Archbishop tells Britons to ‘grow up’
The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged Britons to grow up and stop the abuse of childhood.
In his Citizen Organising Foundation lecture at Queen Mary, London University, Dr Rowan Williams said Britain was in danger of becoming a society of infantilism, with adults “abusing” their own children.
“Childhood is most positively valued and fostered when we resist infantilism. When adults stop being infants, children can be children,” he told the audience of headmasters, religious leaders, community workers and academics.
Dr Williams attacked the “culture of work” where toddlers and babies were being “shunted off” to nurseries and day care centres or sat in front of the TV so parents could get on with their own private matters.
He slammed a British society riddled by a “culture of gossip and rhetoric and apathy” where life was “debased” by non-participation, “celebrity obsession” and “vacuous aspiration”.
Dr Williams also attacked the “malign” obsession with testing in schools.
“We ought to be educating in emotional and communicative literacy as well as other kinds of literacy,” he said.
