How can we best prepare our youth for the future.

[kvnchrist]

Is it best to shield them from the quote/unquote Evils of the world, as the lining of an electrical cable or should we instill an understanding of the the world around them and answer their questions as openly and honestly, without bias as possible?

 

If shielded, at what age should a child be exposed to controversial life situations, such as sexuality and politics?

 

How far should society be able to go to expand the experience of a child as opposed to the wishes of the parent?

[JimboUK]

I don't think there's a one size fits all answer to this, it's the parents responsibility to know what a child needs to know and at what age. Children should be allowed to be children wherever possible but at the same time they need to learn and sometimes that learning will require a knowledge of the worlds evils. I can use myself as an example, when I was around four or five I thought war was great, why wouldn't I? TV and movies glamourised it. Anyway there was a programme on TV called World at War, it was a documentary that covered WW2 right from the rise of the Nazi Party, their election, week by week it followed the timeline right through to the horrific discoveries at the concentration camps and Japans surrender. It wasn't presented as the heroic Allies vs the evil Nazis, it didn't need to be, it just presented the facts in a calm and often extremely graphic way. My parents decided it was about time I knew the facts about war and thus let me stay up and watch it. Over the weeks not only did I learn the true horrors of war, I also learned how dangerous an overly powerful state is, the value of a free press, what can happen when you demonise or scapegoat a minority and about the tyranny of majority.

 

Some would think that's too much to expose a child to and in some cases they'd be right, my parents knew I could cope with it and they were right. The same goes for any other subject, people mature at different rates.

[rizon72]

Its a complex question, but one thing I'd like to see, is allow kids to fail. When I grew up, if I didn't do well in school, you repeated a grade, in sports, you actually lost games, we had winners and losers. Today we treat our kids like they are all winners, but in real life, there are losers and winners.

[Acetoolguy]

Teach them to be independent thinkers.

[Vagrant0]

Moderation in all things.

 

You cannot shield them from everything, since the more you try, the more they will actively attempt to go around your efforts... Or otherwise remain innocent until they have to fend for themselves and reality comes crashing in like a freight train. And when that happens, most don't have a lifetime's worth of coping skills for those realities, so it usually leads to instability if it doesn't just kick them right off the edge.

 

You also cannot encourage them to learn about all measure of human evils and depravity, even from a standpoint of broadening their understanding. The reason being that a good measure of all that "bad stuff" doesn't have any good explanation. I mean, sure, you can try with notions like religion, philosophy, in-depth study of sociology, but when it comes to some things, even the best are left with their arms in the air and a thoroughly disgusted look on their face. Most of these things just aren't designed to explain all the bizarre things that some people are into... Like My Little Pony BDSM porn (Rule 34 not withstanding). Anyone who has an internet connection for any length of time has had atleast one moment of "Oh dear God! what am I looking at? Is that? Oh God. But it's... And that is..." Most of those, you can't explain to your friends (or possibly even yourself) let alone a teenager.

 

 

The answer is to deal with as much as what normally exists in the world, in a mature and rational manner, without making this assumption that you have all the answers, or even have the right ones. Like Cockfighting, it's this thing that some people do, it isn't pleasant, it isn't safe, it certainly isn't legal in most places, but people enjoy it enough to gamble on it. If someone cannot handle understanding the premise behind watching two animals tear eachother apart for sport, chances are they aren't ready for most of what the world could throw at them, or is just too oblivious to realize the correlation with many other aspects of human interaction, especially in business.

[imperistan]

Teach them self-reliance.

 

Anything beyond that is either totally on them or completely out of any one person's control.

[RZ1029]

Pair them off in groups of five. Give them five sets of armor, a spear, a sword, two shields, a net, mace, flail and a bow and arrow.

 

Each graduating class from high school must form their group of five and compete against one other group via a randomly drawn lottery system. The survivers of the fights have been deemed strong enough to join society. There is only one surviving team.

 

This applies to males and females, we aren't sexist.

[alanarg]

It's not easy to find certain balance between that parent's shield or bubble that locks childs and separate them from the real world. But it's kinda natural, instinctive and "automatic" from the human being to assimilate and understand how life and world works.

 

Childhood is very different at this times, internet is an uncontrollable source of information that makes childs anticipate to ours teachings and world teachings.

 

Anyway, upbringing is very important, no matter how, no matter when, it's very important to make clear important things like respect, humility and other basic principles. This, of course, is really important to treat it in combination with school teachers and parent's friends of the child.

Edited February 24, 2013 by alanarg