Quantity, Not Quality Of Life
Many of the changes in our society, which have
contributed to inappropriate behavior from adults, can be directly correlated to
improvements that are technological in nature. Our newest technologies
have allowed us to; travel greater distances in less time, prepare foods
quickly, secure our homes and cars, pay for necessary materials with plastic
rather than paper money, communicate anywhere with anyone, and constantly
entertain our families for very little or nothing.
You might wonder why it would be a terrible thing for families to
travel greater distances in less time. You might also wonder, "why would
this be a bad role model behavior?" Children need to learn how to think.
When you have idle time and you are bound to ride in an automobile or train for
a long period of time you can view the scenery, talk to your riding companions,
think to yourself, or do all of these things. If we continue to rush from
place to place with the objective of moving quickly, then we have omitted the
opportunity for; discussion between our children and their parents, exploration
of our surrounding-which leads to better understanding of different people and
the ways in which they live, and inflection which is essential if we are going
to learn from our experiences.
Children need to learn about the quality of life and how valuable life can be. They will better understand this concept if they are given an opportunity to grow their own food, tend to this food, manage it, and to consume the food they grew. There is no better feeling in the world then to plant a seed, water the seed, watch the seed grow into a mature plant, then with great pride prepare a meal with the food you have grown and tended. Most of our food is still grown in the soil. Our children need to appreciate the time involved in growing, plowing, weeding, watering, fertilizing, pruning, and picking the very foods they consume. When they are exposed to farming and all aspects of it, they appreciate the food prepared, as well as those that prepared it. We need to show our children that they can be self-sufficient and that we know how to be self-reliant, too.
Another ill-fate of children in our technologically advanced society is our incessant need for alarms and security. Children learn fear from the people that surround them. If we demonstrate that we are afraid then our children will grow up afraid. No one will explore their surroundings when they live in fear of others. Certainly there are times when we need to notice a hostile environment and move along, but our daily lives should be spent in a friendly environment with little concern for loss of life, limb or injury. Our television programming too often depicts life as hostile environment with little concern for loss of life, limb or injury. Our television programming too often depicts life as hostile on a daily basis. Our own homes have security systems installed; car alarms, and our diaries have lock and key mechanisms. We only learn by sharing and we should never live in fear that our possessions will be taken from us. Living without security seems foolish in our modern society, but whenever possible we should learn to live without fear and without need of too many valuable possessions. Children will learn to appreciate life and the lives of others more. They will value people and not possessions. This is a philosophy that is not an easy one to explain or teach unless it is put into practice.
When our children want material things and we want them to have those things it is not often that we can afford those things. We have created a society that will accept no payment for goods and extend credit over a long period of time so that we can have now what we will pay for much later. Most often these material items are not as important as our children or we believe them to be. We impose failure before our children have the chance to succeed when we show them a false sense of ownership. Remember the first big item that you bought with your own money. What a sense of accomplishment and pride you had for yourself. Children need to have pride in self and buying only what they need with money they earned gives them this sense of pride that is essential for healthy living. If we rob children of the opportunity to work hard for something and then obtain it, then we rob them of their pride.
Cell phones, pagers, and fax machines are common technological advances in our modern society. These devices allow quick communication to occur anywhere around the world. Many children are given cell phones and pagers so that they feel safe and can communicate quickly with their parents. This compounds the sense of fear we feel as adults and parents and is teaching our children to be afraid. Our children are also learning to rely on speedy communication. No longer are they willing to wait and see. They want answers now and are learning to be impatient from the use of these devices. Our children are learning from us that we can have someone's attention anywhere at anytime. The sad truth is that children need quality of time from us, not quantity of time from others. We have to find ways to manage our children and their time without bending to meet the needs of society as a whole.
Do you remember summer play outdoors? Children need time to play and explore nature without being told what to think or feel. Outdoor entertainment allows for exploration without dictating direction. Television, movies, and video games tend to be one-dimensional and are programmed entertainment. Children don't have the opportunity to turn clouds into animals or boats.. They aren't given an opportunity to think about other things while playing when watching movies or television or when playing programmed video games. Often the time needed to think about anything that children wonder about isn't available when children chose electronic devices over the great outdoors. Our children need open-ended exploration activities and these are usually found in simple games and outside activities.
Unfortunately, in our technologically fast-paced society, what we should ask ourselves is not "what should we do, or what could we do," but rather, "how can we help adults be good role models for their children? In our quest for a better life we have created the best and worst for our children. We have given them great quantity of life and less quality of life. The role of the adult has vastly changed in the last three decades. Statistics indicate that fathers had an important role in raising the children and in working to provide the necessities of life while most mothers stayed at home to raise children until women flooded the job market in the 70's and 80's. Pairing the working mother with the absentee father adds to this poor quality of life for our children. What can we do about those adults that are bad role models for their children? Maybe it begins with programs designed to teach quality of life rather than quantity of life. All of our prisons should have farms that are tended by the prisoners. The food they consume should come from the fields they tended by the prisoners. The food they consume should come from the fields they tended and the foods they prepared. Appreciation of self and others help us become better people. Better people make better role models. It seems plain, simple, and easily do-able. Why don't we try applying these principles to our lives. Technology is good if it improves the quality of our lives. Many technological advances do not improve the quality of our lives they just add quantity.