Free the children report
RESPONSE PAPER ON: FREE THE CHILDREN By NANCY GIBBS
‘Free the Children’ was written by Nancy Gibbs, a professor at Princeton University. The author finished her studies from Yale and Oxford universities. ‘Free the Children’ was first published in July 2003 in Time Magazine. This thought-provoking essay talks about letting the children enjoy their free time in the summer and burden them with extra work. It also talks about the possible consequences of overburdening them and the dangers of letting them free.
In the essay, the writer used her own two daughters as examples. She writes about how she wanted them to experience freedom in the summer and not think about the future. She wanted them to have new experiences and memories that would help them grow as a person. She mourned the fact every activity had a latent function aimed at improving the children. Summer should a period of time-outs, according to the writer. Children should enjoy to the fullest without having any guilt attached. But she stressed on the fact that children must not look for instant gratification if they want to enjoy these time-outs. Boredom fuels the imagination, in her opinion. She also talked about setting ground rules and boundaries before letting the children enjoy themselves. She pointed out the many reasons that make us stay inside but we must put faith in ourselves and also our children because letting them free is the only way they will learn.
There were some opinions by the writer that intrigued me. A particular excerpt that I liked very much was ‘Be bored and see where it takes you’. I heartily agree with this statement because kids nowadays expect to be entertained all the time. They do not learn how to compromise and innovate like me and my friends did in our childhood. They do not appreciate the power of imagination and how it can take us anywhere we want. I remember making a make-believe fort out of all the
‘Free the Children’ was written by Nancy Gibbs, a professor at Princeton University. The author finished her studies from Yale and Oxford universities. ‘Free the Children’ was first published in July 2003 in Time Magazine. This thought-provoking essay talks about letting the children enjoy their free time in the summer and burden them with extra work. It also talks about the possible consequences of overburdening them and the dangers of letting them free.
In the essay, the writer used her own two daughters as examples. She writes about how she wanted them to experience freedom in the summer and not think about the future. She wanted them to have new experiences and memories that would help them grow as a person. She mourned the fact every activity had a latent function aimed at improving the children. Summer should a period of time-outs, according to the writer. Children should enjoy to the fullest without having any guilt attached. But she stressed on the fact that children must not look for instant gratification if they want to enjoy these time-outs. Boredom fuels the imagination, in her opinion. She also talked about setting ground rules and boundaries before letting the children enjoy themselves. She pointed out the many reasons that make us stay inside but we must put faith in ourselves and also our children because letting them free is the only way they will learn.
There were some opinions by the writer that intrigued me. A particular excerpt that I liked very much was ‘Be bored and see where it takes you’. I heartily agree with this statement because kids nowadays expect to be entertained all the time. They do not learn how to compromise and innovate like me and my friends did in our childhood. They do not appreciate the power of imagination and how it can take us anywhere we want. I remember making a make-believe fort out of all the