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Do you remember the messages of the world in which you were
raised; the values and beliefs which were conveyed to you by the communities or
families within which you were raised; or the individual experiences you
had and how important they were, in spite of the other messages you received? Do
you understand how much these influences helped you to become who you are today?
So it is for today’s children: the influences of the global village, the
communities and families within which they are raised and their individual
experiences will help to shape them to be who they are as tomorrow’s adults. If
we truly want to influence how they can be — rather than make guesses
about how they might he we must pay attention to these influences.
I grew up on the west coast of Canada in the sixties and seventies. One of the
consistent messages of the times was that we needed to care more about each
other as human beings and less about our technology. Later, perhaps as a result
of the frustration which was experienced from not changing the world, North
America evolved an attitude characterised by the me-generation . The message
about relationships with others was captured in a piece of poetry attributed to
Fritz Perls who was a therapeutic guru of the time. In his words:
“You are you
And I am me.
We are not in this world
to live tip to each others expectation.”
“You go your way,
I go mine,
And if by chance we meet,
It’s beautiful.”
“You go your way. I’ll go mine. And if by chance we meet
it's beautiful.” What did this message say about relationships and other people?
It seemed to imply that the individual always comes first. That you consider
yourself before you consider others. What kind of a message was that to give a
generation of people about human relationships? What did this message convey of
caring for others — “if by chance we meet, it’s beautiful”? Well, I guess maybe
it will be or would be, but we will only know if chance decides that we meet.
Being together is not something that we seek but is rather something that
happens by chance. This was very much one of the messages of the
“me”-generation. You probably recognise it, as well, as the message that America
gave to the world. As Canadians, and as children growing up in Canada, we were
very much influenced by the messages of this powerful country’ next door to us.
That was one of the global messages of the world in which I grew up. It wasn’t
necessarily the message of the whole world, but at that time we were all very
egocentric and thought North America was the world. The global messages
which surrounded you when you grew up were probably different from mine. I offer
mine only as an example.
What were the global messages that you received when you were growing up and how
did they influence you to be as today’s adult? What are the global messages
which surround your children today? Probably, because of the advance of
communications technology, the messages they receive are even more global than
the ones you and I received. As a Canadian child of yesterday, I was very much
influenced by the messages from America. Today’s Canadian children are
influenced by the messages of many other countries. What are the messages in the
world today? What are we, as a global community, teaching today’s children? Is
the message of the world that others are important? Are the global messages of
love, of fear, of caring— or of disregard? What are we, in this world today,
giving out as messages which will influence today’s children? What values are
being conveyed by the behaviour of countries towards each other: for, make no
mistake, the relationships of countries towards each other are both a reflection
of, and a model for, how people should he towards each other. Do countries
demonstrate understanding towards others? Do they model respect for differences?
Do they teach us appreciate the special uniqueness of others? Or do they teach
us to be suspicious, isolationist, controlling or intolerant?
When the Canadian government calls a special session of the
House of Parliament to pass legislation which will allow them to reject a boat
filled with refugees from another country, does it teach Canadian children to
help others with problems or does it teach them to tell others to take their
problems and go away? How we, as countries, behave towards the people of other
countries, conveys to our children values about caring for others.
These are surely questions we must ask ourselves if we wish to understand how
today’s children will be as tomorrow’s adults for surely these messages affect
us all and help to shape who we will be with each other. If we care about
who and how children will be, then we must acknowledge our own social
responsibility to influence, as much as we are able, how our countries behave
towards each other. |
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