General Supervisor

development process, by just putting the research results in drawers and on
shelves. The use of knowledge in resolving issues in the society is the only way
to push forward the production of knowledge.
Manifestations of those challenges on the Saudi children:
That careful consideration of these challenges clearly reveals to us that the
child is the most affected entity. The prevailing cultural outlook towards
children in our society is still one of the biggest obstacles that hinder the
optimal preparation of today’s child as human knowledge for the generation
of tomorrow. The dominating view towards the child still places him in the
circle of the passive recipient, who must be formed through a process society
upbringing on which the family and school play the prominent roles.
Adults in the society still constitute an intermediary between the child and
all what going on around him and mainly control the experiences available
to him and the knowledge he receives, although the era of globalization and
technological openness has somewhat reduced that role.
Therefore, adult - child relationship remains a key factor in the child’s
relationship with the society around him and knowledge in general. This
relationship becomes part of the prevailing stereotypes and social structure.
The status of children in terms of their position in the hierarchy of the social
gradient, the classification of their potential and abilities and then their roles
in society are reflected in how the society deals with them through the array
of knowledge society.
The Issues of identity and originality are often controlled by the drawing of the
adults’ orientations towards children with respect to the shift towards a knowledge
society. As adults look with suspicion, mistrust and skepticism to the openness
of knowledge, fearing of its being undisciplined as well as having ideological,
intellectual, and moral implications on the child’s personality which will destroy
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values and principles built by the family and the school. With the passage of time,
the reality of Saudi children in a knowledge society has reached a state closer
to chaos and confusion under such variables of rapid and tremendous changes
which include but not limited to: the huge technological momentum around
them, confinement of the family’s role to reproduction and health care, the role of
the school to transferring scientific information without providing the child with
the skills necessary for self-learning and the conduct of complex thinking, mental
and thinking independence, and the development of methods and research skills.
The society as a whole is engaged in the study of realistic behavior of the child
and his daily problems in an attempt to find solutions to address the phenomena
and the symptoms but it cannot deal with the core issues.
This selective policy of the children role in the society of knowledge, which
is fearful of negative impact of knowledge openness, made the Saudi child a
consuming party which is open to the world through the electronic games for
the sake of which the Saudi society spending billions of riyals every year, and
through the Internet and programs of social networking and all aspects of the
era of globalization.
Failure also lies in the inability of the knowledge society to play a clearer and
bigger role to incorporate the Saudi children into the wheel of development
and include within the efficient factors which create change and transfer them
from recipients to a participants. The solution lies in school’s education with its
discipline, curricula, and teaching staff to play the pivotal role in changing the
dominant patterns of thinking and education.
If we look at only one trend of the requirements of the knowledge era, I mean
the scientific research, we will find that the Saudi children (with the exception
of few attempts such as MAWHEBA Program, for example) is far away and
completely isolated of the actual practice and hands-on skills and methods
of scientific research. The in-depth knowledge does only come through the
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