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We Have Ruined Childhood

nytimes.com

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Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#301

Post by codingslave »

Grzegrzolka wrote: post #295
parasubvert wrote: post #286

It’s a strange article from an outside-US perspective. My 2.5 year old in daycare has lots of play time (at least 3 hours a day), plus at an hour at home in the morning and evening. Usually about 1 hour is on the iPad (Toca Blocks is her free play game), the rest with books, blocks, in the garden with flowers, on her tricycle... The 9 year old’s “before and after school” program is all about free play time, plus two…

USA is just slowly rotting away. From what I read here about how modern life in US looks like I seriously suspect that there will be some kind of massive epidemic mind deseases outburst there in 15-30 years.

Yeah, I agree. There's real issues that arent being addressed, and maybe they can't be addressed. I consider myself smart, but can't really tell whats true anymore. Which side should I be on, why is the USA declining, its complicated

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#302

Post by DanBC »

Red_Tarsius wrote: post #123
shioyama wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kids need time with their friends away from parents. I'm so glad I was able to grow up in the (sadly last) "be home for dinner, be back by dark" generation. Completely agree with your comment, but "sadly last" here is not accurate unless you're talking about North America and maybe Europe. I live in Japan and it's quite normal, even in a big city like Tokyo, to let kids play on their own until it gets dark. I feel…

Apples and oranges. Japan is one of the safest countries in the world. - Murder rate (per year per 100,000 inhabitants) Japan: 0.20 USA: 5.30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention... - Rape rate (number of rape incidents per 100,000 citizens) Japan: 1.0 USA: 27.3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics

There's a lot of discussion in the Wikipedia article saying that you can't compare rates internationally. Please be a bit more careful with statistics.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#303

Post by maxheadroom »

Rotdhizon wrote: post #83

Seems like society is constantly pushing to remove all the ways in which kids used to live. Can't just wonder around and play on the sidewalks or the streets anymore with your friends, someone will call the police on you. Can't hang out in the woods, as those have mostly been torn down to make way for new neighborhoods, and the woods that do remain are typically private property. Unless you are lucky enough to live i…

>...and the woods that do remain are typically private property.

I've heard that in the states you can own a piece of property but have "no right" to get to it, as it's surrounded by other pieces of private property and, so, you're at the whims of those properties' owners. Is this true?

In Sweden, we have the concept of 'Allemansrätten'[0]; which is to say that 'private property' (in the absolute sense) doesn't exist and you have the freedom to roam, as long as you don't disturb or destroy anything.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam#Sweden

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#304

Post by bildung »

knolax wrote: post #146
odessacubbage wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

could you elaborate?

There are a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding Waldorf Schools. Some say that it's a cult.

IMO it would be false to not describe Waldorf pedagogics as a cult. Steiner literally said he got his insights through visions where god spoke to him.

And most axioms of Waldorf pedagogics have been been empirically falsified in the past decades.

Luckily the parental household still is the strongest indicator for intellectual outcome of the kids. And as the kids in Waldorf schools are usually self-selected from middle and upper class households, one usually hasn't many dire social or economic problems in a class. So all in all the negative effect of Waldorf schools isn't big.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#305

Post by flukus »

oska wrote: post #270
flukus wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Australia at least this is an area we are getting worse at ( https://lsv.com.au/research/water-competency-of-victorian-ch... ). 3 out of 5 fail the current standard of swimming continuously for 50 meters at the end of primary school. The standard has dropped too, ~25 years ago when I was tested the standard was 200 meters and most of the "training" happened in unstructured time.

That's disappointing. I feel like being able to swim and handle ocean surf is a "birthright" of Aussie kids. I remember being taken out in fairly big crashing surf as young as 5 and 6 years old by my parents so I could learn how to handle it (dive under breaking waves, judge currents, etc). I would guess the trend is not so bad in Queensland. One thing that is very impressive here is the number of pools in schools, i…

I grew up on the Gold Coast and definitely enjoyed that birthright, playing in the ocean shallows from before I could walk, doing nippers at age 6, etc, but I believe the Queensland standard has also dropped to 50m. I don't think many public schools there have pools even now though, it was almost all private ones when I was a kid. A big differentiator in Qld was the huge number of backyard pools, but they seem to be disappearing as Qld catches up population wise with the southern states, not to mention costs with recent droughts.

