Listen to thisSociety is fearful and we look inwardly; everything is
formalised and schools take on roles they should not need to shoulder.
Our children need their minds to be occupied. They need to play with one
another and not be locked in rooms with blinking computers and the
wallpaper of anodyne antipodean soap operas. They need to be set free to
be children again.
- Editorial, The Scotsman, 28.10.1996
A transformation in understanding childhood
It may be said that one of the defining features of the 1980’s and
1990’s were that ideas and beliefs about childhood were being
transformed and explored from a number of perspectives. In fact, it is
now evident childhood itself means many things to many people.
On the face of it, one might assume that childhood is instantly
recognisable as a separate state of being, but this is not the case. We
may borrow from sociology and anthropology and suggest childhood “is the
life-space which our culture limits it to be i.e. its definitions
through the courts, the school, the family, the economy and also through
psychology and philosophy.
For the past week or so it has been beautiful weather in Ireland (well, everything is relative. We have had seven days where rain has been absent and the sun actually peeked through into a blue sky). In Ireland we go crazy at the first hint of summer. Clothes are discarded, inflatable pools are blown up, ice lollies hit bumper sales and barbeques are sold as if there is no tomorrow. But, most of all, we see children everywhere on their bikes, walking, in playgrounds, in public parks, by the seaside. I always marvel at how long a child can spend making and breaking up sandcastles on a windswept beach with plaintive cries of “Just one more baby minute Daddy”, “Mom, I'll come in soon” and the like.
This wasn’t always the way in this country. For a very long time we lived by the maxim that children should be seen and not heard and, truth be told, many adults felt that children should neither be seen nor heard. There are always two ways of looking at things, two sides of any coin. I recently hosted a pal from New Brunswick in Canada for a couple of nights and he really wanted to play a round of golf in Ireland. So, we travelled to Castlebar in the beautiful County Mayo in the west of the country and played sixteen holes. Anyone who knows golf will know that we should have played eighteen but we got bored after four hours traipsing around looking for lost balls in the rough and the draw of Susan's curry (Thom Garfat, Grant Charles, Doug Magnuson and Jack Phelan all swear by it). But, here’s the thing that I noticed. On a beautiful day, there were no children playing the course and I wondered why this might be the case. I later learned (not being a golfing aficionado) that children and youth are only permitted to play within certain hours – basically when the adults have been satiated. This seems unfair, discriminatory and I might suggest even ageist. Surely, children and youth should be allowed on courses to fill them with noise, colour and life. There is just nothing that lights up a room like children playing.
So, in this July column I want to commit sacrilege and suggest that golf clubs rethink their policies on children's access to their courses. Children could, for example, play what golfers call the “back nine” when adults are out playing the “front nine”. Children could act as caddies with their parents or adults and be walked through and around the course. Children could be partnered with adults. There is so much we could do to really involve children in our (adult) lives. Children learn soon enough how competitive this world is. Let’s not start on the golf course.
I await all the emails that will, no doubt, come my way from golfers on the content of this column ...
