tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post3643923023788841569..comments2024-03-29T04:06:37.402-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Freedom Comes to the SchoolyardStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-25513207071533621692014-03-25T12:24:01.968-07:002014-03-25T12:24:01.968-07:00I have fond memories of the extremely physical and...I have fond memories of the extremely physical and by today's standards violent games of capture the flag, keep-away, smear the queer and the prisoner game, that took place before school and during recess at my various elementary schools. It created an environment of focused, well-behaved boys. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-73421937942169046602014-03-25T08:59:15.771-07:002014-03-25T08:59:15.771-07:00I Googled “let children take risks,” and found a l...I Googled “let children take risks,” and found a lot of quality articles discussing this topic. A similar article to the one quoted in your blog post is titled “Kids need the adventure of ‘risky’ play” published in The Guardian in 2008. The conclusions are almost identical to the New Zealand story.<br />In my childhood (50’s and 60’s), my parents seldom complained about the skinned knees that I frequently suffered, but were upset about having to patch my pants way too often. Playground wounds were considered normal and expected.<br />My grandfather worked for Southern Pacific railroad in south Louisiana. He was responsible for opening and closing a railroad bridge for barge traffic, and the bridge was about three-quarters of a mile long. My dad never told me to stay off the bridge. But when I was about 10, he took me to the middle of the bridge, and showed me how to save my life, if I found myself there with an approaching train. I wonder how many urban parents would ever do such a thing as that.<br />I was lucky to be raised by parents who were raised in the countryside, and learned to survive a ‘risky’ childhood. They expected no less from their children. If nothing else, it helps develop common sense.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01990269310381826048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-75055813572908463862014-03-25T06:45:23.563-07:002014-03-25T06:45:23.563-07:00Amazing story, thank you. It really shifts the vie...Amazing story, thank you. It really shifts the view on these issues about children bullying and vandalizing. What if these transgressions were their ways of expressing their freedom? What if they became not just ways to get attention, but ways of saying "You're not the boss of me!"<br /><br />I must confess a fear that we're going to see a huge backlash, a rebellion of young people on a scale we've never seen before... worse than the 1960s. All these "zero tolerance" policies and over-programmed after-school activities are idiot's delight. It's not for the good of the students, it's for the convenience of hyper-vigilant, I'm-busy-doing-something-else adults. School now doubles as a public works program for adults and daycare for dual-income families. <br /><br />We've got freeway billboards all over the place telling us either to go spend one's life savings to attend ___ college, or gamble at a casino to win prizes, or sue someone to "fight back." Every Tom, Dick and Harry two-bit attorney is telling you to strike back at all the injustice. America is run by lawyers' whims, whether accident tort lawyers or regulatory bureaucrats. Man is serving law rather than law serving man. We've got this ObamaCare monstrosity that's changing every American's relationship to the health system. Yet only one group is exempted wholesale: lawyers. There's no tort reform whatsoever, which is the one issue ALL medical professionals can agree is in dire need of action. <br /><br />The straightjacket of rampant legalism and it's attendant regulatory leviathan is paralyzing our institutions and, in this case, even spoiling playground recess.<br /><br />TipAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com