There's a small place next to our office functioning as a 'hobby center' where they teach tiny tots guitar, drawing, singing, dancing etc etc etc. Every evening around 4 you have these little ones with their mothers going up to the center and coming back around 5.30 chattering away to glory and trying to bring the whole building down.
But that's not the issue...yesterday while coming out of the office we saw a 6 yr old boy and his mother returning from this 'hobby center'. They got into the lift with us and the boy had a drawing book in his hand. While waiting for the lift to reach the ground floor he started showing his mother his work of art...green parrots, blue sky, the yellow sun. The mother looks at some of the drawings and points to one and says" this one is not of your standard, this one is OK..but this is definitely not your standard"
I was deeply disturbed. A few things that felt wrong
- Should a boy barely 6 know/ think about issues like perfection and standards?
- Is it really important for a 'hobby' to have a standard?
- Is this what chasing after excellence all about? What about having fun and enjoying your hobby?
- 'Standards'...quickly translates into standards for interaction with other human beings with issues of class coming in.
Maybe I am overreacting, maybe I don't know what it is to bring up a child in this competitive world, but I can't help feeling that something was just so wrong there.
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