This time, let's not let down our children again

It is a tradition that the prime minister offers a motto to celebrate National Children’s Day. This year’s motto reads: Unity with Knowledge, Preserve the Thai Identity, Pay Attention to Technology. 

Unfortunately, it is also a tradition that the National Children’s Day motto is usually forgotten shortly after the occasion. Nevertheless, adults can still make this special date for children more meaningful if they can set an example for them to follow – by adhering to the guidelines set out by the motto this year.

Children are our most valuable asset because they are the future of our nation. Therefore, it’s worth examining whether we, the adults, have done our part to support our children. Have we helped them to achieve the three components that are written in this year’s Children’s Day’s motto. The answer is not really satisfactory.

First, we have failed in the first part of the motto, which is “Unity with Knowledge”. Our children are growing up in a divided society that has been polarised because of our inability to listen to other voices and reconcile with each other. 

Nobody can deny that we have not set a good example for our children. We certainly have not shown them how to accommodate differences via constructive reasoning and the sharing of knowledge. The ongoing arguments over several contentious issues have led nowhere because we have used emotion rather than knowledge or reason to try to gain the advantage. There has been little effort to bridge the differences.

“Preserve the Thai Identity” is also a tricky phrase and goal to live up to because we have done a bad job in defining for the younger generations what exactly the “Thai identity” is. 

Young people perhaps would feel the urge to preserve a Thai identity if they learned to appreciate and value the Thai way of life. But what children learn these days, in school and from the media, does not provide an environment in which they can appreciate who they are. The younger generations grow up aspiring to be like certain personalities, or aspiring to a certain “lifestyle”, because that’s what their parents have shown them to do.

We have not shown future generations the true meaning of “Pay Attention to Technology”, except for populist promises to give them free computer tablets. Pay Attention to Technology should be an encouragement to students to reach out for possibilities and strive for goals that they have envisioned by using technology as a tool. But the government’s campaign to promote technology in schools is corrupted by the promise of gadget handouts to students rather than the promise of a good education that would enable them to use these tools to realise their potential. 

The late Steve Jobs suggested that good liberal arts studies programmes encourage children to innovate and think differently. However, the school curriculum here has failed to provide an environment to enhance students’ creativity.

While many institutions are preparing events and activities to celebrate this special occasion for children, we should take the opportunity to reflect on what we have done – or rather, what we haven’t done – for our children. After all, children are entitled to the right to grow up in a healthy environment that will make them quality citizens of the future. And we have the duty to provide this supportive environment. If we cannot do so, we should be ashamed of ourselves for violating our children’s rights.

We can start by paying special attention to the promises made in the annual motto. Children nation-wide are excited about their day, and they will take these promises for granted. 

If we fail to deliver on our promises to nurture our children in the kind of environment we have promised them, how can we ever show them that we are good role models and responsible adults?