Kenyan child!

School children are continuously getting exposed to material meant for adults. From the way

Adults talk to the way they behave. The young minds have in one way or another adapted to this as a result of trauma or curiosity.

They have grown up watching their parents in marital wrangles, Drugs, alcoholism and prostitution; they have been subjected to crimes such as forced marriages, rape, molestation, assault, child labour and death. This has not only happened in those poor neighbourhoods but equally in the upper class.

With economic hardships rising daily, they are not spared either, going without food, diseases and wretched poverty has made most of these children fail to get the right to education.

It is when majority of children in hardships interact with the few from affluent backgrounds that the combination becomes more noxious. In this age of experimenting, children prefer copying one another.

Case study

On a Saturday morning Sam a standard five primary school in a government school wakes up early in the morning.

Shortly after breakfast, he picks up his ball but the sounds of a cartoon programme draw his attention and he join his younger sister Sue to watch Johnny Bravo. Two hours later, he leaves her to continue watching TV she can spend her entire day with a remote control!

Sam joins his classmates in a nearby undeveloped 40 x 60 field. After a short while, a friend who is in a different private school joins them and brags having a Play Station Game and they all flock to his home.

A quick glance at the DVD rack Sam Gets interested in watching one of the movies written Unsuitable for Under 18, with no adult around they watch it anyway. Scenes of sex, violence, language are all very graphical. Having admired the starring a black American, way of fighting, talking, dressing and hair style Sam and his colleagues envy to be like him.

A walk around the over populated centre is exciting for him, having seen drunkards and irresponsible youth kissing only interprets that what they saw in the movie is real life after all. As dusk approaches Sam can afford some 30 more minutes, his parents only get back past 7 am, coincidentally his age mates bear similar arguments at their age these boys and girls can get more ideas in darkness!

Going to church on Sunday is optional for his parents but compulsory for them, so Sam and his younger sister set for church. occasionally on Sunday afternoons their parents take them to a nearby restaurant for lunch, its usually a treat for they dance play on swings, merry-go-rounds, bouncing castles as their parents drink and talk. That evening everyone is busy preparing for a long week ahead and after watching the 9 pm news the children retire to bed, Sam longing for Monday to go and share with his colleagues his experiences over the weekend of course Sue watched all the Saturday programming plus the Sunday treat.

A whole weekend without monitoring has exposed a boy to so many ideas and he is capable of influencing quite a big number of his classmate/age mates.