View Full Version : I Actually Grieve For Children Today...
I have come to understand what they will never have.
And it isn't just the ongoing progressive loss of rights and freedoms, it is a quality of life standard which was once common that the vast majority will never know.
There are of course the many small things that add up to a big picture lost.
I can remember when I was about 10-12 years old my father would take my brother and I camping. But this wasn't just driving up to the local KOA and setting up a tent. We'd drive to the mountains in Georgia, Colorado or Wyoming and then spend a day packing up to an area that was not officially designated for anything (in one case a small lake up in the mountains) and set up camp. We'd build a campfire, cook food we carried and sleep under the stars. Not only are very few today willing to engage in "old fashion" camping, there are simply fewer places to do it these days if you wanted to.
It can be a simple as most kids today have no idea what popcorn tastes like when popped on a stove top and real butter and salt are then added. Nothing microwaved in a bag even comes close. Don't even get me started on the dreck available for $10 from movie theaters. Similarly the Sunday "home cooked" meal standard is in great danger for the average American home, and only those who come from an ethnic culture that places a specific value on such things still enjoy them.
They also don't seem to be allowed out to explore the world on their own. We have become so concerned about child safety that we raise them in a bubble. Most kids are not allowed to be gone all day on their bikes like most of us were. They aren't granted the same sense of freedom and independence that made us learn self reliance.
But the thing that truly saddens me, that makes me mourn their loss the most, is that children are no longer taught to win by being better than everybody else. They are in fact often taught the exact opposite that everyone is special and everyone needs to be a winner. They are taught that they are no better than the D student who comes from a dysfunctional family because that child's self esteem is more valuable than anyone else's sense of accomplishment.
Self respect which is gained as a result of pride in accomplishment of valuable goal and being a respectable person is replaced with the poor substitute of self esteem which is nothing more than acceptance of yourself despite any personal failings. And this of course robs those who have great potential of the ability to realize their full capacity so that the larger numbers of less capable aren't forced to recognize their shortcomings.
Now granted those who are more capable must be taught how to become "good winners" but they are in many cases not being taught to win at all. I have actually seen talented kids (both academic and athletic) criticized for their success because they were not considerate of the feelings of others, especially those who didn't win.
As a kid who didn't grow up with a wall full of blue ribbons, I think it is bullshit. I didn't always win, but I knew those who took first place and won did so because they were simply more talented than I was or they tried harder than I did. They wanted it more and they won fair and square. And despite the fact that I didn't get the trophy, I could live with it. It also taught me the cost of winning, that if I wanted it I had to be better than EVERYONE else, and not just give it a really, good try. And in the handful of times I actually did beat everyone else in the room, it made that win so much more valuable because I knew I had to beat everyone else in the room to get it.
And perhaps more important than trophies and prizes, it taught me about life. It helped me find my place in the world and society. I understood what was going to be required to achieve various levels of success and I was able to plan accordingly.
I know the kids I am seeing today are going to be far less prepared to do the same things.
kaiservontexas
06-29-11, 17:36
Oh Lord I remember being out all day on my bike. Back country roads dodging the random Ford F150 driving by.
Steyr, my heart is broken enough . . .
And yes real camping, Grandpa was awesome.
Take a look at discipline now a days. It is by NO means the same. I wasnt fortunate enough to recieve a "time out" (which is a joke if you ask me). My cousin s and I actually had to walk to the far back of the yard to "pick a switch" (you pick the small ones) lol.
So not only do kids miss out on the good family things we had, it is all being replaced with a sense of entitlement. It makes me sad too.
Sadly some of the go out all day is gone ? But they can still do things :)
Camping we do off road expedition stuff
Yeah I agree their life won't be like ours
Shooting up the gravel pits jet skiing where we want jumping waves etc...
Riding our dirt bikes all over etc..
My 7 year old girl wants to go fishing when I asked her what do we do with them when we catch them she said eat them with a big smile :)
All is not lost but for sure some things have changed
sandman99and9
06-29-11, 21:01
I can remember at 14 heading out the door with my 20g in hand and mom asking where I was going.
My reply " out shooting " and that was ok because I was not some dumbass who would shoot himself or my friends.
Used to go out riding my bike to all hours of the night during the summer and it was ok because once again I was not that dumbass and knew right from wrong.
