By Ronquillo C. Tolentino
Of Children, Again
It’s National Children’s Month again since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 267 in 2003.
I remember 1979 when that year was declared by the United Nations as International Year of the Child. I was the Commission on Children chairman of the Aklan "Kalantiao" Jaycees and wrote some articles on children.
"The child is the father of man," said William Wordsworth. Through children, we design humanity’s future.
It has been my experience that working with children and sharing experiences with young people open a forgotten world, a divine past. For the children’s world is one of hope and wonder. To a child, every day is a new adventure as he experiences the joy of discovery, the thrill of learning and the fascination of transforming reality into whatever magic his lively imagination is wont to weave. Being with children can reawaken one’s latent sense of wonder. The Spanish poet, Jose Ortega y Gasset, said: "Compared with grown-ups, children are heroic creators of legend. Everything they come in contact with is transformed."
The world renowned cellist, Pablo Casals, made this beautiful message for and about children: "Children and young people are our greatest treasure. When we speak of them, we speak of the future of the world. Together with the people of all lands, we must work to protect that common treasure. And more than that, we must nurture that richness."
Nations and its leaders should know more about children and the youth, Arthur Schle-singer, Jr., who chairs the Albert Schweitzer Professorship of Humanities at the City University of New York, serves a timely warning. . ." the young are aspiring, impatient, resentful, turbulent and their energy, if denied constructive outlets, will hurtle them along the paths of disorders and destruction Too many countries at present regard young people as a cross to be borne – youth as a disease to be cured only by survival into adulthood. Where this attitude prevails, it means that most of the young are absorbed into traditional structures and become as resistant to change as their parents. But, if government were to declare and carry forward the policy of preparing children and youth for a role in national development, they could use the young to lead the escape from constricting customs and institutions."
In commemoration with the National Children’s Month celebration, let us remind ourselves of what an anonymous writer once wrote, and I quote:
"A child that lives with ridicule learns to be timid.
A child that lives with criticism learns to condemn.
A child that lives with distrust learns to be deceitful.
A child that lives with antagonism learns to be hostile.
A child that lives with affection learns to love.
A child that lives with encouragement learns confidence
A child that lives with truth learns justice.
A child that lives with praise learns to appreciate.
A child that lives with sharing learns to be considerate.
A child that lives with knowledge learns to be tolerant.
A child that lives with happiness will find love and beauty."
Kuhlil Gibran, the Lebanese poet and philosopher is popularly quoted on his reminder about children, thus :
"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you
For life goes not backward not tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable."
And, yes, let us remember the words of Gabriela Mistral, the Nobel prize-winning Chilean poet who said:
"We are guilty of many errors and many faults;
But our worst crime is abandoning the children;
Neglecting the fountain of life.
Many of the things we need can wait; The child cannot.
Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made and his senses are being developed.
To Him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow’ His name is ‘Today".
Aldo Leopold, in his work Sand and Country Almanac, said that our children are our signatures to the roster of history, of our land is merely the place our money was made.
Permit me to add some more quotes about children :
Ah! what would the world be to us If the children were no more? We should dread the desert behind us Worse than the dark before. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Children make you want to start life over. Muhammad Ali
Bitter are the tears of a child: Sweeten them. Deep are the thoughts of a child: Quiet them.
Sharp is the grief of a child: Take it from him. Soft is the heart of a child: Do not harden it. Pamela Glenconner
We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Children are our most valuable natural resource. Herbert Hoover
Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. John W. Whitehead
The Stealing of America
Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. Rabin-dranath Tagore
The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn’t been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him. Pablo Casals
If I had my child to raise over again
I’d build self-esteem first and the house later
I’d finger paint more and point the finger less
I would do less correcting and more connecting
I’d take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes
I would care to know less and know to care more
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites
I’d stop playing serious and seriously play
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars
I’d do more hugging and less tugging
I’d see the oak tree in the acorn more often
I would be firm less often and affirm much more
I’d model less about the love of power
And more about the power of love.
