Kathianne
06-14-2007, 09:34 AM
Some of us have spoken about this before, most children are over scheduled and not allowed to face 'challenges' and solve them. For the past 5 years or so, universities have been complaining about helicopter parents. I heard the other day on one of the business reports, that some parents were calling employers trying to set up interviews for their children, who are recent college grads. Here is a post that links to a couple sites and books adding to this discussion:
http://instapundit.com/archives2/006257.php
June 14, 2007
LET THE CHILDREN PLAY, or they will never learn:
Children are so cocooned by their parents that they rarely venture far from home and have little concept of space, volume and how the world actually works, David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, said yesterday.
The area in which children were allowed to range freely by their parents was a ninth of what it was a generation ago, he said. He also referred to "most worrying" research which showed children could not grasp basic maths. . . .
Mr Willetts's comments come amid increasing concern that children's experiences are being stifled by over-anxious parents obsessed with "stranger danger", and an increasingly litigious society which means schools and clubs are nervous about taking children on activity holidays and adventure trips.
As a consequence, children who sit in front of their computer or television, grow up with concentration problems as a result, and suffer a "nature deficit disorder", Mr Willetts said.
I can't say I find this surprising. Plus, there's this:
Britain's safety charity suggested yesterday it would be better for the occasional child to fall out of a tree and break their wrist than develop repetitive strain injury from playing computer games.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said parents were too risk-averse, particularly after the abduction of Madeleine McCann in Portugal, and youngsters should be allowed to bruise and cut themselves.
As the playground movement of 100 years ago said, "better a broken arm than a broken spirit." We talked about that in our podcast interview with Conn Iggulden, author of The Dangerous Book for Boys.
posted at 07:56 AM by Glenn Reynolds
http://instapundit.com/archives2/006257.php
June 14, 2007
LET THE CHILDREN PLAY, or they will never learn:
Children are so cocooned by their parents that they rarely venture far from home and have little concept of space, volume and how the world actually works, David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, said yesterday.
The area in which children were allowed to range freely by their parents was a ninth of what it was a generation ago, he said. He also referred to "most worrying" research which showed children could not grasp basic maths. . . .
Mr Willetts's comments come amid increasing concern that children's experiences are being stifled by over-anxious parents obsessed with "stranger danger", and an increasingly litigious society which means schools and clubs are nervous about taking children on activity holidays and adventure trips.
As a consequence, children who sit in front of their computer or television, grow up with concentration problems as a result, and suffer a "nature deficit disorder", Mr Willetts said.
I can't say I find this surprising. Plus, there's this:
Britain's safety charity suggested yesterday it would be better for the occasional child to fall out of a tree and break their wrist than develop repetitive strain injury from playing computer games.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said parents were too risk-averse, particularly after the abduction of Madeleine McCann in Portugal, and youngsters should be allowed to bruise and cut themselves.
As the playground movement of 100 years ago said, "better a broken arm than a broken spirit." We talked about that in our podcast interview with Conn Iggulden, author of The Dangerous Book for Boys.
posted at 07:56 AM by Glenn Reynolds