My first year playing soccer (8th grade) I was the team MVP because I busted my ass,stayed after practice, and gave 110% every time I played.
I miss some of those times :(
S.M.
Moose-Knuckle
07-01-11, 05:07
But we live in such a great liberal progressive society! You all must be Neanderthals . . .j/k
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face - forever.
Sad but true... What is lost is lost forever.:D Where in N. Ga were you camping?
I'm a younger guy, but I was fortunate to have been raised old-fashioned...to an extent though I was still raised "in a bubble" because my parents knew the world wasn't the same as when they were growing up and didn't let me be out as a kid for hours on end. But the activities and the principles that I grew up on were definitely old fashioned.
Funny, but my family and I were just talking about something similar yesterday. I believe that all of this crap that this country deals with (all of the things you wrote, Steyr, and more) are due to two things: All the hippie, tree-hugging environmentalist and the bullcrap PC society that they brought along. That is what is destroying this country...that and taking God out of everything...
I grew up being a military brat here at Ft. Bragg. We lived in a neighborhood right on the border of Bragg. When I was 9 - 10yrs old my mother would tell us to go out and play and don't come home till lunch. After lunch it was don't come home till dinner. She didn't want us in the house dirtying up her clean house. My 2 younger brothers and I would be all over the neighborhood and all in the woods of Bragg. We'd have BB gun wars with other kids, bring home snakes that we found, built tree forts etc. We'd get into my dads LBE's and other gear and play Army. At 10years of age I was pushing my lawn mower around the neighborhood mowing yards. We'd also collect bottles from the construction sites in the neighborhood and turn them in for the deposits.
I try to get my kids to do similar things. I've had both my daughter and son in the dove fields with me since they were 3 each. They have been with my wife and I in my boat out in the ocean since they were 1yr old. They both have been dove, duck, deer, and turkey hunting with me. We camp out up in our mountains every year. They walk and fish the trout stream we camp on. They've been playing sports and encouraged to excel since they were 5 each. As a family we all have been doing Taekwondo for the last 2 years. The whole point of this is to expose them to as much as possible so that they are confident in most everything they do or want to do. I don't want my kids to be afraid to try anything or worried about doing well. My son is very competitive with me and others. He loves trying to best me in anything. I kinda burst his bubble the other day though. He was bragging about beating me in HALO. I told him that I was glad he did beat me. It's my job as his father to make sure he is more accomplished than me and hopefully as an adult he ends up that way also. If that happens then I have done my job as his dad.
So don't mourn too much for the children. Worry yes, but I'm sure there are quite a few parents out there that are making sure their kids are prepared to function in this world and excel in most any situation. I bet many of us on this site are doing just that.
The_War_Wagon
07-01-11, 08:46
This is why I detest some of the practices of the Boy Scouts these days - from the "New Boy Patrol" (i.e. - 3rd Year Webelos :rolleyes: ) to women Scoutmasters/Asst. Scoutmasters (Boy Scout Den Mothers...) - for the troops that go that route, the boys are robbed of the rich experiences Scouting COULD give them (particularly the urban/suburbanite sorts who REALLY need it).
When I worked for the BSA in WV years ago, one of the "better" troops in the Council had a female Scoutmaster/Asst. Scoutmaster. Their "camp" experience one weekend consisted in, the boys being dropped off at one of the trail - the Mommymasters then drove to the other end - WITH THE BOYS' BACKPACKS & GEAR IN THE MINIVAN (so that the boys had a trail WALK, NOT, a HIKE) - and by the time they got to the end of the trail, the Mommymasters had camp set up for them, and were cooking their meal... http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-basic/slaphead.gif
I wouldn't have given a plug nickle for one of their Eagle Scouts, to LOAD my gear in a truck...
Sad but true... What is lost is lost forever.:D Where in N. Ga were you camping?
I was too young to remember.
I just remember my Dad parking the blazer when we couldn't drive any closer and then hiking part way up a mountain until we found a good spot.
I still wish I could remember which mountain had the lake. Waking up in the morning and looking out over the lake was an impressively beautiful sight.
So don't mourn too much for the children. Worry yes, but I'm sure there are quite a few parents out there that are making sure their kids are prepared to function in this world and excel in most any situation. I bet many of us on this site are doing just that.
I mourn for some kids less than others.
