10 Feb 10, Wednesday: fairytales and children – part 1.

Being a keen reader and lover of children’s fiction, I have often wondered their impact on young minds and this very thought became an idea for my new series of blogs – fiction that promote rational and irrational thinking in children – presenting the introductory chapter to this series.  And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, “Speak to us of Children.”
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Khalil Gibran

These words of Khalil Gibran are the inspiration for this series of blogs; in an overtly competitive and materialistic environment, children today need to be taught rational concepts which will help them not only survive their environment but live a happy and content life.
There is an urgent need to help these young minds becoming ‘thinking’ individuals, independent of their parents so that each one of them blossoms into the ‘best’ flower that they can be and find their true ‘calling’.
As parents we need to be careful about what our children watch and read to ensure that the content does not reinforce irrational beliefs and behaviours; in the process I also hope that we too can learn or re-collect some rational concepts.