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THE TOxIC GENERATION
(Daily Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SHE WAS standing on the steps of an art gallery, a short dark-haired girl, no more than ten years old, already slightly overweight, wearing clothes more suited to someone twice her age. As she scowled unhappily and licked her ice cream, her view of life was written all over her: anger, self- obsession, boredom .. . all the trademarks of the 'brat'. And her highcut top carried her joyless message to the world: 'I love my attitude problem.' My heart went out to that poor child. I felt sorry for her parents. And I thought, what a desperate reflection on Western civilisation.
There should never be a better time to be a child than now. Yet, increasingly, across the social divides - from the most affluent to the poorest - children have never been more miserable. Their misery is due, in large part, to the 'loving neglect' of their parents. This is how Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, described the problem earlier this week during his first speech at the annual conference.
Some parents 'love their children too much to say No', he said. They allow them to watch as much TV as they want, play as many computer games as they wish, eat only junk food and stay up late every night, so they are both unable and unwilling to pay attention and study hard at school.
As an ex-head teacher, Government education adviser and expert on the education of young children, I have witnessed this gradual erosion of childhood happiness firsthand.
Amid burgeoning wealth and an explosion in technological advances, the sad truth is that too often we are producing a generation of dysfunctional, aggressive, depressed, burntout junior casualties.
The alarming rise in childhood disorders, from anorexia to obesity, autism to ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder); the appalling behaviour in classrooms of which Brookes complains; the influence of violent television and computer games and the absence of simple, oldfashioned nurturing are creating a new syndrome - one which I have called 'toxic childhood'.
So concerned am I about toxic childhood that I have spent three years investigating the subject for a new book.
I have spoken to countless experts, teachers, parents and to the children themselves, and placed their evidence against a growing mountain of international research into what can only be described as a new epidemic of childhood misery.
The result is a portrait of a generation of children in crisis, caught up in a toxic brew of the worst excesses of modern life.
Apart from identifying the problems, I have tried to see whether there is an antidote. In other words, how can we start detoxifying our children before it is too late?
Two years ago, researchers recorded that behavioural problems among young people had doubled, while emotional problems had increased by 70 per cent.
Those figures continue to rise.
ALSO rising among teenagers are the figures on drug abuse, binge-drinking, eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, youth crime and antisocial behaviour.
So why are we facing this toxic timebomb among our children?
Well, the causal factors are everywhere. They touch every area of children's lives, from sleeping habits and diet to childcare arrangements and family relationships, from television and the forces of modern technology, to early failure at school and a playground culture in which it is considered 'cool' to behave badly.
Invariably these factors are intertwined. Just look at the impact of changing eating habits, one of the most poisonous forces on toxic childhoods.
In the fast-moving world that our children inhabit, no one sits down to dinner.
Instead, they eat 'junk' food, empty of nutrients, often alone in their bedrooms in front of their own television sets.
Studies of children with ADHD and dyslexia have frequently pointed to various vitamin and mineral deficiencies - deficiencies which are inevitable on such a junk food diet.
There is also evidence suggesting that certain fats in these highly processed foods may actually inhibit brain function.
According to Dr Alex Richardson, a physiology researcher at Oxford University: 'Every time children eat crisps, biscuits or cakes, they are filling themselves with toxic fats.' These quick-fix foods are also killing family mealtimes, the traditional training ground for social discipline, civilised discussion and good manners.
Last year, a survey of 2,000 British families showed that 20 per cent never sit down to a meal together and three-quarters of the rest ate while watching television - often not even the same television.
This, in turn, reveals another crucially powerful ingredient in the toxic brew.
Television has made its way into about three-quarters of pre-teenage children's rooms.
This 'electronic babysitter' is breeding a generation of isolated, sedentary children, bombarded by consumerism - being exposed to 40,000 commercials a year - and violent imagery.
The bedroom is also where countless children become absorbed in the dark world of computer games, with all too many parents seemingly ignorant of the extraordinarily violent material that under-tens have access to.
My daughter recently returned from babysitting in a respectable British home, with news that that the two boys, aged six and nine, were playing Grand Theft Auto III all evening. When she asked where they got this 18-certificate game, they grinned and explained that their mum had bought it for them.
When I decided to check it out, I was shocked by the game's utterly realistic, yet gratuitous, violence.
The player is encouraged to steal cars, massacre pedestrians and beat passers-by into pools of blood with a baseball bat.
Children kept indoors by such computer games and television lose touch with play in the outside world. They have no exercise, no social contact with the children around them, no access to real-life adventure and exploration.
