Hark! Hark!! Hark!!!
There is apokye bini
If I had a
cedi for every time I sung those lines as a child I’d be a millionaire. This
morning as I watched the kids in the children service of my church march off
with their brightly decorated, flower filled and well woven palm fronds,
singing
Hosiana
Ajor Ajor morni baa
Y3 Yehowa gb3i mli
Hosiana y3 nw3i shoorr
I was
filled with nostalgia. Feelings of loss and gain filled me instantly, a sense
of having lost that childhood innocence and ability to enjoy such seemingly
insignificant moments, and gain at having gone through that stage of my life
and having so many good memories from then. As I took the pictures of their lit
up faces, I found my heart being lifted.
In the
midst of all this a daunting thought came to mind, I asked myself if these
children really understood the importance and reasons behind what they were
doing. In their faces reflected a fear I have had for the longest time. A fear
of how the vicious cycle of ignorance continues. I spent most part of that
morning replaying and contemplating a conversation I had with Tosin years ago
in University about how most of us Christians had rough adulthoods because in
Sunday school we were taught what now shallow truths seem without trying to get
us to get or at least desire the deeper truths.
I wondered whether
these children really knew the meanings and significance of Palm Sunday,
Easter, Christmas.
Did they
know why on those occasions Sunday school was different?
Did they
know the true value of the celebration?
Did they
know the significance of those celebrations to the faith they are in?
Or are they
all just a bunch of fairy tales to them??
A visit to
most Sunday schools today will reveal the children being taught the same things
in the same manner we were taught. No modification and adjustment to suit the
times. In some cases you find that the message has been watered down further in
the name of it being too complex for the kids. This for me is scary.
The way I
see because we get such weak foundations as Christian children we grow up not
really understanding the faith, and makes it easy for us to wrongly practice
the religion.
Further
from Christianity is the general socialization of children, I believe our
educational system both formal and informal is failing miserably.
In the poem
‘Rewrite’ Kwame says “our children are fast cooked like indolmie” and I
couldn’t agree with him more. Children are bombarded with so much information
yet little or no explanation is offered. What that creates is a generation that
is knowledgeable but not wise.
It is
imperative that we as a people, whether it is in religion, politics or just
life in general provide for our young ones a foundation based on understanding
what is around them.
Imagine how
much different your life would be if someone had taken time to explain some
basic things to you.
Let not happen our children what happened to us.
