Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi everyone,

I have a question about the sentence below.

[color=blue]Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. It was said by John W. Whitehead.

As I realized so far,it means children have unlimited potentials that we never know. Am I right?

I esecpially don’t understand the structure of the sentence. What’s the part of the speech of “we send to a time” ? Could you analyze it for me?

Thanks very much.

Maggie :roll:

2

A time is a time span (for example, 1900-1920 is a time)
So, we teach our children something (our message is what we have taught our children) they will remember in the future (the future we might not see because we will die of old age).

3

I think so too. Maybe another word with the similar meaning is ‘an era’. In Chinese, should we use ‘Shidai’?

4

Hi everyone,

Thanks for telling me this. But I have one more question.

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.

  1. Why it says “children are the living messages”? I mean what’s living messages and why not just say “children are the
    messages”?

  2. (Children are the living messages we send) to a time we will not see.

Can I consider it above according to the English grammar?

I mean children are the living messages which we send,and children will go to a time that we will not see.

Did I analyze it correctly?

By the way,

Hi Haihao ,

You’re right. An era in Chinese we say ‘Shidai’. I’m glad that you like to learn
Chinse so much.

Thanks a lot again.

Maggie

5

This quote is credited to Neil Postman and comes from his book “The Disappearance of Childhood”. It is NOT a quote from John Whitehead.

6

Hi,
I think in this way:
Children are the living messages whom/that we send to a time which/that we will not see.
In other words, we send CHILDREN & we will not see a TIME.
Wishes,
Morteza

7

Living is used because you could send a message in the form of a note, a book, a poem, but your children are actually alive, even though you’re not. So, by emphasizing that the message is “living” there’s an implication that a part of you is alive as well.