays
and naturally children’s thoughts,
once freed from classwork, turn quickly
to lessons, recording attainment
and graduating, cap and gown
…from university – at 8 years old!
If a child naively thought that they
could do children’s things in the summer hols, then they should think again.
For here we introduce Children’s University for 5-14 year olds; killing two birds
with the one stone; more pressure on our children to ‘achieve’ and that false
achievement then celebrated.
Actually, this university is a
delusional summer school puffed up by verbiage and an all-smiling, professional
website, as is SOP nowadays for anything connected to education. This done
without (apparently?) considering the pandemic effect on real childhood
experiences and achievements by conflating them with phoney ones, like the C U.
Here, after completing the required number of educational units, which have to
be diligently recorded (at five years old, ha ha!), children even attend a cap
and gown graduation where they get their ‘degree’! No doubt, all this is
Faceborged by proud (and obviously better!) parents. Everybody graduates, of
course, except they don’t really. But the inversion, devaluing and degrading of
language is real, as is the child’s loss of valuable playing time.
Some may say: Now, hold on,
Seneca. This claim hardly does credit to the wisdom you feign in
borrowing the mantle of your illustrious namesake; what’s wrong with someone
putting together some activities and lessons for the summer hols? Kids get
bored sometimes, you know! Stated thusly, the answer is – absolutely
nothing! Doing things, educational or otherwise, with children over the
holidays (and especially, your own children) is natural and right. Organising
at local level, also meets my approval. But the C.U. idea goes beyond this
organically-sized project. And taking the thinking, beyond the simple idea, to
second level and beyond allows us to see danger shaping up.
Firstly, in the obligation on parents
and children to be thinking of lessons and attainment during what is
traditionally a downtime; ignoring that this downtime is central to
consolidation of learning and mental recovery. As if still at school, the
child’s mind never gets into holiday mode, but always has a lesson coming up;
moreover, one which has to be recorded into their uni ‘passport’. I liken this
situation to an adult going on holiday and daily checking their work emails or
updating their professional development folder!
Secondly, conferring the word
‘university’ on children’s activities contributes to the phenomenon of ‘word
inflation’, whereby the ordinary (or, dare you think it, substandard?) is
redefined in glowing terms; thus to inflate the conceit of the hearer to better
deceive them. By transferring meanings across adult and child domains we
devalue terms and concepts, and confuse the recipients. It is a form
of psychological manipulation, and by this means the disingenuous and downright
lies enter into the things they describe. And thusly, are our schools full of
bullshit. A cornerstone of the revival of our culture has to be an
awareness of how this malefic language degrades us, wedded to a conscious
attempt to restore natural language by rejecting the verbose, the deceitful and
the Orwellian.
Finally, I am concerned at the real
threat that comes with funding and nice websites – that of subversion. Can
anyone doubt now, with White racism and sexism found everywhere, that such a
ready-made platform (tailored to the demographic most desired by our masters)
will soon find itself dancing to their tunes.
Anyway, I don’t believe the claim that
such programmes create a sense of achievement and boost confidence. I think
that, regardless of a child’s real interest in the topic they are studying, it
is seen as just another adult-mediated thing they are forced to do.
And parents are, at best, patronising their children if they buy into this idea
of the Children's University.
I think that parents should be wary of
such programmes. Let your children have real time off. If they get bored, then
that’s their problem to fix.
There is a time and a place for
everything, but it seems that every time and place is to be seized as an
opportunity to impose ‘good ideas’ on our children. Everything is about
achievement, it seems; it’s as if children are preparing their C.V. at 8 years
old. Maybe they are.
What think ye?
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