And yes, parents like you do what they can to correct the situation. But you will routinely find yourself at odds with current societal values and that is what distresses me the most.
....But the thing that truly saddens me, that makes me mourn their loss the most, is that children are no longer taught to win by being better than everybody else. They are in fact often taught the exact opposite that everyone is special and everyone needs to be a winner. They are taught that they are no better than the D student who comes from a dysfunctional family because that child's self esteem is more valuable than anyone else's sense of accomplishment.
Self respect which is gained as a result of pride in accomplishment of valuable goal and being a respectable person is replaced with the poor substitute of self esteem which is nothing more than acceptance of yourself despite any personal failings. And this of course robs those who have great potential of the ability to realize their full capacity so that the larger numbers of less capable aren't forced to recognize their shortcomings.
Now granted those who are more capable must be taught how to become "good winners" but they are in many cases not being taught to win at all. I have actually seen talented kids (both academic and athletic) criticized for their success because they were not considerate of the feelings of others, especially those who didn't win.
As a kid who didn't grow up with a wall full of blue ribbons, I think it is bullshit. I didn't always win, but I knew those who took first place and won did so because they were simply more talented than I was or they tried harder than I did. They wanted it more and they won fair and square. And despite the fact that I didn't get the trophy, I could live with it. It also taught me the cost of winning, that if I wanted it I had to be better than EVERYONE else, and not just give it a really, good try. And in the handful of times I actually did beat everyone else in the room, it made that win so much more valuable because I knew I had to beat everyone else in the room to get it.
And perhaps more important than trophies and prizes, it taught me about life. It helped me find my place in the world and society. I understood what was going to be required to achieve various levels of success and I was able to plan accordingly.
Reminds me of those schools that won't let the teachers mark papers in red ink....
This is one of those things that never ceases to piss me off. And I think one of the main things that has led to the pathetification of people in general. Everbody's a winner! What is this, Vegas?:p
If you're not playing to win, go home!
This is something I saw the results of over and over in various activities I was involved in- the folks running the activities spent so much time on how everybody was doing such a great job that it eventually died away because no one wanted to put any effort into it. The folks that sucked knew they didn't have to do any better to keep up, and the folks that actually made an effort gave up because there was no point. Like they said in The Incredibles- if everybody's super, then nobody's super.
People need to realize there's a fine line here- there's plenty of ways to give folks a kick in the ass without destroying their self esteem. And if done right, not only will it enable those who have the drive to succeed, it will bring the bottom feeders up with them, because they'll actually have a goal worth working towards.
Take a look at discipline now a days. It is by NO means the same.... My cousin s and I actually had to walk to the far back of the yard to "pick a switch" (you pick the small ones) lol.
Seriously- the way discipline was with my family, these days we'd be considered beaten and abused, and have social services at our door in a flash.
My parents didn't use a switch- we had a big-ass wooden spoon from walmart.:lol: Or the ol' belt.
Very well said Steyr. Along with that they'll inherit an insurmountable mountain of debt and a bankrupt country.
VooDoo6Actual
07-01-11, 14:50
Children will learn new mantra's and paradigm's for their perceived success without responsility like our current leadership potificates such as "how to have a chair left when the music stops playing", "get out of jail free cards", have "markers" in the political game & "it's not what you know don't you know, but who you know, don't you know"
the days of acknowledging/rewarding men by the contents' of their character , accomplishments, achievements etc. are gradually & rapidly eroding imo.
Darn shame.
FromMyColdDeadHand
07-01-11, 15:36
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584004576416284144069702.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
I thought this was one of the better discussions of how things have changed in just one generation and a principled rebuttal to the gay lifestyle, not its people. Homesexuality has gone from teh sin that dare not say its name to the lifestyle that won't shut up. All while traditional western values are just disdained, but made borderline illegal.
Morality lead the law and then it was deamed that freedom of religion actually meant freedom from religion. Laws based on morality are struck down and what is jammed down our throats is that if it is legal it is moral. A civilization cannot run on interactions that are deemed just below felony level.
Add in the substitution of DNA for morality and "I was born that way" becomes a rational for behavior. If it written in the 'scripture' of DNA then it must be seen as holy. Someone is going to say that being a mass murder is in their DNA and if John Edwards is his attorney, he'll get off.
GermanSynergy
07-01-11, 16:31
All of this is by design, and is no accident. It's cultural Marxism.
