A sinister cocktail of junk food, marketing, over-competitive schooling and electronic entertainment is poisoning childhood, a powerful lobby of academics and children's experts says today. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts call on the Government to act to prevent the death of childhood. They write: “We are deeply concerned at the escalating incidence of childhood depression and children's behavioural and developmental conditions.” The group, which includes Philip Pullman, blames a failure by politicians and public alike to understand how children develop. Read more.
Junk culture 'is poisoning our children'
September 11, 2006
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This is interesting, I suppose it's true to an extent too, I'd really like to be able to leave the house once in a while, play like I used to when I was a child, in the fields with friends, unfortunately, it's not really possible any more, with all available open spaces being converted into multi storey car parks and department stores, this is really not the best environment for a child to grow up in.
Yeah, I agree. I live in the middle of nowhere so there are plenty of fells and open spaces still to play in, but even up here parents have to have restrictions, because, cliched as it sounds, nowhere is really safe any more. You only have to switch on the news to know that!
Yeah, Makes you think doesn't it? British and American people tend to put their lifestyles on a pedestal, and say "this is how it's supposed to be," but you can't help but think that children in developing countries have it better off in some ways…
I've spent almost all my life in a neighborhood where just about everybody has at least one-and-a-half acres. There are undeveloped lots here and there that we play on (until someone builds a house there :crying:), and we're far enough way from our neighbors that we can run around outside as much as we want. We've got trees to climb in (although I'm too big for them now) and a trampoline (which I've slept out on about five times).
One thing I would hate about living in the city would be not being able to see the stars. Out here, you can see almost all of them, because we have very few streetlights.
We've got a pond in our neighborhood where you can fish (catch-and-release only). Cows live down the hill from us, and there's a horse around the corner. Most people let their dogs run free, and there are a few that follow us to the pond every time we go.
I loved my childhood–and if a 16-year-old can be considered a child, I'm still loving it!