14 Little Emperors and Little Empresses
By Mr. Fong Kong Joseph
Recently I have read a news article from the Guardian mentioning an 8-year-old Swedish girl, Saga, who discovered an old sword that could date back to 1500 years ago from a lake. Reporters would link up the story with the old English legend of a child who pulled up a sword from a stone and became King Arthur of England.
In view of the popularity of movies like Frozen and Captain America in Hong Kong, one would not have difficulty foreseeing the consequence should the above incident happened in a lake in the New Territories. Within hours, thousands of parents would flock to the lake with their children in swimsuits and dive in the lake hoping to find another ancient sword or precious gems, and then could rightly claim their children as little emperors and little empresses.
Indeed, our children are going to be future masters of society. But expecting each kid to be of superior potential in all areas waiting to be realized seems as mythical as the legend of King Arthur. With Dr. Howard Gardner’s enlightening Theory of Multiple Intelligences, we now appreciate more of the varied abilities of the youngsters. Some children are good at logical and abstract thinking, while others excel in languages and social skills. We cannot expect our children to be outstanding in all areas and regard them as little emperors and empresses, simply after them taking a few crash courses in foreign languages, the harp or gymnastics.
Honour, Courage, Compassion, Respect, Loyalty, Honesty, Prudence and Grace are some of the moral traits of a king or queen. If the Swedish sword incident happened in Hong Kong, what chaos would we expect to see at the lakeside, and what kinds of moral standards could we see then? The image of groups of frost chasers who ignored safety warnings and got stranded in Tai Mo Shan on a wintry night a couple of years ago is still vivid in my mind.
We all have potential to be Monster Parents, seizing every chance to find treasure so that we can pamper our kids even more. On the other hand, Saga the Swedish girl discovered the invaluable sword while helping her dad to put a buoy in the shallow water of the lake to warn other boats. She was working when she was granted a sword. We can also learn from Saga’s parents, who gave the ancient sword to a local museum for exhibition, instead of claiming it their own. Saga is now back at school. She says when she grows up, she would like to be a vet, serving animals. Can we see the supreme moral qualities of a royal family?