Suwannee Tim
07-01-11, 17:41
We have dismissed a culture dating back 2,500 year to Aristotle and Plato and substituted it with the culture recommended by the pornographer Hefner and the liar and fraud Kinsey. Everyone has a myriad of rights and no one has any responsibilities. Except for working people of course, they have a responsibility for those "less fortunate", i.e. those who don't work. The harder you work and the more successful you are the more you are demonized. We tax and penalize work, subsidize and laud sloth and wonder why the economy is collapsing. Public policy is made on the basis of the desires of tiny minorities with no consideration given to the unintended consequences. I ramble, I rant. I think I'll cut the grass.
Actually Hefner would be more indicative of the older culture.
He has largely mastered his own destiny and risen far above most of his peers. He has also led a very non conformist lifestyle that is hardly representative of the "everyone must be the same" socialist tendencies we are talking about here.
In fact most religions come closer to the "cultural marxism" mindset than Hefner does. With respect to the average guy bearing the burden of the deadbeats of society, I couldn't agree more. Even worse than the average guy who shoulders the burden of those unwilling to work is the demonetization of the successful person as if they have done something wrong and need to be punished by being stripped of their wealth.
As for the others posters "born that way" discussion. I actually believe that is true. I think Jeffery Dahmer, John Gacy, Danny Rollins and the like would have been very ****ed up people regardless of any change in upbringing. But the fact that somebody is "different" (serial killers, pedophiles, etc.) doesn't mean we have to excuse or accept that difference.
I usually call "bullshit" on the "good old days" and "aren't children awful these days" conversations. Because, frankly, they ARE bullshit to some extent. Trust me, prior generations were worse AND better than they are portrayed.
But... We now have the fattest and laziest generation in the history of mankind, in the US. Demonstrable fact.
And our education system, which we built from total crapola in the early beginnings of America, has slipped from it's post-WWII pinnacle.
And I am astonished how many unparented children there are. My wife and I raise half the neighborhood in our fully Unionized, so-called "progressive" town, where very very seldom do births have a mommy and a daddy present.
It makes one want to take a flamethrower to some of these male and female animals who are popping out children left and right and abandoning them. They are so hungry for affection and discipline, that they end up hanging around our house because my wife, who, because of my long deployments, raises the by herself.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/216373_10150273704548206_674873205_9537152_5061809_n.jpg
We just graduated our youngest daughter, and the above young man. His name is Michael. Neither one of his alleged parents were able to make it to our house, where we held his graduation party. I suppose they had something better to do that day.
I usually call "bullshit" on the "good old days" and "aren't children awful these days" conversations. Because, frankly, they ARE bullshit to some extent. Trust me, prior generations were worse AND better than they are portrayed.
Yep, and I agree. I could give many examples of the flaws in early America. But with respect to raising kids correctly, I'm starting to think many were better off growing up during the Depression.
We just graduated our youngest daughter, and the above young man. His name is Michael. Neither one of his alleged parents were able to make it to our house, where we held his graduation party. I suppose they had something better to do that day.
And I think that is a huge part of it. Most parents today have no idea what that means. At best they had a single parent family and their primary care taker was day care. And low income employees care about as much for your kids as the cafeteria workers at public schools.
Michael and the others are lucky to have at least found some kind of refuge.
FromMyColdDeadHand
07-02-11, 01:28
There is a war on the family so that there are no longer ties that hold a family together.
We got Social Security and old people were no longer living with families in multi-generational arangements. The parents had more free time and money to spend on their own selfish desires.
We tore apart communities and made busing companies rich all in the name of making sure there were the same number of brown, red, blue, yellow and green M&Ms in each bag. A court just ruled today that they only way to end racism is to discriminate.
We decimated a generation of unborn children with abortions. To keep 'growth' going and the Ponzi scheme of Social Security going we imported people, legally and illegally to replace the babies we tossed in the trash. The middle class families get close to population replacement or even decline. We have outsourced idiot sons and unburdened people from raising normal sized families so that they raise and send Jim and Mary to college, but import Jose and Maria and stick them with the lowly jobs that they would never stick their own children with. It is almost as if we despise manual labor so much that the mercy killing of an abortion is better than having a son as a roofer or daughter as a maid. Yuppies with their 2.1 kids blow money so that they can have more free time and money to spend on their own selfish desires.
