Issues about children, childhood and the future as presented in the creative writing of undergraduate students of University of Education

Childhood is a stage in life that moulds the individual and continues to dominate most perception of life long after it is over. Most adult reactions are repercussions of childhood experiences. In writing children’s stories, it is empirical for most adults to roll back years of growing up and look once again with the eyes of the child at issues of life of which the child is at the centre. As a requirement for academic progression, level 100 students of the Department of Basic Education, University of Education, Winneba, write simple stories about children and childhood. This paper looks at issues they raise in their stories and what makes their ideas different from or similar to societal expectations. A greater percentage of them portrayed tragedy as a catalyst to future greatness or to a successful life. Education as a right is portrayed as a delicacy which is given out of pity or as an insurance policy to safeguard the future of the parents or sponsors. Forty of the students were randomly and conveniently selected and interviewed to find out their perception of children and childhood. They all agreed that parents or sponsors must benefit from children’s education in order to justify financing it. Most of them were of the view that the hardship they encountered in childhood prepared them to face the future bravely and take their destinies into their own hands. As pertaining to rights of children, they assert to the idea that a child has a right as long as the parent or guardian can afford to let him or her have it. In spite of some negative attitudes to childhood, they all agree that the psychologically fulfilled child could make a better adult.