End of Innocence

These days we often talk about how smart the kids have become. They know how to manage cell-phones, they are up-to-date with the kid's movies, they know the prices of cars, they even know the cool places to eat in town. When kids talk, grown-ups often have a look on their face which is somewhere between amazement and admiration. Children are certainly smarter today if you compare with kids of same age from a generation back.

What is not talked about or realized is the early loss of certain innocence in these kids. What is not talked about enough is that kids are becoming wiser, as in cleverer, rather than being world-wise.

There is another draw-back to knowing lot more at an earlier age (even more dangerous is to know that you are admired for it). Children tend to think that just because they know things they understand things. The over exposure of information creates a barrier in many kids to learning. The smart-type kids have a mental block in learning something, which they know, from a new perspective. 

There is a certain benefit in letting children be children for some more years. These additional years expose children to diverse experiences. At a later age their ability to see the inter-relations and consequences is better developed. They can infer things with better judgement and sensitivity. Questions and concepts, especially those in the Social Sciences, can be posed, debated and answered with far greater depth.

This is not to say that delaying learning process is better - children should learn at all ages. But we should let children stay innocent till the age when they can compose the bigger picture themselves.