child prodigies or products of globalization

Can it be named as Age of child prodigies? That’s what it seems like after seeing all these singing and dancing competitions, where children as young as five year old display their versatility before the nation. Other day I was having the same discussion with dad. Do children get pushed too much sometimes to deliver more than their capability? I guess not only the participants end up as victims but it also extends into many households especially in country like India. Unfortunately, the children in Indian societies are subjected to constant comparison. It would work in favor but more often not only it dents the confidence of the child but also it creates a sort of aversion towards the fellow with whom (s)he is being compared. And sometimes I am afraid it could stay that way for lifetime.

Obviously competition between children pulls large audiences and the TV channels will milk every opportunity that comes their way. They do business to make profits and thus they can be justified. They can always argue that they are promoting young talent, giving necessary platforms without which best of India would never come to light. Fair enough. So now responsibility comes down to the parents or teachers. The maturity and discretion of the mentors comes into play in building the confidence of the children and provide them congenial and encouraging environment. Actually, that is the ideal time when they can make children realize that failure is a part of life, which every one has to go through at some point or other and help them in handling the failure in the way it should be. It could also be appreciable action on the part of celebrity judges if they just make sure to pass on the message which discourages any pressurising or comparing children. Now this was the shady side of the current phenomena.

Don’t these children leave us awestruck with amazing performances? We often remind ourselves of how ‘childish’ we used to be at that tender age. Or otherwise we can try and feel good by citing the lack of opportunity, encouragement or resources which actually might be true for most of us! Otherwise there are always priorities to be taken care of!! Anyways, we might well be witnessing the evolution of our species in the offspring in recent past decade or is it too amateur to reach to such conclusion. Well let’s dissect this hypothesis. Obviously, children in present world are exposed to so much audio and visual activity from very early age because it surrounds them. This was not exactly the case during the childhood of our parents or many of us. This is because of the varied socio-economic conditions that prevailed during those times. Also, globalization can also be one of the factors which brought few changes in cultural practices. MTV is now part of many lifestyles as against in past. Many 24/7 music channels did not even exist and now they are all over playing our favorite music and every time we hymn to the tunes, the little ones’ nearby are listening to it. And since the grasping power is so great for toddlers, I guess the music which we are listening to is becoming part of their involuntary learning. If they can start speaking just by seeing and listening us talk, is it a wonder if they can sing and dance if they have been listening and watching the songs? (Well nothing to take away from kids who have exceptional talent and kudos to their hard work).

This could be true for even their exclamatory computing skills and many other activities requiring higher cognitive abilities. Well this reasoning can be put to test just by comparing the musical skills of children who were exposed to music at very early age and other who were not. The results might seem quite evident and if they are good enough for children from same generation then they should hold good for children of one generation to the previous. May be the grasping ability of children of previous generation was equally good and comparable to that of today and there are no such evolutionary advantages as anticipated. If such improvement exist in children of present generation, wow, it’s great! Good for homosapiens!!