Don't let children's souls be "hollowed out"!
(Baonghean) - When I was a child, what I loved most was listening to my mother tell stories. Like “Tam Cam”, “My Wisdom”, “Coconut Skull”, “Tich Chu”,… when my mother’s capital was exhausted by me, she had to switch to reading fairy tales. There were stories that I especially loved, not only did I make my mother read them over and over again, but I also imitated the main character of the story.
I remember the time my mother read me the story “Hansel and Gretel”, about two brothers who were tricked by a cannibal witch because of their love of sweets. I was both scared and excited because all children love sweets! When I got to the part about the witch’s delicious candy house, I was sitting there daydreaming with my mouth open, when my mother said: “Our Bim loves sweets so much, what if he gets kidnapped by the witch?”. I was so scared that I burst into tears. My mother immediately put the book down, comforted me and told me: “Hansel and Gretel listened to strangers, so they fell into the witch’s hands. Our Bim, remember not to accept anything given to him by strangers, even if it’s delicious sweets, do you understand?”. I obediently nodded, and from then on, I always made it a point to never accept gifts from strangers.
Even after growing up, thinking back, I still see that stories and toys for children cannot lack educational meaning and purpose. It can be physical education, quick eyes, memory training, etc., but there are also forms of entertainment that have educational meaning for intelligence and soul. These are fairy tales that teach children to distinguish between good and evil, good and bad, simple but essential life principles for each person right from the beginning of personality formation. Even comics - a type of book that is considered to have purely entertaining meaning - can completely convey humane educational messages and have the power to spread and greatly influence young children. For example, the comic series about the robot cat Doraemon - teaches children about filial duty to parents, the meaning of friendship and the spirit of living for the community.
Sadly, the toy and entertainment market for children today has many flaws and gaps, the main cause of which is the negligence and lack of responsibility of us adults. Going around bookstores today, it is not difficult to find books that not only do not bring educational value but also contain hidden dangers, sowing extreme thoughts into the immature minds of young children. Or most recently, the media reported on storytelling toys, with content related to suicide and murder - completely unsuitable for children. I wonder what toy manufacturers are thinking when they bring children such meaningless, useless but not harmless entertainment content? And I wonder what parents are thinking when they spend money to buy their children such toys, or do they themselves not even know what their children are playing, watching, listening to?
Children are like a blank sheet of paper, and a blank sheet of paper that is extremely honest and enthusiastic. That means they will retain everything they come into contact with, approach, and use it as a baggage to follow them for a long time later on the path of forming their personality and knowledge. If we keep writing meaningless, useless, and even harmful words on that sheet of paper, gradually that pristine sheet of paper will be corroded and eroded without us knowing it...
Hai Trieu
