Children´s rights and lives

Students´ articles for EU project

Project Erasmus+Jean Monnet 2025 articles

25 and 26th November Children´s rights and lives

Children´s lives 50 years ago and now

From outdoor play to online worlds

I grew up in a small Czech village, surounded by fields, forests and old farmhouses. When i think back to my childhood, i remember long afternoons spending outside, usually without any plan. My friends and i built small houses in the woods, played some games until someones mother called us in for diner. My parents didnt watch us constantly, they trusted that  we knew the village well enough to stay safe.

Over the years, childhood in Czech villages has changed. Famillies are smaller than before 50 years now, and many parents commute to bigger towns or cities for work, this wasnt avaliable in the past generations. Because of this, children often spend more time on their own activities. Another big change is that children today spend much more time indoors, including me.

Technology has also transformed the way children spend their free time. Instead of climbing the trees, helping their parents or grandparents in the garden, many prefer computer games, Youtube and of course social media. These things make children isolated.

So, does this mean that children now have less happy childhood than mine? I sometimes think they might, but every generation believes that their own childhood is the most magical. After all, childhood always feels golden when you look back on it.     

Nela Kulhánková, III.B

Two generations, two childhoods

Technology has improved dramatically over the years and no one can deny it has a certain influence on us. Things are easier, better accessible and these days we don't really have to do much, but what did it change? What did the society ditch and accept? Let's look at it in my family.
My parents grew up without advanced technologies, therefore people might think their lives were harder than lives of people from the recent generation, but what if it wasn't true? As children, my parents would play in the woods with sticks and rocks, but who am I to judge? It took little to have fun if one had a wide imagination. They didn't worry about having a perfect account on social media, didn't compare themselves to others. They simply enjoyed playing outside with their dearest friends.
My generation? For us, it has been easier, but also harder on the other hand. We have advanced technologies so finding information is the last thing we worry about. Although, thanks to advanced technologies we tend to stay at home without any social contact just to have our eyes glued to phones It other words, phones might be useful, but they have a bad influence on every child. Obsession is highly debated topic among teenagers and in my opinion, learning how to not depend on technologies would ve a great step into discovering the beauty of the world, which might be hidden for a lot of children.
If I compare my childhood and my parent's childhood, I would say that theirs had a better impact on development of personal character. Each generation has positives and negatives, and it depends on us how we take matters of our lives in our hands to protect ourselves from potentional risks, such as dependence on social media.  

Natálie Vlasáková, septima

Two generations, Two childhoods (a compareison after 50 years) Children's lives have changed a lot over the last 50 years. 

When my grandmother talks about her early years, she dedcribes a long day outside, running through fields and climbing trees, which was very funny. 

Her childhood was full of simple aventures, which required no technologies only imagination and friends. Today, families are smaller (mostly about two or three children), parents are busier and children spend much more time indoors, often in front of screens. 

Kids also rarely does hazardous adventures outdoors, in front of not worry their parents. Activities have changed as well. My grandma used to play with only a few toys, while nowday's kids have many kinds of toys and not only that, they have also smartphones, computers or videogames. 

Despite this many children say that they feel bored now. I personally think that the changes are negative, because although life is safer and comfortable now, the most of modern kids couldn't play face-to-face with the others.

Izabel Morales III.B

From Outdoor Play to Online Worlds, how has the childhood changed ?

 In the past (50 years ago) childhood was completely different. Kids used to spend much more time outside and came home, when the sky was already dark. Boys pretended to be soldiers or knights and girls were playing with dolls and pretended to be protective mothers.

But why is the childhood so different nowadays? The reason is quite clear. When the technology started to develop, the world got familiar with new inventons such as mobile phones or computers. 

Firstly it was quite innocent and children were playing easy funny games, for example Snake or Tetris. But then everything has changed. The breaking point was, when the social networks had been invented. Kids very quickly got used to it and they already didn’t need to be in personal touch with their peers every day.

 Children started to be more introverted and they forgot how to make friends. Worse was, when the gaming industry became more developed. Kids stopped to be imaginative and games were roting their brains, because they already lived in the imaginative worlds on the monitor screens.

 In my opinion the changes are more negative than positive. Today’s children don’t know how to make new friends or how to fit into school collective. In older age boys won’t know how to talk with girls and how to get into relationship. It is quite a shame that kids don’t know what it was like to live without a mobile phone or computers 50 years ago. I think if they knew, they would be much happier. 

Jakub Chmelík septima

Half a century of childhood

In this article I would like to talk about the dramatic changes between childhood of our parents and kids nowadays. From playing up with sticks pretending to be rifles and spending all days outside it has changed to playing on computers, gaming consoles etc.

My dad was always telling me his stories from his childhood when I was younger. How he used to spend all day outside with his friends, doing many exciting things. He is from a village and it was normal to leave home in the morning and show up after the sunset to have dinner and sleep. Kids at that time were very active and they could play with anything they found and I think that it was better because almost all kids were in a good shape which had also impact on their mental health.

But kids nowadays are just sitting at home and playing video games. I don’t say that every body is the same but many kids are caught by the electronics. I also think that it’s not their fault because when parents want some kind of calm they just give their children a phone or tablet and play some videos on Youtube or start a game. Because of all that kids are getting lazier and their physical and mental health has changed to be worse.

In my opinion it would be great to have mix of these generations but I don’t think that it is possible.

Matěj Mach, septima