For the families that we couldn't reduce, we tore them apart with social welfare plans that discouraged or were even hostile to a two parent family. We offered billions for bastards that we then fed into a public school system that was devoid of western values and societal norms and incentivized schools by measuring how many children were eligible for 'free lunches'.
Empires and civilizations are never conquered from the outside- the Germanic tribes or Cortez didn't bring down the Roman or Aztec civilizations- they were just the agents of the mercy killing of empires that had rotted from the inside. So it shapes up for us.
Happy 4th this weekend, enjoy the ride while you can. In the words of my Swedish neighbor, "If you guys screw this up, where do I go then???"
Moose-Knuckle
07-02-11, 03:10
There is a war on the family so that there are no longer ties that hold a family together.
We got Social Security and old people were no longer living with families in multi-generational arangements. The parents had more free time and money to spend on their own selfish desires.
We tore apart communities and made busing companies rich all in the name of making sure there were the same number of brown, red, blue, yellow and green M&Ms in each bag. A court just ruled today that they only way to end racism is to discriminate.
We decimated a generation of unborn children with abortions. To keep 'growth' going and the Ponzi scheme of Social Security going we imported people, legally and illegally to replace the babies we tossed in the trash. The middle class families get close to population replacement or even decline. We have outsourced idiot sons and unburdened people from raising normal sized families so that they raise and send Jim and Mary to college, but import Jose and Maria and stick them with the lowly jobs that they would never stick their own children with. It is almost as if we despise manual labor so much that the mercy killing of an abortion is better than having a son as a roofer or daughter as a maid. Yuppies with their 2.1 kids blow money so that they can have more free time and money to spend on their own selfish desires.
For the families that we couldn't reduce, we tore them apart with social welfare plans that discouraged or were even hostile to a two parent family. We offered billions for bastards that we then fed into a public school system that was devoid of western values and societal norms and incentivized schools by measuring how many children were eligible for 'free lunches'.
Empires and civilizations are never conquered from the outside- the Germanic tribes or Cortez didn't bring down the Roman or Aztec civilizations- they were just the agents of the mercy killing of empires that had rotted from the inside. So it shapes up for us.
Happy 4th this weekend, enjoy the ride while you can. In the words of my Swedish neighbor, "If you guys screw this up, where do I go then???"
A damn fine post sir and a Happy 4th to you and yours.
thought of this post when I read about how some kids working at Apple stores are not happy and want to unionize ?
of course only a few and apple is very lib so sure it attracts those types to work their
but I would like to smack em tell em shut up and be happy you have a nice job in a nice building dealing with nice product
dont like it move to Central America and work for a year then come back and tell me you have it rough
I think to me some kids like mine and others are getting a good upbringing but sadly wont have the freedoms we had cause of people doing things like shutting down public lands to ride dirt bikes freely etc..
but man many kids seem to be whining snot nose brats these days who are so out of control !!!
I was too young to remember.
I just remember my Dad parking the blazer when we couldn't drive any closer and then hiking part way up a mountain until we found a good spot.
I still wish I could remember which mountain had the lake. Waking up in the morning and looking out over the lake was an impressively beautiful sight.
My bet is it was somewhere between Helen and Dahlonega... Beautiful area up there.
~The part about not being able to ride your bike all over town hits home. I was all over the place w/ a bmx under my ass. Never told where I was going...just be back before dark.
~Only time I WANTED a ride to school was when the weather was bad.
~Always had a shotgun in the back of the bronco during bird season...just kept my mouth shut and parked on campus.
~Living on the border & sneaking off to Mexico for underage drinking was right of passage for lots of us misfits w/out any big worries.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
My boy turns into a teenager on Sunday...poor kid lives in a different world. The valley just isn't the same. My wife watches that boy like a hawk & stands on the corner when he wants to walk home from school with his buddies which is only 1/2 mile away:rolleyes:
Can't say I blame her...the world is just full of creeps from just a couple decades ago. She would rather have him on the xbox than at the park unsupervised. It's just sad deal that way things have changed where I was born and grew up. Border life used to be special & still is to me is many ways...it just has an element that has lost it's romance. The danger aspect is too much too ignore.
