CHILDREN NEED TRAINING

Without diminishing or in any way tarnishing the intelligence of ‘homo sapiens’, I sometimes think about the development of children in the same way I’d consider dog obedience classes.

I think of a delightful dog with a happy disposition and carefree nature.  It is a lolloping, happy, unrequited, playful yet uncontrolled, undisciplined, range-free canine. In dog-like terms, and based on the puppy stage, it is now adolescent and possibly past the age of recovery. Untrained as a puppy, its road to rectification of manners, deportment and attitude will be long and tortuous, with only minimal change to ingrained behaviour being possible. The dog is set in its ways.

Children go through a period of formulation and formation. During their formative years, they are impressionable, responsive to training and development, and receptive.

Just as young dogs need to be taught dog obedience when they are puppies, children must be developed while young. Very young. It is never too early to start with these necessary developments. But it is easy to leave the commencement of this moulding until it is altogether too late.

One of the things that annoys me is to hear people say that the nurture of young children can be left at the moment because they are so young. The message is that there is plenty of time to develop them as they age. What sad, ignorant and arrogant nonsense. The Catholic Church used to say that the age of impression was up to and including seven years. If children were trained in the art of catholic devotion before the age of seven, they remained with the church in a steadfast and generally unwavering way for the whole of life. They might drift off occasionally but inevitably come back to their belief platform.

In educational terms, we would do well to think in the same way. Frazer Mustard made the point that brain malleability – its capacity for development and absorption – declines precipitously from birth to three years of age, continuing in sharp decline until age ten. Brain malleability then plateaus and continues a gentle descent that parallels the increasing chronological enhancement of the individual. He points out that young and impressionable individuals have fewer resources for their development than older individuals. I feel this follows in educational terms – to the detriment of children.

To be continued