It is
an open secret that the youth of the 70's and the 80's grew up knowing that
they needed to affiliate themselves with either education or politics, or the
arts for the few brave ones who did not mind to withstand the wrath of the
authorities. Even those that went to school, their parents encouraged them to
follow the then prestigious careers like teaching and medicine or law for some.
Any career outside that bracket was unheard of and anyone even some folks still
considered sports and the arts to be extra mural activities and they would burn
with anger if a child would think of following any of them as a career. This
was, of course in the era where the sight of a police van meant that everyone
would have to be athletic and sprint for their dear life, worse of all is that
at times it was for no reason, especially in the black communities.
I still
remember the days where playing in the streets or going AWOL all day and only
coming back towards supper time was normal and actually encouraged by most
parents, especially during school holidays. No one had the biggest fear of
child kidnapping or any of the evil actions taking place in our society today.
Back to
careers, it saddens me to see how disciplining a child lately in South Africa
have taken a different route and the school kids are encouraged to hit back at
teachers...alas this generation is perishing quicker than the prophets had
thought.
I am
not the oldest of them all but the little I know is that when I was small,
every parent in the community was your your parent and was allowed to
discipline you as a child, even if they may not necessarily know you or be
biologically related to you. The era where the illumination of a street light
meant that every child should be indoors, like it or not. The kids did not have
guts to talk back to their parents, let alone question any rule that was placed
by their superiors.
It
seems like the emergence of the democracy has changed it all and kids have more
rights than lefts. In the past few weeks the student unions have been
quoted in the news saying that school children should fight back when being punished
by their teachers, the same people I knew as parents when I was still in
uniform. A child can say what they want, when they want it and at times the
parents have to be the ones who back off an argument or they risk being
arrested.
I do
not have a problem with a law protecting children against abuse or any unfair
treatment but now my question is; How do we expect this children to learn the
morals and respect the society if we deny them discipline? Doesn't the bible
says spare the rod and spoil the child? See, the very same children you don't
want to discipline, are very quick to jump into adult activities and they make
babies like the world is ending tomorrow. You find a teenager having 2 or 3
children at age 18 or 19 and no parent dares to question them, at that time
they don't even have a mere Grade 12 certificate. How then will they raise
their own children if they haven't been disciplined and know nothing about
parenting?
Is this
the future we want for our country?
As I
see it...
