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My Crusade for a Children's Fiction Revolution

Children needs have evolved over the years. They are smarter, more intuitive and curious. Today's children demand non stop stimulation.

Society has evolved beyond recognition. Most parents are no longer full-time parents. Most families are smaller with rarely any grandparents and in a lot of cases just a single parent. Most parents are also more proactive and involved in what their children are consuming - be it their nourishment from food, education or entertainment.

For a long time now there has been a growing need for high quality education that doesn't feel like a lesson plan from 20 years ago and schooling that goes beyond question papers, Zoom calls and yawning students.

More than ever, today's children need empowerment. They need a push to use their imagination. They need the opportunity to apply their evolved minds. They need to not be funneled to choose a career, work till death and scale invisible corporate ladders in the pursuit of money and then some. Their minds must be unshackled and let loose to run wild beyond the confines of screens. Their minds need not fester with screen addiction from the age of three. 

We need stronger children who can raise themselves up. We need children whose minds are creatively cultivated, who sharpen their empathy and transform into compassionate individuals with a strong sense of ownership of who they are in the world - their sense of self.

We need to assess what specific value systems and what life skills are most crucial in shaping children into self sufficient powerhouses of talent.

Similarly, we need to identify culprits responsible that seed wrong, outdated or irrelevant ideas into their minds. It could be an innocent old movie. Or a nursery rhyme. Or even toys.

Children will ultimately grow in any environment. But as parents, the steering wheel of that growth is in our hands. We decide, just like the media with news does today, or WhatsApp Uncles and Aunties do today, what message is transmitted to these young, keen-to-learn ears.

What I would like to start at some point is writing modern children's fiction in the form of micro stories for today's babies and bachas. But I need direction from you, dear reader. What would you say are 3 top values you'd like your children to inculcate? Doesn't matter if you are a parent or not. Please humour me.

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