Diane Loomans/MP
I remember 1979 when that year was declared by the United Nations as International Year of the Child. I was the Commission on Children chairman of the Aklan "Kalantiao" Jaycees and wrote some articles on children.
"The child is the father of man," said William Wordsworth. Through children, we design humanity’s future.
It has been my experience that working with children and sharing experiences with young people open a forgotten world, a divine past. For the children’s world is one of hope and wonder. To a child, every day is a new adventure as he experiences the joy of discovery, the thrill of learning and the fascination of transforming reality into whatever magic his lively imagination is wont to weave. Being with children can reawaken one’s latent sense of wonder. The Spanish poet, Jose Ortega y Gasset, said: "Compared with grown-ups, children are heroic creators of legend. Everything they come in contact with is transformed."
The world renowned cellist, Pablo Casals, made this beautiful message for and about children: "Children and young people are our greatest treasure. When we speak of them, we speak of the future of the world. Together with the people of all lands, we must work to protect that common treasure. And more than that, we must nurture that richness."
Nations and its leaders should know more about children and the youth, Arthur Schle-singer, Jr., who chairs the Albert Schweitzer Professorship of Humanities at the City University of New York, serves a timely warning. . ." the young are aspiring, impatient, resentful, turbulent and their energy, if denied constructive outlets, will hurtle them along the paths of disorders and destruction Too many countries at present regard young people as a cross to be borne – youth as a disease to be cured only by survival into adulthood. Where this attitude prevails, it means that most of the young are absorbed into traditional structures and become as resistant to change as their parents. But, if government were to declare and carry forward the policy of preparing children and youth for a role in national development, they could use the young to lead the escape from constricting customs and institutions."
In commemoration with the National Children’s Month celebration, let us remind ourselves of what an anonymous writer once wrote, and I quote:
"A child that lives with ridicule learns to be timid.
A child that lives with criticism learns to condemn.
A child that lives with distrust learns to be deceitful.
A child that lives with antagonism learns to be hostile.
A child that lives with affection learns to love.
A child that lives with encouragement learns confidence
A child that lives with truth learns justice.
A child that lives with praise learns to appreciate.
A child that lives with sharing learns to be considerate.
A child that lives with knowledge learns to be tolerant.
A child that lives with happiness will find love and beauty."
Kuhlil Gibran, the Lebanese poet and philosopher is popularly quoted on his reminder about children, thus :
"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you
For life goes not backward not tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable."
And, yes, let us remember the words of Gabriela Mistral, the Nobel prize-winning Chilean poet who said:
"We are guilty of many errors and many faults;
But our worst crime is abandoning the children;
Neglecting the fountain of life.
Many of the things we need can wait; The child cannot.
Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made and his senses are being developed.
To Him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow’ His name is ‘Today".
Aldo Leopold, in his work Sand and Country Almanac, said that our children are our signatures to the roster of history, of our land is merely the place our money was made.
Permit me to add some more quotes about children :
Ah! what would the world be to us If the children were no more? We should dread the desert behind us Worse than the dark before. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Children make you want to start life over. Muhammad Ali
Bitter are the tears of a child: Sweeten them. Deep are the thoughts of a child: Quiet them.
Sharp is the grief of a child: Take it from him. Soft is the heart of a child: Do not harden it. Pamela Glenconner
We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Children are our most valuable natural resource. Herbert Hoover
Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. John W. Whitehead
The Stealing of America
Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. Rabin-dranath Tagore
The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn’t been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him. Pablo Casals
If I had my child to raise over again
I’d build self-esteem first and the house later
I’d finger paint more and point the finger less
I would do less correcting and more connecting
I’d take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes
I would care to know less and know to care more
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites
I’d stop playing serious and seriously play
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars
I’d do more hugging and less tugging
I’d see the oak tree in the acorn more often
I would be firm less often and affirm much more
I’d model less about the love of power
And more about the power of love.
Diane Loomans/MP
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