I was talking to Zhao the other day about the restrictions people put upon us. When Z was in elementary school the kids were forbidden to go dancing, to play video games and so on. If someone saw you in the game-hall they could report you to a teacher and you would get reprimanded. And this was outside school hours!!
The only thing you were supposed to do was to study – I guess. And that’s something I know quite a lot about. One of the things I regret most about my life is sitting with my nose in some old school book reading about things that I’ve now long forgotten. And I do blame my lack in social skills on the period when I was 11-15 and did nothing but think about my grades.
So it was with chock that I read today’s newspaper where they were talking about what kids do during their free time. As all of you living in Helsinki know, the place to be if you are 11-14 is Kamppi, a big shopping center. Here kids just hang out, sit in small groups and chat and whenever someones hair gets droopy they take out their bottles of hairspray 
But the Youth Director of Helsinki, Lasse Siurala, did not see this as such a good thing. “Why use your energy for admiring goods in stores when it can be used to do something more educative?”
What the….?
What is he saying here? I interpret it as such that he wants the kids to do something that can benefit them in the future. Playing an instrument, join a theater group, do sports. Because lets face it; you don’t benefit from just relaxing with your friends…or do you?
(Or maybe he is just bitter that the youth houses the city do provide are standing empty while kids are wasting their money buying things at the mall.)
In China, a lot of the restrictions are there because of the fear that kids would fall in love. Dancing together can do that you know and kissing has been scientifically shown to be bad for your grades, hasn’t it But as soon as the students enter the University world, the restrictions are dropped. There they then stand, a group of kids that have never done anything other than study, suddenly able to do whatever they want (except for bringing a person of the opposite sex to their dorms or using a hot-plate in their rooms). And they are handicapped.
In Hong Kong I attended one of the parties that the students had organized. And I must say that it was quite embarrassing. When the dance finally started the kids didn’t form couples but huge rings that went round and round to the beat of “I’m a barbie girl”! Here is picture proof, somewhat dark but I hope you can see something of the festivities:
Well in Finland we do have a more liberal system, where I still think the parent is responsible for setting limits to what the child is allowed to do or not. But the trend of an “active” life is getting more and more prominent with kids being driven around to different “hobbies” five days a week. And I think it’s scary how we seem to think that these educational activities would be more beneficial than social networking.
When everything has to be an accomplishment where does that leave life? Are we really brought up just to accomplish something or to actually live and interact with our fellow human beings? In many cases the educational programs allow us to build friendships but also to push people aside and rank them according to what they are able to achieve in life.
I wonder what the kids of today would like to do differently when they get older and look back at their life…
det var väldigt bra skrivet! Tänkvärt och underhållande!