Re: O.T. Failure is no longer P.C.

Pogonip wrote:
> Mary wrote:
> --snip---
>>
>> I want to be really clear here: as education policy is
>> currently formed in the USA, I believe the intellectual development
>> of children is being destroyed through punitive practices like
>> mandatory testing and piling on of repetitive homework. In essence
>> such policy entrenches the unconscious belief that people are born
>> lazy and have to forced to learn. I think that is hooey and anyone who
>> thinks that shouldn't be allowed near a classroom let alone a very
>> young child.
>>
>> Human beings are born wanting to learn: it's in our DNA.
>>
>>
>> cheers,
>> Mary Askew
>>
>
> What worries me is the effect on imagination. Children's lives are so
> organized now, so regimented, that many children respond to free play
> time by asking for direction. Without someone clearly in charge, or a
> commercially packaged product, some -- perhaps many -- children are at a
> loss as to how to proceed. "What are the rules?"
>
> The incredible variety of commercially prepared toys, games, etc. is
> truly amazing to me. As a child (back in the middle ages, of course) I
> had few toys relative to today's standards, yet created toys from empty
> boxes, sticks of wood, bits of fabric and paper, crayons, string. I
> don't see children doing that today.
>
> I remember making myself a bow and arrows from wood found on the ground,
> and my father going off and buying me a "real" bow, then expecting me to
> learn to use it. Which I did, but which I never enjoyed the way I did
> my own. Mine was a toy. His was serious sporting equipment.

Having been born in the middle ages also, play was more important than
school. Getting hollered at by Mom for tearing apart things just so I could
see how it worked. I begged for an Erector set when I was very young and
spent a lot of time with that. But being outside playing with the neighbor's
kids was more fun than recess at school and we were out until we were
hollered at to get inside and get ready for bed. Yeah, home work is rather
onerous for a young kid who should be playing and arguing with the kids
around them. At around 10 we were making our own kites using a paste made of
flour and water and using thread to fly them, surprising how strong a few
hundred feet of thread is. And when the thread did break, the chase was on
to get it back before we lost sight of it. The only homework I remember is
book reports, and I hated to read as it took away my play time and I found
nothing I wanted to read that was interesting to me. It was when I was past
14 until I started reading SF, now that was interesting.

Bud, lots of more stories to tell of younger days without homework in the
way
--

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