A report in the UK has studied societal trends in Great Britain that are destroying childhood in Britain. The authors of the report, a group of 11 experts, among other things have made the following recommendations:

1. abolishing Sats tests and league tables in English schools
2. a ban on all advertising aimed at the under 12s and no TV commercials for alcohol or unhealthy food before the 9pm watershed
   stopping building on any open space where children play
3. a high-quality youth centre for every 5,000 young people
4. a civil birth ceremony conducted by a registrar in which parents publicly accept the responsibilities of parenthood
5. free parenting classes available around the time of birth
6. free psychological and family support if relationships struggle
7. rules making it easier for parents to stay at home to rear their children
8. limit individual freedom of young people to counteract “excessive individualism”

The makers of the study recognize how controversial it may be but believe that these topics are taboo in today’s society.

My two cents

My personal opinion is that what they are saying makes a lot of sense, but will be rather difficult to implement, both for society as a whole as well as the individual family. For example, my wife would like to go back to her teaching job after her maternity leave ends and I support her decision; not just for financial reasons, I would like to support her in developing her career because she finds it fulfilling.

However, this requires the child to be left without her parents for long periods of the day. We are lucky because we have family that can take care of her, but not everyone is so lucky.

A greater question

We can’t address these issues without getting to the core of our societal values. I’m not sure I have the best answer, but we should start a discussion and try a few things out to see what works. In the end, do our government policies reflect our societal values?

Tags: birth ceremony, childhood, civil birth, government policies, individual family, individual freedom, responsibilities of parenthood, sats tests, societal values

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.