On Friday (24/02/2023), a student from Myanmar shared her presentation about “Reflection on Childhood” in sharing session as a part of intern’s activity in CESASS office. Her name was Phoo Wai Yan Myint, an international student majoring International Relation in Gadjah Mada University and she shares her opinion about how childhood experience has an impact on behaviour of an adult. This sharing session attended by Indonesian interns and 4 international students from Myanmar and Phillipines.
First, the speaker explained that the first stage of childhood was around 4 to 5 years old when the children brain began developing to learn language and children usually taught by their parents about basic manners and respect toward other people according to the social norms.
At the age of 8 is the ‘exploration age’ where children began to wonder about things that happened around them and questions a lot of things that they experienced. On the other hand children are also dictated by social norms, society, and culture around them. At the age of 12 chilren are coming to adulthood stage where they can think and have opinion on themselves. However, nowadays children at this stage is still very heavily influenced by social norms that prevent them to reflect on their lives.
Children who live in a family or school environment that is too strict are prone to have low confidence due to their right to be heard were not fullfiled. This could have long term effect on the mental and social development when they reach adulthood. To address this issue according to the speaker, we have to consider children dignity so that they can be trained to be more open to speak up and share their opinion.
This sharing session ended with the discussion over parenting in some Southeast Asia country. Audience then draw between trends in their own countries and those occuring in Phillipines, Myanmar, and Indonesia.
by: Ganggas Prakosa Sigit Wibowo