IT'S A STRANGE, STRANGE WORLD WE LIVE IN ....

.....   IT'S A STRANGE , STRANGE WORLD WE LIVE IN MASTER JACK

I was listening to National Radio yesterday and one of the commentators recounted that he heard a news report that Scots College in Wellington, a former single sex boy's school, was to admit girl students. When walking in Wellington he passed a girl wearing a uniform from a single sex girls school - Marsden I think - and asked her what she thought of Scots College allowing girls in and what did she think of her school letting boys in. The girl backed away with a horrified look on her face - not from the thought of her school letting boys in but from the fact that a complete stranger, a man, asked her a question on the street. This led to a discussion about 'stranger danger' and the fact that parents are so terrified of something happening to their kids that they instil fears and worries in them that might be, on balance, unwarranted.

STRANGER DANGER

While not exactly on point, this Catherine Tate video clip does show parent influence on children.

DON'T KILL US

I do think that things are getting out of hand. It's a shame to think that children are being cocooned and not experiencing the world naturally and interacting with people outside of their own closed circles. You only have to witness the morning and afternoon drop offs and pickups of school children by parents, usually mothers in their behemoth vehicles to take the little angels to school and home when the distance is only a kilometre or two. Compare that to our walking, cycling, tram or bus trips we made on our own when we were at primary school.

No wonder children today spend incredible amounts of time on social media platforms and have their heads buried in smartphones, tablets or computers. They are then seeing a world that is actually different from the real one and is in fact a virtual one.