Roam

⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. ⁸ The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” ¹¹ Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.

1 Samuel 3: 7-11

Recently a BC father was approached by police because of a complaint that he was "neglecting" his children. At least that's the way I recall the story, because I can't find it anywhere! His response was that he has trained his kids in the basics of street and stranger safety and wants them to be independent.

Those of us of a certain vintage (old) grew up this way with "be home for supper" and "be home by dark" as the two after-school parental mantras. We did stuff that would be dangerous by today's hyper-vigilant standards. Our own three children grew up with greater supervision, yet they had freedom to roam. We discovered their range once they were older, and they were wise to keep quiet about it because we might have been more restrictive.

I've read articles about the very different attitudes in Japan where young children ride the subway and go on errands by themselves as young as six or seven. Their parents begin by accompanying them until they are confident to go alone. An American mother living in Japan writes about her two-year-old son taking  a ‘secret’ field trip with his yochien (preschool). The kids were packed  on a bus, and while the school told them it was happening they wouldn't tell them where.
It seems to me that in middle class North America we conflate independence and neglect. And neglect is a form of child abuse, so independence is guilty until proven innocent. We are told the lurid stories of actual neglect and "stranger danger," even though the latter is rare. The vast majority of child abductions are by parents.

Why does this matter? I wonder how we learn to listen, to be aware of the world around us if there is no independence through childhood? There is a lovely book called The Sound of Silence about a boy named Yoshio who discovers the sounds of his environment through attentiveness and discovery. It occurred to me as I mused about this blog entry that he does this essentially alone, although it didn't occur to me as I first read it.




Many of the leading environmental scientists explored as children, often alone, developing a sense of wonder which grew into scientific curiosity.

We also need the opportunities from our earliest days to listen for the voice of God, as did the boy Samuel. This is more than sitting in a Sunday School class or a worship service. God is made known in the solitary walk or gazing into the night sky.

What do you think about this? Should there be more opportunity for children to be independent? Do the benefits outweigh the risks?