Child's Play

Wednesday 9^th May 2012

The public walkway from the metro to the main road over the disused railway tracks at Godsiridze in Tbilisi

I have said before how Georgia reminds me of many ways of what it was like to be a child in the 1970’s in the East End of London where I grew up.  It isn’t quite the same of course - it has that little Georgian twist - plus of course my memories are not necessarily that accurate.  When I see abandoned buildings and large tracts of land I get nostalgic for my youth and my freedom to roam around as I pleased, exploring exciting places.  I was a big fan of Enid Blyton; the Famous Five and the Secret Seven are deeply rooted in my psyche. But I did see, in Kareli, the town near our first village, kids taking advantage of the road works and jumping over ditches and playing in the concrete pipes that were being laid.  This is the kind of thing that we would do as children using our environment to invent new games to play.  When the local council cut the grass and left it in piles we made up games involving jumping over different piles of grass, spreading it wide and building it high.  When the prefabricated ‘temporary’ classrooms were delivered to the school in our road (to remain for about 15 years I think in the end) we ‘broke in’ through the thick plastic that encased these buildings, opened doors and windows and made dens.

Children making the most of the roadworks

Interesting makeshift set of steps leading to the disused railway stretch in Godsirize, 

There are many open spaces or buildings that are in a state of dilapidation in Georgia.  When we go past I see them with the eyes of my childhood, imagining what me and my little groups of friends would do.  It takes me back and I get a thrill of newly discovered treasure when I spot these opportunities.  But you don’t often see children utilising these exciting places. You don’t really see many children playing inside or out; full stop.

An abandoned building in the middle of the small town of Kareli.  This pic was taken inside the main building.

Further in side the same building.  We discovered at a later date that this  was still in fact a functioning building which among other things housed the town post office.

Maybe it is different in Tbilisi or in affluent families but the children I have seen have few toys and I haven’t seen a book other than school text books.  There are no public libraries certainly in the villages and the smaller towns.  There are toy shops, however, so someone must be buying them.  In the village I saw one of my year 2s running a toy truck through the puddles in the road outside the school.  You will of course recall what those puddles consisted of as the village was in effect a working farm!  But that is the extent of playing that I witnessed. I haven’t seen groups of boys playing football either or using the school volley ball nets (although other TLGers have mentioned this)

A friend took this this pick of a teddy nailed to the wall of her host sister's bedroom wall.  Similarly our first host daughter (aged 16) had preserved her childhood Barbie dolls on her wall.

Many of the village children had private lessons after school and at the weekend.  This would either be in the village with the same school teachers who were manifestly not providing sufficient education in the classroom or in the local town which was a 15 minute bus ride or an hour’s walk away.  This would take up a lot of student’s time I guess especially as they often were tutored at weekends too.  In addition to this they would have helped on the family farms.  From what I saw, children watched a lot of TV, for older students – the music channels – and played the dreaded computer games along with Facebook.  Everyone had mobile phones and like their UK equivalents were constantly talking or texting.

Another interesting thing is that children are pretty well behaved from what I have seen. I don’t mean at school, which is another issue altogether, but when they are with their parents.  For example when mothers with 2, 3 or 4 year olds came to visit they brought no toys to keep their children quiet while they chatted.  The children didn’t run off either but stood around munching on khatchapuri when it was offered.  There was no “When are we going?”  whines or tantrumming.  They were undemanding and passive generally speaking.  This is about expectations I think.  I was holding and playing with a 4 month old baby of a young neighbour.  She took the baby off me when she saw me jiggling him and holding him up in the air going “Whee!”   “He shouldn’t be too excited” was her reason.  All part of the socialisation process.

It seems to me that children in Georgia have been / are missing out on an important part of their development.  Okay, there is no need to play on the railway lines, but children need to be given encouragement and freedom to roam and develop their imagination and social skills.  Making a den for example involves planning, evaluation, delegation, leadership and teamwork.   Even if you are doing this behind the sofa or at the end of the garden by the shed these skills are still being developed.  For Georgian children, their spare time would have been taken up with working the farm or with studying but now the technological age is upon us naturally any spare time now will revolve around these options. 

Maybe it is the same for young people in all developed countries, less activity outside the home and more time spent in front of the computer or similar.  But for the Georgians I think there is an additional problem because unlike western cultures the cultural impetus here has been to encourage people towards passivity rather than thinking and activity.  What should young Georgians be doing with their newly acquired freedom from the demands of farming or factory work? The last thing young people need is to do more of the same inadequate lessons (at a price) and to be held captive by the mesmerising technology that keeps them focussed on their phone or computer screen.

1st Scout pack in Georgia 

Many schools are taking part in this US funded scheme to encourage civic-mindedness and leadership skills in young people.

To finish on an optimistic note however, the Scouts movement is taking root as is an initiative to set up after school clubs to develop an interest in community social issues such as drug use in young people, disabled access and poverty in the elderly.  Funded by overseas aid, maybe these groups are the start of the waking up of young people to gain a sense of empowerment and a desire to be involved in growing a new Georgia by developing leadership skills and a civic-centred mindset.