In this “On Children : Question and Answers“, we discuss about nature of love, importance of freedom, the power of education, and the interconnectedness of all life. Read More Plus Two English Question and Answers.
On Children Question and Answers
Question 1.
How, according to the speaker, should parents look upon their children?
Answer:
According to the prophet Almustafa, parents should never believe that they own or possess their children. They should behave as though their role is that of being guards and/or ‘stewards’. Parents should not treat their children as their puppets but shower their love as much as they can and take good care of them as we do to someone who is given to our charge. Parents should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them because our children belong to the future whereas we belong to the past generation.
Question 2.
How should parents raise their children, according to the speaker?
OR
How should parents take care of their children, according to the speaker in ‘On Children’?
Answer:
Almustafa tells parents that they can only act as ‘stewards’ and their role is one of ‘stewardship’; parents should not treat their children as their puppets but shower their love as much as they can and take good care of them as we do to someone who is given to our charge. Parents should take care of their needs only and should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them. They should not do so because our children belong to the future whereas we belong to the past generation.
Question 3.
What are the views of the Prophet on parents and children in the poem ‘On Children’?
Answer:
According to the Prophet, a child is a gift from the abundance of existence and it is eternal life itself. Children are born as sons and daughters as ‘life’s longing for itself’. Parents do not create them and hence cannot possess them. Parents serve as a ‘passage’ or vehicle to bring the children to this world. Further, children have their own thoughts because they have the free will to do as they please. Whereas parents belong to the yesterdays, their children belong to the future. The children will have their own scriptures and saints; hence parents should only give them as much love as they can and not their thoughts. Parents should not thrust their past as an inheritance on their children but should let them grow according to their own potential.
Gibran uses the metaphor of archer-bow-and-arrows to explain the role of parents in bringing up children. In this metaphor, God is the archer, the parents represent the bow, and the children are the living arrows. Like an archer, God bends the bows testing them for stability to aid the arrows as they try to reach their destination. “It is the archer who decides the target, which is marked upon the path of the infinite, and He bends the parents (bows) with His might that His arrows may go swift and far”.
Question 4.
How is the parent and children relationship brought out in Kahlil Gibran’s poem ‘On Children’?
Answer:
In his sermon ‘On Children’, Gibran assumes the persona of Almustafa and speaks to the people with the intention of enlightening them about ‘children’ and to guide them as to how they should bring up their children.
First, he says that ‘children’ are born to fulfill the ‘longing’ of life itself. They are a gift from the abundance of existence. God, the supreme power, uses parents as a vehicle or passage to bring children to this earth. Since parents do not create ‘life’, parents do not own children. They may house their bodies but not their souls.
Secondly, children have their own souls and are not non-living things. Therefore parents cannot possess them as puppets. Life’s longing for itself brings forth children in the form of sons and daughters. Hence, our sons and daughters do not belong to us though we have borne them.
Thirdly, since parents bring children to this earth, they should also take care of children as ‘stewards’ and protect them, take care of their needs until they grow and mature and become fully developed individuals. Parents should take care of their needs only and should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them.
On Children is a timeless poem that continues to be relevant today. It is a poem that can help us to think about the meaning of parenthood and the importance of creating a world where all children can flourish.