Well then it sounds like we agree more than I thought. I just think kids need to be treated more like humans with their own sense of dignity (however comically misapplied it is by them) than as similar to how we treat animals. (And as a vegan don’t even get me started on that lmao). Edit: It’s this idea that kids being selfish/mean/stupid sometimes then logically leads to needing to strictly control every aspect of their lives to prevent them from doing bad things and/or “turn them” into “better civilians” that I take issue with. Obviously some guard rails are needed but space to learn reality within those guard rails is important
Oh yeah for sure, I think we approach the discourse from opposite ends in some ways and that’s where it’s at. Like I see a lot of… etherializing? of children. “Oooh they’re just inherently pure souls, all bad in this world is only because we don’t treat them kinder” which leads to a lot of bad shit too, like unschooling. And it’s frustrating after you’ve worked with them for some years. Watching a child not play with a bucket until another child asks them to pass it to them, to then start an argument, makes you realize they’re not divine beings.
Their brains are developing, there’s a lot of tools they don’t have. I can’t count the amount of times two kids have approached me because they’re in a fight and they just don’t have the toolkit to get out of it. Learning how to say “sorry” and emotionally investing into that sorry isn’t something we have from the get go. Until your brain reaches the needed point, you need someone else to step in and guide you along the path.
Well then it sounds like we agree more than I thought. I just think kids need to be treated more like humans with their own sense of dignity (however comically misapplied it is by them) than as similar to how we treat animals. (And as a vegan don’t even get me started on that lmao). Edit: It’s this idea that kids being selfish/mean/stupid sometimes then logically leads to needing to strictly control every aspect of their lives to prevent them from doing bad things and/or “turn them” into “better civilians” that I take issue with. Obviously some guard rails are needed but space to learn reality within those guard rails is important
Oh yeah for sure, I think we approach the discourse from opposite ends in some ways and that’s where it’s at. Like I see a lot of… etherializing? of children. “Oooh they’re just inherently pure souls, all bad in this world is only because we don’t treat them kinder” which leads to a lot of bad shit too, like unschooling. And it’s frustrating after you’ve worked with them for some years. Watching a child not play with a bucket until another child asks them to pass it to them, to then start an argument, makes you realize they’re not divine beings.
Their brains are developing, there’s a lot of tools they don’t have. I can’t count the amount of times two kids have approached me because they’re in a fight and they just don’t have the toolkit to get out of it. Learning how to say “sorry” and emotionally investing into that sorry isn’t something we have from the get go. Until your brain reaches the needed point, you need someone else to step in and guide you along the path.
Edit: see this comment for more examples
It kind of bothers me that a lot of us need them to be pure ethereal beings in the first place to believe they deserve to be treated well!
:yea: me too