They stay up late and sleep less than recommended levels - which in turn fuels poor behaviour, inhibiting healthy development still further. Is it any surprise that these victims of such toxic childhoods are physically and emotionally facing huge future problems?
And the crucial question remains: who - in a world turned upside down by social change - is actually now rearing our children?
Women work, marriages routinely break down, single parents continue to increase.
I am not suggesting that we turn back the clock on this social revolution.
After all, in many instances, women's status has improved and their families enjoy greater material wealth.
BUT if we are going to move forward we still have to ask, who has time for the children? And don't make the mistake of thinking that toxic childhoods are only found among poorer families.
On the contrary, some of the most damaged children are from the kind of affluent, middleclass families, most caught up in the stresses of the modern world.
Inadvertently, these 'well- off ' families are forcing their children into the 21st-century rat race.
Children are hot-housed in the most expensive nurseries and competitive prep schools, and dragged into an increasingly testdriven education system which has lost touch with the need for play and outdoor activities.
And how ironic that we are prepared to expose our children to the most stringent academic testing, while competitive sports - which in the past encouraged teamwork-and physical exercise - are now considered unimportant or somehow even damaging.
The teachers I meet from prestigious preparatory schools are often deeply worried about the effect that pressure to achieve has on some of their pupils. And the sad truth is that many of these children are often more isolated at home than those in poorer families.
As one teacher put it: 'Here, it's not Mummy and Daddy who plonk the child in front of the television.
It's the Lithuanian au pair, who's in charge while the parents are out earning shed-loads of money to pay the fees.' And unlike less materially privileged children, they are victims of another disturbing middleclass trend, in which their parents insist they take part in an absurdly demanding and expensive array of after-school activities.
When I visited one highly educated middleclass couple, their eight-yearold had tea with the au pair before being whisked away to a 'kumon' maths lesson, a fashionable new approach to teaching numeracy.
On his return, no sooner had he finished his homework than he was setting off to swimming club; he was then rewarded at home with a session on his PlayStation - alone in his room.
It's all too easy to equate spending money on children with loving them. And the truth, as Mick Brookes pointed out, is that too many exhausted, stressed, overworked-middle- class parents assuage their guilt for the little time they have with their offspring by trying to buy them contentment.
But horse-riding lessons and music tuition, after-school tutoring and PlayStations are poor consolation prizes for a generation who, in the absence of their parents, have to learn to bring themselves up.
So what to conclude? I'm afraid the unavoidable truth is that good parenting is the antidote to toxic childhood. Our modern society must learn to provide this. After all, what could matter more than the nurturing and security of the next generation of citizens?
And good parenting means giving children clearly structured lives.
Parents need to be 'authoritative' rather than authoritarian. Praise and affection need to be accompanied by firmness and strict rules.
It's no good being an authoritarian parent, who offers only rules and boundaries, or an indulgent parent, who offers only lavish support and over-praise. Children need both warmth and firmness - an authoritative, balanced approach.
If we are to stand any chance of detoxifying our children, it is time to take back control of their lives: what they eat, when they go to sleep, and how and where they play.
WE NEED to provide them with their values and not allow these to be shaped by television's violent and consumerist imagery. As Brookes said, children respond very well to firm but fair discipline.
This is achievable.The impact of Jamie Oliver's campaign to bring fresh and nutritious meals into schools has been enormous.
Walking Buses - where adults supervise children walking from home to school and back again in groups - is a simple way of providing fresh air and exercise.
As for television, get it out of children's bedrooms now. And why not introduce a ban on all advertising aimed at children, just as has been done in Sweden?
But the greatest gift to any child is his parents' time and attention, commodities that in the 21st century are becoming all too precious and elusive.
Yet the evidence of the benefits of time spent with children is overwhelming.
A parent's attention is what teaches a child to form attachments, and creates their sense of security. It is the interactions with family members that shape or break children from the moment they are born.
Think back to that child on the steps of the art gallery. Ten years old at most and already so unhappy.
How did she get like that?
Feeding on burgers, pizza and ice cream washed down with sugary cola? Long hours spent in a virtual world, playing computer games rather than real ones, staring at the television instead of the sunshine?
My heart goes out to her. But it is not just such youngsters who suffer - we all are victims of the culture that is poisoning our children.
We have allowed ourselves to be swept up by a world moving so fast that we have forgotten the vital importance of looking after our children and teaching them to become tomorrow's citizens.
ADAPTED from Toxic Childhood, by Sue Palmer, published by Orion at GBP12.99. Sue Palmer 2006. To order a copy (p&p free), telephone 0870 161 0870.
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