During part of a recent national study (The Primary Review) organised by Cambridge University, primary school children were interviewed and expressed fears about what plagued their everyday lives outside school … ‘Traffic … the lack of safe play areas … rubbish … polution … graffiti … and gangs of older children’.
These youngsters expressed a sense of “deep pessimism about the future”, with worries about such things as climate change, the gap between rich and poor, and terrorism.
Now I’m sure that there are a few sensitive little mites out there, but from what I’ve seen of today’s mini-hooligans, with their agressive out of control behaviour, I doubt if many of them fear anything, much less worry about ‘carbon footprints’, the ‘favelas’ of Brazil or ‘Al-Qaeda’.
Various press reports have quoted today’s ‘little darlings’ as being “depressed” … “showing deep anxiety” .. and .. finding many aspects of modern life both in and out of school as … “stressful” .. and .. “scary”.
‘Stressful !’ .. ‘Scary !’ .. Try sleeping in an air-raid shelter … and …
… being bombed every night !
