Today’s children are the inheritors of world in flux.
Their reality is different, sometimes worlds apart from the experiences and world views that shaped us; their parents. Together with us, they share the unique distinction of existing in the most dynamic and change-fueled age in human existence.
In the last 200 years, man has gone from inventing the car to flying tourists to space for a tour of the International Space Station; many have walked the moon.
Now more than ever, the tides of change are sweeping through our timespans on earth and the ones who celebrate Children’s Day now are travelers in a world vastly different and progressively distinct from our own.
My son’s argument with me was over the choice of song to play on the iPad as I ate, our resolution was a bedtime story, Mr Posh Rat, shared over a WhatsApp parenting group for kids, digitally delivered to a digital native, a child of the times.
Today, many schools are having virtual assemblies, Non-governmental bodies running virtual children’s day parties and foundations making provisions for 50 participant Zoom parties that are being oversubscribed by as much as 500 participants. An underestimation by the organizers of the strength of the digital buy in for this generation and by extension its parents.
All these digital noise and hullabaloo comes as a shock to the older generations.
A far cry from the open field march pasts and activities of yesteryears on this memorable day.
As we celebrate the day of the child again, the clarion call should be an increase in the digital buy in by parents and those in charge of the choices for children.
Their world is uniquely different from ours; will be made more different by the digital takeover that is part of the aftershocks of this disruptive pandemic.
Help them have a solid footing in life by equipping them with the basic exposure and interaction with the digital world.
Their future literally depends on it.
Author: Lanre Yusuf, an educator wrote from Lagos, Nigeria.
