I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to sound a clarion call to all parents to take the duty of guiding their children more seriously .The essence of life is impulse in the right amount at the proper time and place. Impulse in excessive ways, is a primary concern for culture. However, in the era of impulse release and fun, the problem of impulse release takes on a special character because of some people’s commitment to it. This being the case, parents have a big task to support the education of their children and the proper fostering of impulse release rather than, as in the past, the installation of controls. Every where controls are breaking down and firmness with impulse is not part of the contemporary pedagogy of the normal child.
Rather, impulse release phrases like spontaneity, life adjustment, democracy, permissiveness and mothering have become a central doctrine of early childhood education. It persists, despite being on the receiving end of trenchant criticism. In this sense, education is often attacked for being soft. Most criticism of the formal educational system is that it concentrates on curriculum.
It means a great deal to give children their own direction. For example, when problems do come up in the house we talk them over and discuss what is the right thing to do when such things happen. Usually we get pretty good solutions.
Love, demonstrativeness, freedom, mobility, creativity and thoughtfulness are all necessary elements in educating teenagers about life. As a matter of fact, children are quite afraid of quietness and restraint.
The emphasis on impulse release, spontaneity and creativity goes hand in hand with dynamism in culture –awareness, a certain tiredness and disillusionment with impulse restraint and the feeling that the self has been sold down the river.
In these circumstances permissiveness has invaded many phases of work with children so that in some homes there is great relaxation of controls. The best parent, in this day and age, is the one that that allows children to live life according to their impulses.
SB Marena
Kanifing Estate
A call to national duty
Dear editor,
Please allow me space in your newspaper to call upon my fellow citizens to answer to the call of duty to serve our beloved nation to make it the envy of the world. Despite being a small country The Gambia has a great future with a great leader like president Jammeh.
What it requires is commitment to serve the nation and uplift our people from the morass of poverty and disease which has been the plight of Africa for far too long. Nobody put it better than president Jammeh when he addressed his cabinet on Tuesday during the swearing in ceremony of several ministers in different portfolios.
The great leader who has served this country with dynamism and vision for twenty good years in his vast wisdom said: “Nothing is beyond the reach of the Almighty Allah and nothing is beyond His reach. If you have faith in the Almighty Allah, with His support, there is nothing that you cannot achieve in this world”.
We all need to put our differences aside be it of tribe ,religion and economic background and dedicate greater efforts at achieving the developmental blue prints of vision 2020 for self-sufficiency in rice and 2020. Nothing is beyond the achievement of humanity as far as we can dream and have faith in our dream as the president said. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Gambians and non-Gambians who participated in the solidarity march expressing support to the president.
Ousman Sarr,
Nema Kunku
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