I cannot even imagine what it will be like for my grandkids...I hope someday we can take this country back. We have let the sacrifices of the greatest generation down imho. I'm hopeful the true soul of the U.S. will stand up and fix this free-fall.
GermanSynergy
07-02-11, 11:15
We have extended family in town, and I took the father and his 2 sons (age 8 and 12) to the local outdoor range for some trigger time on my BCM.
I gave them a block of instruction on the carbine prior to going to the range, and when we got there and began a course of basic fire, they all did pretty good.
Additionally, at no time was anyone muzzle swept, nor were there fingers on the trigger until it was time to shoot. The questions they asked were all excellent as well.
The father had just received his CCW permit, and asked about professional training, handgun selection, etc.
While it appears that we're heading for hell in a handbasket, there are still some parents that raise their kids right, and there are still alot of good kids out there that will grow up into responsible, productive citizens.
riding my BMX bike and later regular bike all over we never had the insane traffic back in my day :)
also the idiots who just dont care the road rage etc..
I think the other thing that seems lost here these days
is the neighbor or other parent seeing your kid do something bad can say I KNOW WHO YOUR PARENTS ARE AND I AM GOING TO TELL THEM does not exist here so much ?
so other parents could kinda keep your kids in line in general and people were OK with that
I think most know what I mean ?
like having water balloon fights with neighborhoods but not throwing at cars :)
it could just be where I am but seems common these days that neighbors dont know neighbors to much ? in the islands most all neighbors know each other which is one of the things I miss
here I go out of my way to get to know the neighbors and only a few respond back and they are all the older folks :)
FromMyColdDeadHand
07-03-11, 14:46
The first Frog astronaut via one of those three man slingshots with the medical tubing....
God Speed Frog Glenn!
Suwannee Tim
07-04-11, 16:36
Victor Davis Hansen on NRO (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270892/liberal-frankensteins-victor-davis-hanson?page=1)
Suwannee Tim
07-04-11, 16:37
......Additionally, at no time was anyone muzzle swept, nor were there fingers on the trigger until it was time to shoot. The questions they asked were all excellent as well......
A safe day at the range is a good day at the range.
Steyr, a thoughtful post. Thanks for taking the time!
I agree with many of the sentiments you expressed about children. Although these are not in a particular order and their importance varies widely, here are a few additional or related observations on how things have changed for kids. I see this with my two teen daughters, and with their friends and the many kids we interact with in our church's youth group.
* Decreasing interaction with the "real world." Steyr's observation really hit home on this one. Some examples I have observed:
- Heavy computer and electronic media usage. The huge majority of kids that my kids know, spend most of their free time doing one of these activities: messing with the computer, watching videos or listening to music, or playing electronic games. When I was a kid and we'd get together, we used to go out hunting, riding horses, swimming in the river, riding bikes, playing baseball, etc. Now, even the boys spend a lot of their time watching movies, playing Xbox, or doing Facebook, etc.
- Less contact with nature and time outdoors. I've noticed that directly related to the previous point about heavy PC/electronic usage, most kids just don't do as much outside as they used to, and they don't have real first-hand contact with nature.
- Artificial experiences. It seems that so few kids I meet today--mostly the friends of my daughters--have had any first-hand experiences such as riding horses in the "wild" (and not on some guided tour with a manicured trail), swimming in a river (rather than a sanitized pool), fishing in a non-stocked lake or river (and then cleaning/cooking it yourself), hunting, tent or open camping in a more wild or "non-domesticated" area, etc. Even when they have actually gotten to do some of these things, say riding horses, it's always in an artificial atmosphere, where you can't go off the trail, you can't run or jump your horse, and so on. About all that can be said for these kinds of experiences, they are better than nothing. A little bit.
* The obsession with safety above all else. The extreme societal obsession with safety for kids has become a ball and chain that limits their experiences (and ultimately, their thinking as well).
- No more toy guns! Try this exercise: go through your local chain stores like Walmart, Target, whatever, and see how many semi-realistic toy guns you can find. Every year, my family and I buy several hundred dollars worth of toys for kids for a local ministry where we donate them. And over the last 10 years, I've been dismayed to see that increasingly, the "normal" and "family" types of retail stores simply will not provide realistic guns and weapons for play purposes. This may not seem like a big deal, but it reinforces in the minds of the general public that guns are a "dangerous" thing, something not to be thought of as 'fun' nor as an important tool that is a regular part of life (just as important as toy cars, toy tools, or whatever).
