The importance of being a child

 伊丽莎白·劳伦斯曾经说过,“每个儿童都有一个花园,一个迷人的地方,颜色明亮,空气柔和,并且每天早上要比以往更香。“童年总是世界上最美丽的词汇之一。然而,现在时间却被削减和抑郁严重。而不是自由地绽放,显示许多孩子过早的进入了成人世界。他们被教导如何表现,如何发挥,以及如何成功。然而,童年绝对不能丢弃不管，时间和经济增长是重要的。因为这意味着纯真和创造力;这意味着后成熟的基础;这意味着也许最粗心的时间在整个生命。总之,童年是很重要的,不仅因为它的纯真和创造力,但更多的与未来,生命中无与伦比的地位相关。大多数人已经使用他们的童年的机会,而是如何保持一个美丽的童年为下一代,下下一代,以及如何让孩子享受童年本身的持久的目标是所有父母和整个人类的愿望。

I. Introduction.
  Elizabeth Lawrence once said, “There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.” Childhood is always one of the most beautiful words in the world. When speaking of it, people usually has a vision of thriving boys chasing on the beach or a bunch of chirpy girls trying to build a house for their dolls, which seems like typical childhood times. However, those times are being cut and depressed severely nowadays. Instead of blossom freely, many children are shown into the adult world too early. They are being taught how to behave, how to play carefully, and how to succeed. So here’s a group of nice-educated little ladies and gentlemen who don’t believe Santa Claus anymore. They dress like adults, speak like adults, and they are the so-called “Miniature Adults”. (David 63)
However, the childhood definitely cannot be discarded no matter how time and growth are important. Because it means innocence and creativity; it means the basic foundation for later maturity; and it means perhaps the most careless time in the whole life.

II. Innocence and creativity.
  To children, the world is an unwritten paper. Thus childhood is a stage full of surprise and colorful fantasies. Beautiful princess, evil dragons and the elf hides in the bush. It’s no surprise to hear little cute things talked by children. They are as malleable as a plasticene, waiting to be molded by parents and society. However, if this molding comes too early, the child may lose his or her creativity forever. There is a famous case in China named Zhongyong, who was an especially talented child in Song dynasty. He could write fabulous poems since very young, but gradually lost his talent when growing up. This is a classic sad story for “the child prodigy”. As David put it, the child prodigy turned out to be a neurotic adult; thus the phrase “early ripe, early rot!” (63) Too much early education may ruin the born creativity deep in children’s mind. Being told what’s it and what’s that, what’s right and what’s wrong may suppress children’s desire to draw their own imaginary world. And this imaginary world is only belongs to childhood.

III. Basic foundation for later maturity.
  The childhood is the start for life, and it owns an irreplaceable influence on the individual’s later maturity. For example, the kid who was born in a lovely home is tend to be easier to accept others when they grow up; and the kid who lacking of love when they were young are showing much more desire for love later. Moreover, some people’s violence tends are also said to originate from a strong sense of insecurity in childhood. As for sexually aspects, Professor Mavis Hetherington of the University of Virginia did a research and found that “the daughters of divorced women tend to be more sexually oriented, more flirtatious with men than daughters of widowed mothers or daughters from two-parent homes. With single mother, children may witness the romantic phase of courtship-the hand-holding, the eye-gazing, the constant touching and fondling. This overt sexuality may encourage young people to look for something similar.”(70) So it’s clear to demonstrate that how large a childhood experience could affect later life. And the important point is that this kind of impact is not like the one as accent or the way of living, which may be modified bit by bit as the environment changes; this impact is on the personality-the deep-rooted part of characteristics that once formed in the young, it’s nearly impossible to remove.
Thus, a happy and outgoing person may be happy since he or she was born; a gloomy and depressed person probably also has his or her unhappy seed been sown long ago. A healthy and satisfactory childhood, particularly the one with beautiful memories, is essential for a good quality of life in the long term.

IV. A carefree time in the whole life.
  Sadly, the last reason for the importance of being a child still cannot be understood by the lucky little guys (they all can’t wait to grow up). In fact, when most people start to realize it, they have left their childhood for a long time. It is true that the childhood is ignorant, at the same time, it also the most carefree and enjoyable time blessed by god. They play, they eat, they laugh, and they grow. They are not big enough to worry about the life or the future. Such fun. Though a lot of kids are “forced to grow up” (66). According to David, the academic pressure is not the only reason. Children’s dress is another. Today even preschool children wear small versions of adult clothing. And when children dress like adults, they walk like adults and behave like adults. Some particular features of children have gradually been lost. And since the childhood is probably the best time in life, it also has a reason to be protected and preserved well.

V. What conditions must exist in order to succeed in the future?
  Simund Freud once described maturity as “liben and arbeliten” (“loving and working”). The mature adult is the one “who can love and allow himself or herself to be loved, and who can work productively, meaningfully, and with satisfaction” (Grace 47). As what has been discussed in the Basic foundation for later maturity, the childhood has everything to do with the future adult. So if these two features “loving and working” can be nurtured well in the young, then it’s no doubt that this kid would bloom into a successful person. As for specific conditions, a lovely home and an inspiring environment are probably enough.

VI. Conclusion
  All in all, the childhood is very important not only because of its innocence and creativity, but more of its connection with the future and its unrivalled position in life. Most people has already used out the chances of their childhoods, but how to maintain a beautiful childhood for the next generation and the next generation, and how to allow children to enjoy childhood for its own sake are the lasting goals for all the parents and the whole human beings.

Works Cited
Craig, Grace J. Human Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976. Print.
Elkind, David. The Hurried Child: Growing up Too Fast Too Soon. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub., 1981. Print.