Parents As Oppressors

Parents play a very important and huge role in the mental development of their children. Children everywhere are subject to some form of indoctrination; it is only the degree to which they undergo this that varies from one to another. As childern, how often have we all been asked to take part in some social or religious ritual; no reasons were given and questions were neither encouraged nor sometimes tolerated.

Some children are made to chant the names of some diety or the other, perform pujas they can make no sense of; others are indoctrinated in the customs of their castes and sub-castes, religions and other cummunal affiliations. In the lower sections of society where the physical conditions in which children exist are already bad, the mental conditions too are all the more worse. How often have we not seen some children with scars on their bodies, scars made from applying hot rods to them to ward of some spirit or the other.

Parents for all the love they profess they have for their children too often end up retarding their development. I see so many children who are so shy and scared, whose natural insticts to question have been curbed and all their bubbling enthusiasm for life lost. It is so painful to see them like that.

I believe parents should be educated in bringing up their children in a more mentally healthy environment. Some have advocated legislation to give children more rights over their parents; that only seems to be couter-productive. Education, as far as I know, is the only viable solution if we want to see more children grow up to be healthy, responsible and critically thinking adults.

Visit the Critical Thinking and Emotional Literacy websites for more information and resources