As a contrast, I spent the day with one of my past pupils in Turin yesterday. He was a kid at the Oratory when I was a theology student and "assistant". He has two sons. The oldest was born when they had a small condominium-apartment in the city of Chieri. The second one is growing up in the country since they bought a home in the area of Moncucco (where John Bosco was a cow-hand at the ages of 11 to 13).
The son from Chieri is 14, and when he comes home from school he goes up to the boys' bedroom, to his desk, does his homework. He walks directly to and from places, and seems to draw an invisible boundary around himself so that he doesn't venture past it. The second son from Moncucco, age 5, runs and jumps through the fields, has a hundred questions for the farmers, climbs trees and rocks, has built a "fort" in the forest, and never watches TV or plays electronic games. Here is the story of the City Cousin and the Country Cousin, except they are brothers. I wonder if in southern California we have built our perfect homes in perfect communities where kids can no longer roam or explore -- and these homes are so expensive that we can't afford not to work 10 hours a day to pay for them… and our kids have become timid, unnoticed, confined.
No comments:
Post a Comment