Reclaiming Childhood

Letting Children be Children in our Achievement-Oriented Society

Nowadays, the parents mostly expect children to be ‘super child’. Parent wants their child are better than other child. They will proud if their children become champion in anything. And they don’t realized that how they demand children through too much course and loss their time to play. Parents forget that play takes important roles in children life. Through play children shaping their character, attitude, and behavior.

Commonly parents really want to know how help their children get into a prestigious college and become highly successful adults. To put one’s child on the road to success, today’s adults focus on the academic basics, and these are the skills that our nation’s leaders have repeatedly said our student will need for the competitive future. Now parents knows better that colleges are not just interested in the “academic grind” but the more “well-rounded package”, so they give their children the art classes, music, sports etc.
But the lessons are often so structured and adult directed that they dampen children’s enthusiasm for the activity. What’s more, adult enroll children in so many lessons and leagues that children become “oversubscribed”; they no longer have time for their own spontaneous activities. They have little time, that is, for the free activities during which they spontaneously develop the special qualities of the childhood years.
Some social critics, such as Neil Postman and Marie Winn have suggested our society as a whole has recently been treating children more like adults. These writers point to several trends, including similarities between children and adults in dress, the way television is exposing children to sex and adult themes, and the way the criminal system has begun treating juvenile offenders like adult criminals. Children require an extensive period of preparation for the future. Children are not little adults but future adults.
Children are worrying about the future at younger and younger ages. The New York Times recently conducted roundtable discussions with sixth graders in several states and found that many of the children were already worried about college admissions. Many of the students were so worried about their academic performances that they were suffering from headache and loss of sleep. Meanwhile, children are missing out on the experiences — play, artistic activities, and the exploration of nature — that are so fulfilling to them as children.
Following Nature’s Plan: Child-Centered Parenting in the Early; expert generally assume that adult must encourage babies’ and toddlers’ attention and sustain their interest. But simple observation suggests otherwise. Without any urging on our part, babies investigative common objects.
Our unobtrusive presence usually requires a good deal of patience, it takes patience for us to just stand by while a baby perfects the skills of walking or stair climbing or investigates a flower. It requires patience for us to hold still while a baby explores us. But we soon find ourselves taking silent pleasure in the intensity of the child’s actions. We get the sense that the child is engaged in activities that are vital to her growth — and we are quietly giving growth a chance to occur.
When mother and baby are playing together; the baby is exposed to new stimuli, but the baby also plays a large role in regulating the pace, intensity, and rhythm of the interaction. Nevertheless, it is frequently just our patient and unobtrusive presence that gives the child security and the freedom to explore the world on her own.
Imaginative play: Imaginary play and companions are but one aspect of the child’s make-believe play. That is, children use objects or actions to symbolize something they imagine. Based on research studies and personal observations, parents can promote taking these steps.

1. Most fundamentally, we foster imaginative play by our positive attitude toward it. Accept it and enjoy it. Don’t criticize it or discourage it.
2. Provide props, such as blocks and dolls. The best toys are often rather simple, allowing for the child’s imagination to reign. At the same time children also find their own props.
3. Give children opportunities to play in nature’s outdoors.
4. Play along with the child if she asks, but allow the child to direct.

The child’s attraction to nature seems to begin very early. The infant or toddler, for example, will often express pure joy at the sight of an animal such as a dog or a bird. The child may break into an enormous smile and try to hold the animal, and generically follow it whenever it goes. Nature stimulates children’s powers of observation, promotes their creativity, and instills feelings of peace and oneness with the world. These benefits are important. Yet, as mentioned earlier, nature’s presence in children’s lives has been diminishing.
And how we enrich children’s contact with natural world?

1. Give the child opportunities to explore
2. Don’t over-rely on labels; parents are sometimes eager to talk to the child about what he sees, and to turn the moment into a lesson. We consider our verbal explanations to be educational, but they may distract the child from what he is attending to.
3. Unobtrusively protect the child’s safety; some parents restrict children’s explorations of nature because they are concerned about the children safety. This is a very legitimate concern, especially for children under the age of seven or so. Older children, after the age of seven or so, can venture farther from adults but still need some adult protection.
4. Defend nature in the local community; the most essential action we can take is to protect nature around us. Children won’t be able to connect with their natural surroundings if no natural surroundings are left.
5. Replicate Moore’s Berkeley project; we need to take up asphalt and create nature areas.
6. Value “Loose parts”; it is important, therefor, to consider the extent to which outdoor environment permit creativity. Loose parts are contrast with most store-brought toys, modular construction kits and computer software — all of which have a largely predominated structure.
7. Encourage nature studies
8. Encourage poetry

Drawing is important stage in children developmental; it is will help them in controlling their emotion, psycho-motor, and influence the cognitive area. Gestalt psychologist believes that innate forces influence the sequence and kinds of forms children produce.
Gardner and his colleagues observe that this sequence is hardly ever realized in our society. Instead, good deals of discouragement sets in, there are two reasons for this situation; first, our society as a whole doesn’t value the arts. Second reason children lose their interest in art has to do with their personal interactions with adults.

Obed Agung Nugroho