Adults with colouring books, kids with CVs – it’s a world turned upside down
The Guardian | Children | Andre Spicer | 8 April 2015
Why are we, the skateboarding, Lego-hogging grownups of today, apparently so reluctant to act our age and let the children play?
Abstract: One spectacular example is a chain of adventure parks called KidZania, which in the words of the UK chairman is “opening children’s eyes to the realities of life”. Each park is made up of streets filled with well-known brands including H&M, DHL, and Cadbury. Inside this mini-city, kids try out different jobs in order to earn fake money, which they can use to, say, rent a car. If they want to increase their earning power, they are able to attend college and graduate.
But fantasy spaces such as this are just the start. The school system has taken to the task of making children into mini adults with gusto. At increasingly young ages, children are required to take endless rounds of tests to have their performance assessed. In September, the UK government plans to introduce literacy and numeracy tests for four-years-olds. In the US, primary school-age children are taught to develop their leadership capacity – some schools even have annual events where children can “showcase their management skills to community members and business leaders”.
