Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Putting everything into perspective

2013; Mark Allen Group; Volume: 14; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.12968/eyed.2013.14.9.5

2052-4617

Neil Henty,

Themes in Literature Analysis

WHATEVER I was going to write this month, whether it was about Elizabeth Truss’ speech at the Daycare Trust conference, whether it was feedback from Susan Gregory’s early years lecture on Ofsted and early years education, whether it was something glib about the timing meaning that I was likely to miss any announcement from the government concerning its responses to the childcare commission or the Nutbrown review, whatever I had been thinking of writing just seems entirely inappropriate given events in both China and the USA (I am writing this in December). Although the news channels and newspapers over here have been dominated by the shocking events in Newtown, Connecticut, an earlier incident in China involved an attacker injuring upwards of 20 children, two seriously, plus members of sta . e events in Newtown, at Sandy Hook Elementary School left 20 children and six adults dead. e majority of these children were six-years-old, with a lifetime ahead of them. eir parents or carers said goodbye to them that morning probably talking about what they would have for dinner, what they might do after school, what they might learn that day. e teachers were doing their job, preparing those children for a future that will no longer come. And so, in the madness of minutes, and in a hail of bullets, 26 innocent, defenceless lives were lost. As someone involved in education, and as a parent, you want to be able to frame this in some way, to put the anger and the sorrow into some energy that can help make the world a better place. But there are no words really, there aren’t even any thoughts or feelings that will ever make sense of what has happened in di erent parts of the world. e fact that this is not the rst such attack on a school, or on children, around the world and over many years, does not lessen the impact, it makes it worse. Life goes on for those who remain. How di cult that must be. ink of the people who must counsel the children who survived, those who witnessed these attacks, spare a thought for those families who now must mourn, who will never see the smile of their son or daughter, brother or sister, again. Never hear their laugh, or feel their love. No-one should have to feel these things, no community should have to experience them, and yet they do, over and over. We talk of our age as one that is always more advanced than the last, the things we can do, the places we can go, the speed, the power, the money... and yet are we more advanced? Have we lost something along the way? Is there anything we can do? Are we too much in awe of consumerism, celebrity, nance, a winner-takes-all humanity? Are we, as a nation, really doing enough for our young children. Can we do more to give them and to leave them a better world? We have a great responsibility of care that we must always strive to uphold. We may never be able to ensure that the world is completely safe, but we can do our best and could also do more, and that’s from the level of government and business, all the way down the education system, local councils, communities, parents, ourselves... Editor Neil Henty MSc eye@markallengroup.com