A French mother will leave her 3 year-old at a day-care center before going off to her job in the city, although formal education rarely begins earlier than six, and the majority of people studying university stay and live in their hometown rather than go away to study elsewhere.
In the UK, primary school starts at five or in some cases already at four years of age, and some English parents, apparently desperate to get rid of their children as soon as possible, will consider sending them off to boarding schools as young as eight or nine. In most cases it is also considered preferable to go to a university as far away from one´s hometown as possible. The parents call it part of growing up; the youngsters call it independence.
In southern European cultures the family is a much more tight-knit and cohesive unit. In Italy, for example, it is still considered quite normal for children to live at home with their parents at least until they marry. An Italian father may also continue to bankroll his grown-up, wage-earning son because he takes pleasure, as the head of the family, in financing his “youngsters,” no matter how old they might be.
What do you think? Do children benefit from being made independent at an early age, or is it better in the long run for them to stay close to home as long as possible? And what about the situation in the Czech Republic?
apparently = zřejmě, patrně, očividně, zjevně, jak se zdá
bankroll = financovat
boarding schools = internátní škola
cohesive = držící pohromadě, soudržný
consider = považovat
day-care center = jesle
desperate = naléhat
elsewhere = někde jinde
get rid of = zbavit se
growing up = dospívání
independence = nezávislost, samostatnost
long run = dlouhá doba, dlouhý běh
rarely = zřídka
rather than = raději než
rising children = růst dětí
tight-knit = sjednocený, harmonický
wage-earning = příjmy
