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Are kids growing up too fast these days?
By Ratna Tiwary
July 01, 2006


I'M an idealist: I want to be a teacher so I can make a difference, by nurturing the as yet 'uncorrupted' minds of children.

Imagine my horror, then, at hearing an old friend, a teacher, tell me that a 12-year-old boy in her class raised his hand and asked her: 'Ma'am, are you a virgin?'

This question could have got a hundred replies, ranging from the importance of virginity in our society today to what our children think about virginity today.


My baby brother, who's barely a teenager, watches the racy US TV series, Desperate Housewives, with the air of one who has 'been there and seen that'.

One night, we talked about one of the episodes (Until that night, I was a Desperate Housewives virgin), where a teenage boy tried to sue his mother for slapping him.

My brother said though he and his friends agreed that such behaviour may be too 'liberal', Singapore should nevertheless allow laws for children to sue their parents.

After all, the mother had been sleeping around, he added.

(Fans of the show will know that the mother never cheated on her husband, and that her son is a perennial troublemaker.)

Where did this generation of children get these ideas from? TV? Friends? Internet?

And while they may be thinking out of the box, are they losing the essence of being 'children'?

Playgrounds and bicycles have given way to Gameboys and Playstations. Desperate Housewives has replaced Captain Planet, and the Mickey Mouse Show.

Many children today go to top schools, enjoy expensive vacations and own computers, handphones and clothes.

But is it time to weigh the benefits against the costs?

I am 22 and beginning to realise that I will probably have children in the next five years. I'm already thinking what I want them to be like.

The one thing that keeps flashing in my mind now is that I certainly don't want my son's teacher to be subjected to the same question that my friend was.

I can't ban my kid from the Internet or TV, but I pray he will come to me with his questions.

Is that what kids today are missing - the chance to clear things up with their parents?

My teacher friend later told me that another boy in the class had asked her what 'virgin' meant. He had not known, but had joined in the laughter just the same when his classmate popped the question.

Perhaps children are unwittingly picking up these topics of conversation from TV or the Internet, and then firing awkward questions at their teachers.

In the case of the boy who asked my friend if she was a virgin, he was brought up by his maid because his parents were away. He spends most of his time watching TV and on the computer. He even has a girlfriend (and I'm single at 22!).

He clearly was living the life of a teenager even before he became one.

Is this what affluence has brought us - children old before their time?

-----------

My question is why?
I admittedly acknowledge that the years of childhood has changed over time, but should it change to something so technology dependent and full of 'grayed' moral values? Somewhere somehow moral values are being diminished and degraded slowly, stately, bit by bit. It's alarming at the rate of how morals are degrading, especially in children/teenagers. I wonder what will happen to this world when these kids grow up into adults, where more responsibility falls onto their shoulders.

Is that supposed to happen?

Through prophesies yes.

Is that answer enough?

To some no, most can never be satisfied with what they think is hearsay. Human beings have this tendency of the motto 'seeing is believing'.
But for those who believes, is that answer enough to be able to say the word yes?

YES

~12:32 am