- No more fireworks! WA is a liberal state, so I know it's more extreme here than in some other states, and that some states still allow a full line-up of great fireworks. But the trend is all over, and especially in cities. The impulse is always to ban stuff under the guise of safety. Every year I am shocked by the amount of new "banning" efforts that occur, and the sheer number of new city ordinances that involve restricting children from shooting fireworks.
- No more slides and swings! This one really shocked me, but over the last 10 years or so, traditional slides, swings, and many types of "jungle gym" play sets that used to be on city parks and school playgrounds, have disappeared. Reasoning? Again, safety above all else (also, the government wants to minimize lawsuits by idiot parents whose kids break their arm on the slide, but that's another issue).
I could go on. Definitely Steyr is right about the trend toward egalitarianism, which attempts to put all kids on the same level and to discourage excellence. A major front in the effort to change kids is the effort to eradicate any notion of male and female differences, beginning with the kind of toys they are given to play with, and extending now to what they are taught in school. I think ultimately this effort will fail, and it is already and scientifically demonstrated to be a joke, as their are male/female differences firmly grounded in biology that cannot simply be explained away.
Is there an ultimate and common cause of all this redefinition of kids' experiences and education? There are definitely plenty of intermediate causes, for instance the whole trend in our society is toward radical egalitarianism, so it's not surprising to see that attempt at "leveling" (which discourages excellence and achievement) being forced on kids at school and other child organizations. But it's hard to ignore the possibility that there may be some kind of larger "plan" that somebody has in mind to basically reshape the next generation, using the public schools as the primary instrument of propaganda.
FromMyColdDeadHand
07-05-11, 15:20
On the positive side, I see that they are bringing "Thunder Cats" animated TV show back....
We have extended family in town, and I took the father and his 2 sons (age 8 and 12) to the local outdoor range for some trigger time on my BCM. ....................
While it appears that we're heading for hell in a handbasket, there are still some parents that raise their kids right, and there are still alot of good kids out there that will grow up into responsible, productive citizens.
Good job!
On the other side of the coin, I really wonder how much you teach now will follow the kids further into life, once they start to formulate their own opinions and worldviews and circles of friends. I know how much my mind has changed from what I was tought growing up, even though a lot of the more perhaps subtle things still apply, and it's a bloody lot. Scares the hell out of me if I ever have kids....
* Decreasing interaction with the "real world." .............................................
* The obsession with safety above all else..............
True.
People can't even do a simple activity as a group without constantly attaching their cell phone to their face or fingers.
And I get a real laugh when I hear people talk about the long "hike" they went on....
Obsession with safety- reminds me of a movie- "if they repeat key words like 'safe' and 'secure location' a lot, they're going to kill you.":p
But aside, I think it's less of an obsession with safety, as it is an obsession with not taking responsibility for your own actions and sueing everyone in sight that's forced this general dumbing-down of everything on us. And if that just so happens to be in line with someones agenda, then it's on to the old "for your own safety" standy.
Is there an ultimate and common cause of all this redefinition of kids' experiences and education? There are definitely plenty of intermediate causes, for instance the whole trend in our society is toward radical egalitarianism, so it's not surprising to see that attempt at "leveling" (which discourages excellence and achievement) being forced on kids at school and other child organizations. But it's hard to ignore the possibility that there may be some kind of larger "plan" that somebody has in mind to basically reshape the next generation, using the public schools as the primary instrument of propaganda.
Basically, they've taken the "All men created equal" line and bastardized it to fit their own agenda. Bastards....:mad:
This thread brings up some aspects of growing up which I enjoyed and benefited from, which are absent from the lives of those younger than I.
Some that I can think of, that really bother me
1. School playground rules
Kids are no longer allowed to play "contact, chase or gun" games where I went to school. No more red rover, smear the queer, cops and robbers, and I even think chase is not allowed.
2. Kids can't interact
In my day, my friends and I were out in the neighborhood on our bikes until the lights came on. Getting exercise, having fun, building social skills. Now most kids spend those hours on the computer getting fat.
3. Bye bye wood shop and metal shop.
At least where I went to school, wood shop and metal shop were scrapped to cut costs. Learning real skills seemed to take a back seat to taking more and more standardized tests.
It is sad.
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