Welcome to Generation Alpha. Born between 2010 and 2024, this is a cohort of young children brimming with social progressiveness, environmental righteousness and jarringly left-wing ideologies. Woke doesn’t even come close. I never realised, until I became a parent, how hard it would be to bring up a child in this supposedly enlightened era.
My son is four years old. Call me naïve but I assumed that no one but me would influence his political mindset. I thought I would be in charge, at least while he’s little. But I am absolutely not. There are so many things they say are hard about parenting – weaning and sleep routines and potty training – but no one warned me about this. Your child comes home from their first weeks in reception class and suddenly he’s Jeremy Corbyn.
Primary schools should be educating young children in the three Rs, how to play nicely, how to sing and paint, run and swim and kick a ball. They should not be promoting trans rights and uncontrolled immigration. Of course places of learning have always been places of ideas, debate and free speech (or they used to be). But not primary schools.
Alpha are also known as mini-millennials, as the majority have millennial parents. My son, at four, is late Gen Alpha, early Beta (keep up). While members of my generation were scared of adults and authority figures, these kids have an unshakeable sense of self-worth and pre-eminence. Their voices must be heard.
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