Can you believe we've made our way through 8 chapters of "The Hurried Child" already? I can't...the semester is flying! I continue to be so impressed with everyone's analyses of Elkind's ideas. In our latest entry here, Rhiana Guardado has concisely addressed a number of issues around stress that are addressed by Elkind. I appreciate not only her insight, but her awareness of the child's AND parents' perspectives and/or challenges. Enjoy!
Rhiana wrote:
In chapter eight, Elkind addresses the issue of stress, and the various forms of stress to which children are susceptible. He believes that any situation where a child is hurried creates stress in the child. I think that his notion is correct. I have witnessed countless incidences where an adult rushed a child because he had an agenda, and the child was not moving fast enough. In our society, stress invokes a sense of frenzy in our lives. I remember one instance in high school where my best friend exclaimed, “There are not enough hours in a day.” There is so much that needs to be accomplished and not enough hours afforded to us, it seems. Our society is stressed, and the repercussion of this stress is often felt by children.
Elkind wrote that “schools hurry children by pushing them into dull routines of much adult work” (p.180). I must admit, I am guilty of this practice. I am an aide at an elementary school. I work with preschoolers and kindergartners. Often times, there are children who do not do their work when they are supposed to. I can’t really blame them (I myself, a college student, do not want to do my work sometimes). However, there are expectations placed upon these children to excel. They are required to do all their work, or face the consequences of being kept inside at recess, or, of being held back another year. My job is to encourage them and to let them know that they can achieve if they just try. However, if they are moving slowly, I prompt them to move faster. It is not because I enjoy putting pressure on them, but rather because I want them to be able to go play and have fun, as I feel children should.
When I was in kindergarten, I had a blast. I loved coloring and cutting out shapes. It breaks my heart when I see a child who wants to drop out of school because he doesn’t know how to use the scissors. Learning at this age, 4 to 6, is supposed to be fun. However, the stress put on these children to excel conveys nothing of the like. While I know that the work is daunting, I also know that it is not impossible. Teachers and aides can only do so much. If parents could take the time to help their children learn, perhaps children would not feel as stressed in school.
Elkind mentioned that television adds additional stress on children. I believe that he is correct in this notion. In the days before television, children had to create their own forms of entertainment. They were not cooped up inside all day in front of a talking box. They were outside playing. Children release stress when they are active. It makes them feel better. However, with television, the internet, and video games, there is much more entertainment inside the house. Therefore, children are not as active, and as a result are not releasing their stress. I believe that parents are also afraid to let their children play outside for fear of what might happen to them. They feel safer knowing that their children are safe inside the house. I think this may add additional stress on children because they may be compelled to eat more, adding more weight to their frames, and therefore creating more stress.
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I definitely agree that children nowadays are hurried and rushed into situations that they are not ready for. Such time constraints and demands can create stress for children, who at their age are not emotionally equipped to handle such pressures. It reminds me of times when I see children being pulled by their parents to walk faster, and as a result of feeling rushed, these children just stop walking and fall to their knees. They just give up! If we continue to rush and hurry children who are not ready, they may begin to feel the stress of the situation, and they may simply choose to quit.
ReplyDelete-Sharon V.
Rhiana, I remember the days when kindergarten classrooms had play house areas, nap time, and half the day was outside play. Those days are gone, and it also breaks my heart to see those changes because the stress of rushing through life affects children at such young ages now. Elkind is correct that stress on children comes from many areas of life. Parents rush them to get from one place to the next, teachers rush them to get work done (sometimes without proper guidance), and for many children their stress relief is t.v. or video games. It's society as a whole that is creating stressed out children who are burnt out before they even get half way through life; as well as stressed out teachers, parents, and care providers.In order for children to feel stress relief, adults in society need to be relieved of some stresses as well or nobody will be able to cope properly and the cycle will continue.
ReplyDelete~ Annette Cipolla
Rhiana's blog entry had many good points but the last paragraph really stood out to me. Playing outside was a big part of my childhood. My siblings and I would "explore" our yard, take bike rides around the fields, see who could swing the highest, and climb the trees. It is hard imagine any childhood growing up and not playing outside. However, with some of the children I babysit, I have to force to them play in the backyard. This one five-year old girl acts like it is her punishment. There was another three-year old girl who did not want to play in the mud because she would get dirty. There were times my sister, brother and I would get so dirty that my mother washed us off with a hose. We thought it was the greatest thing! It is saddening to see that some children do not get to live their childhood outside. As Rhiana said, if children were able to run around and release their stress, imagine how much happier they would be!
ReplyDeleteRhiana- I can completely relate with you! I also work with pre-schoolers and I have had to push them to work a little faster because we have other things to do and I am required to get those other activities done too. I realize that this brings on some stress and hope that I help them without putting too much pressure on them.
ReplyDeleteI also observe in a 3rd grade class, and I happen to hear kids say they want to drop out of school at least once a week. I hear kids say that they don't want to go to high school because they don't know how to do their work now let alone when they get older. It's so discouraging to hear this come out of such young children. There is so much pressure for these young children to learn that the fun of school has been basically taken away. The children in the 3rd grade class don't even have P.E. anymore. They have one ten minute recess and then they have fifteen minutes of lunch recess. Of course these children feel stressed. They have to stay inside almost all of their school day and stare at a board...
As an end-note, I just recently heard my four year cousin ask his dad for a video game and his dad told him that he will never have video games at his house. He then proceeds to grab his head and say, "I want you to use this" (meaning that he will use his imagination for playing). His dad knows that he will play video games at different places but he doesn't want them in his house. He said that he wants him to play outside and to use his brain! This is how I grew up and loved every minute of it!
~Erica
Hello, Rhiana,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I really enjoyed reading this chapter in which Elkind highlighted the different stressors that children face. I definitely agreed with Elkind when he said that hurried children tend to be stressed. The biggest outcome of hurrying children has got to be stress! Adults place so much on them, too many expectations to reach. When I read the part about schools hurrying children, I couldn’t be in much more agreement. It is so hard for children now-a-days. Schools expect them to know too much at earlier ages. My seven year old brother comes home everyday with homework packets that consist of at least five pages. The last thing he wants to do is go home and do that much homework after being in school for eight hours. His teacher told us the other day that he should be able to finish his homework packets in one hour; reality is that he ends up sitting down for at least two hours each day. I sometimes feel like he is being robbed of his childhood by being expected to do so much school work. He has little time afterwards to do “regular childhood” activities. I remember that when I was little, I was not as pressured as he is right now.
I worked in an after school program not too long ago, and just like you, I will also admit to having fallen for society’s pressures. As a tutor, I was supposed to make sure that the children finished all their homework after school. Even though I saw how exhausted they were by the end of the day, I had to constantly remind the children to finish their homework until they were done. It is a hard position to be in. Even though you may not agree with “the system,” what can you do if that is what you are hired to do? I think it is really tough even for adults to fight back, because if you are not willing to do the job as it is, you will eventually get fired. There are many more people behind you willing to take your job, especially now with the hard economic conditions.
As for my little brother, he actually relieves his stress by watching some of his favorite shows on television. He loves watching PBS. I know that Elkind mentioned that television adds stress to their lives, but in a way it works in the opposite way with my little brother. I can see though how his argument makes sense. Children get the opportunity to explore and to learn from their play time. Television enslaves them inside the home, and they lose valuable learning opportunities that they would otherwise be gaining if they were engaging in outside activities during play.
-Veronica Lua