Watching my nephews that nature of their swimming seems to be a bit different, for me we were riding or bikes to pools/beaches by ourselves from the age of about 9, they live in Brisbanes suburbia and have to be driven to a pool/beach and then supervised. They're largely left to their own merits once they get there, but it's more of a family thing than a friends thing and they don't have to learn there own dispute resolution and the like, nor do they get to decide when to go and when to leave.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#306

Post by honzzz »

Rotdhizon wrote: post #83

Seems like society is constantly pushing to remove all the ways in which kids used to live. Can't just wonder around and play on the sidewalks or the streets anymore with your friends, someone will call the police on you. Can't hang out in the woods, as those have mostly been torn down to make way for new neighborhoods, and the woods that do remain are typically private property. Unless you are lucky enough to live i…

>>> someone will call the police on you

This may be a naive question but please bear with a non-US person - what would happen in the US if someone actually called police on you? Could you just say "these are my children and I think it is good for them to be unsupervised, good bye"?

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#307

Post by dougmwne »

Grzegrzolka wrote: post #295
parasubvert wrote: post #286

It’s a strange article from an outside-US perspective. My 2.5 year old in daycare has lots of play time (at least 3 hours a day), plus at an hour at home in the morning and evening. Usually about 1 hour is on the iPad (Toca Blocks is her free play game), the rest with books, blocks, in the garden with flowers, on her tricycle... The 9 year old’s “before and after school” program is all about free play time, plus two…

USA is just slowly rotting away. From what I read here about how modern life in US looks like I seriously suspect that there will be some kind of massive epidemic mind deseases outburst there in 15-30 years.

That epidemic is here. After the opiod crisis, overdose is now the leading cause of death for those under 50. Suicide is increasing for all age cohorts, not just teenagers. Deaths from alcohol are increasing. Life expextancy in the US has been declining for 3 years. I actually suspect we'll start to get a handle on these problems in the next few years since we're beginning to collectively wake up to the importance of mental health and the damage our screens and isolation are doing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic_in_the_Unite...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2018/11/16/alcohol...

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#308

Post by Pimpus »

codingslave wrote: post #301
Grzegrzolka wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USA is just slowly rotting away. From what I read here about how modern life in US looks like I seriously suspect that there will be some kind of massive epidemic mind deseases outburst there in 15-30 years.

Yeah, I agree. There's real issues that arent being addressed, and maybe they can't be addressed. I consider myself smart, but can't really tell whats true anymore. Which side should I be on, why is the USA declining, its complicated

The US became too prosperous, too fast. They're an example for other countries to learn from in their own development - emulate the good parts, avoid the bad. In Eastern Europe smart phones are just starting to become commonplace and people are already aware of how harmful they are, parents especially. The US does have one huge advantage the other countries don't though.

> I can't really tell what's true anymore

This is by design, and politics is just stagecraft meant to hypnotize the masses, distract and confuse them.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#309

Post by belorn »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #262
casefields wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Males are triple the rate of females.

That’s similar for adults. If you look at the number of suicide attempts the difference diminishes however. A possible reason for this is guys tend to use methods of suicide that have low rates of failure (eg guns) while women tend to use methods that leave open a window where you can be saved (eg pills). Why that is I don’t know but I suppose women on average have a more social nature and don’t want to leave behind…

When it comes to teens, suicide by guns has dropped significant while the difference in deaths between girls and boys has increased.

Looking at statistics and research here in Sweden where gun ownership by families with children is rather low, the explanation is more focused on difference in how depression express itself different in boys compared to girls and how adults in the near environment respond to that, difference in the rate that boys reach out to adults for help, and alcohol as self-medication.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#310

Post by jamisteven »

dmje wrote: post #293

You guys in the States have it bad. I hear terrible stories about the fear that now surrounds any kind of freedom for kids. Over here in the UK we’re a bit better, but the “give them exams ALL the time” and schools being on their knees, financially, are all too familiar. For me, this journey with my kids has been about a massive slew of things, among the most important: - extending their childhood where possible: enc…

This, having recently moved from the states to Switzerland I can say with confidence that this phenomenon is primarily a US one.
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