Character Formation

This morning, I was blessed to spend my time with close to 30 bubbly seven year old children in a school in Queenstown. I was sharing on the topic of caring under the Character Development Programme (CDP). The CDP is an area that schools zero in to help develop children in character formation. The wonderful children were very responsive, bearing in mind that they have just started in the new school setting for the first time in their life in primary one. Their joy and smiles brightened my day.

Back to character development in children, very often well mannered and good children point back to the wonderful work of parents, guardians and caregivers who have painstakingly inculcate good values and attitudes to them. In dysfunctional families filled with bitter fights, boiling anger, physical, emotional and mental abuse, we are bound to produce rebellious and incontrollable children. The reason is simple; we are products of our environment and sphere of influence.

Last November, I was in Speech and Drama training with some eight year old children in a primary school in Circuit Road. A little boy caught my attention shortly upon commencement of the programme, he boldly declared that he was a bully. I was shocked. He was so young and he had accepted the label, which someone had put upon him, or maybe he put it on himself. If no one intervened in that child’s life, he would be heading for a lot of trouble. I looked the boy in the eye and told him that he should stop telling people that he was a bully because there was nothing good about being one. In my limited time there, I tried my level best to assure him that he was a good boy. It will take countless hours of caring teachers, parents, guardians and caregivers to shape the life of this young child but none of us should give up because every child is precious and every child deserves a chance.