Those of us that are adults, have thus gone through the childhood stage of life, and of which, if we have been fortunate, that childhood stage helped to set us up to develop the good habits and the necessary capacity to become mature and well-rounded adults, that thereby make good decisions and are a good credit to the society that we are an active member of. The thing about childhood, is that children have to go through a multitude of stages in order to reach adulthood, and of which, those stages can be challenging and troublesome, especially for the most vulnerable amongst us. So then, as much as parents want to do their best by their children, we live in an age, in which parents are often committed to not only working outside of the home, but also don’t necessarily have the same schedule, each and every day. In short, the days of children coming home from school, to the awaiting arms of at least one of their parents, to talk about their school day and so on, are the exception and not the rule. Additionally, most children, have not only a lot of energy, but they are also curious about the world and their neighborhood – signifying that children have an innate desire to discover things about the world and about their own self, so accomplished through various means, including play.
There are twenty-four hours in a day, and of which, the school day only encompasses approximately seven of those hours, so naturally, children are going to have what amounts to being, a fair amount of time, that are left in their young hands or that need to be structured for their benefit, by adults. That is why it is so important that public schools, must have in close proximity to such, public libraries, public parks, public playgrounds, public museums, and public activities. Children need an outlet to explore the world, along with having the opportunity to make decisions when interacting with other children, so that they can learn things that aren’t necessarily taught within the confines of a schoolroom.
Those children that are provided by adults with activities that helps keep them engaged and interested, or are provided with the public space for them to take in, on their own, what so interests them in a safe environment are going to be in a far superior position to develop into responsible adults, as compared to those others, that do not have the opportunity to engage with a safe environment to explore in, and thus are susceptible to being left to the baneful influence of older misbehaving teenagers or young misfit adults that rule the roost, of their particular neighborhood. In short, kids need safe outlets to test who and what they really are, and when parents are too involved in their own lives, or livelihood, or just don’t have the time or resources to properly supervise their children, then those children are going to turn to whatsoever seems to be available for them in their neighborhood, good or bad. That is to say, children need constructive outlets to develop their personalities in the best way for them, and when those outlets are not constructive, but rather tend to being destructive or are meritless, then those children will be place upon a path that is not only bad for them, but bad for society.