tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21829866.post3778432569818747428..comments2023-08-20T07:06:14.115-04:00Comments on Thurber's Thoughts: Parents still know more than their childrenMaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12677808307727487766noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21829866.post-51802766062631133202009-10-16T14:52:12.167-04:002009-10-16T14:52:12.167-04:00May I suggest that your eight-year old self was mo...May I suggest that your eight-year old self was more wise than you thought, and knew that a lot of time in school was wasted, and that, while you didn't have another plan, you knew that something better was out there?<br /><br />Keep in mind though, I don't buy into the idea that schools have somehow gotten worse, I think they've always been bad. <br /><br />I've come to the conclusion recently that great cultures have always prized the wisdom that comes with age, but didn't necessarily ignore the enormous observational and information gathering skills of children and youth (see <i>The Emperor Has No Clothes</i>.) <br /><br />I am reminded of an anecdote from a NYC mother who said that her two young sons would spend weekends studying the ins and outs of the NYC subway because they were fanatics. When people would ask her how to get from one place to another, one of her sons would answer, and then the guy would look at her oddly. She would reassure them that he'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who knows the subway system better than her sons. <br /><br />It was the Western Industrial Revolution when youth and old were so harshly separated and each started assuming that they had nothing to learn from the other, because they were living different lives. (Well, youth has always been stubborn, admittedly.)<br /><br />The Internet age reversed that, and the old needed to depend on the young again in a significant way to function in society. I think this will level out over a few decades, but I think it will be a better balance, as it was before the Industrial Revolution. <br /><br /><i>whatever happened to parents teaching children about how to be discriminating in terms of the information they read</i><br /><br />I've come to the conclusion that that wasn't all that common. <br /><br />I think the commercial you cite is actually using the child as a way to guilt-trip the hypothetically environmentally conscious father, and not necessarily is offering information that he didn't have before. In that way, the commercial is rather dumb. <br /><br />And of course, it all depends on the child and the parent. <br /><br />When I was young, my father and I argued about a VCR purchase. He insisted that Betamax with a corded remote was the way to go, I insisted that VHS with a cordless remote was the way to go. <br /><br />I think he bought the VHS with the cordless remote to prove me wrong, and it only took about a year or two for me to get satisfaction. <br /><br />To this day, he is at a loss to explain why VHS won over Betamax.Kadimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04341840022248976546noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21829866.post-40377604983261200382009-10-16T14:02:09.141-04:002009-10-16T14:02:09.141-04:00Maggie,
Perhaps we can assign some level of blame...Maggie,<br /><br />Perhaps we can assign some level of blame to the NEA and a progressive education movement that borders on indoctrination, but I believe that you are correct that the final responsibility remains with parents.<br /><br />This is not to say that I remember influencing purchasing decisions of my parents, for I grew up in the Dark Ages when schools taught "reading, writing, and 'rithmetic". I did participate in the raising of three children however, and the only advice that I recall asking for had to do with the color of automobiles (heaven forbid they should be embarrassed when being dropped off for school).<br /><br />As for the knowledge of children:<br />"Children have always been smarter than their parents. If you don't believe me, just ask them."Timothy W Higginshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17118861693269565715noreply@blogger.com