The subtitle is enough to indicate that the article is going to be trash.
Why We Banned Legos (2006)
101–110 of 440 posts
Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)
#102I feel visceral disgust reading this article. It seems like the kids were playing with each other in a healthy way and the teachers interposed themselves to change how the kids were playing for political and ideological reasons. This is disgusting to me because I think it's analogous to physical abuse. A teacher hitting a child is bad not just because it's a violent crime, but also because children are especially vul…
I feel the same. I live in Oakland and we have proposal for this type of curriculum: https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11... I feel absolutely livid thinking that these people are out there to inject, indoctrinate and infect innocent minds of children with their disugsting view of the society. Children grow up wonderfully around the world, some 7 billion of us are here. There is no way this ty…
I didn’t read that entire document, but the parts I read actually seemed quite good. I think there are some perspectives there where it’s easy to have a knee-jerk reaction against it, but on closer inspection what they’re saying makes a lot of sense.
Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indoctrination is when you're inculcated with a doctrine. That's not what happened with the children described in the article. But if you mean affecting children's values and social outlook, then indeed, teachers do that. Sometimes they do it unconsciously, in which case it's typically the prevailing social values, explicit and implicit, which children are imbued with; sometimes it's more conscious.
> We also discussed our beliefs about our role as teachers in raising political issues with young children. We recognized that children are political beings, actively shaping their social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity — whether we interceded or not. We agreed that we want to take part in shaping the children’s understandings from a perspective of social justice > From our conversations…
I don't think so. In my experience, kids are more collectivist than the average adult.
Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not print more money to fix wealth inequality?
imagine living in this mindset constantly and being unable to turn it off, even when talking about kids playing with legos
You mean it’s not relevant to mention economics in a discussion about children who invented an economy?
Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the one hand, the kids had developed a system that excluded other kids from playing. Past generations would use this as an opportunity to teach sharing and taking turns. These teachers, on the other hand, took it as an opportunity to teach socialism and collectivism.
I really want to know what you see the difference to be.
When I was in Cuba, the official maximum salary you could earn(e.g as a doctor or teacher or baseball player) was something like $20. People from the party earned more than $3000 through outside deals.
I had also been in Norway that people call socialist but is actually quite capitalistic.
Most socialists have an idealization of what collectivism "should be". They compare "real capitalism"(an implementation of capitalism in reality) against an ideal socialism that have never existed and never will on the real world.
It is only in their minds. Don't tell them about Venezuela or Cuba, China or URSS because they were not the real thing of course.
But they don't admit that Capitalism could also be ideal and perfect.
Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really want to know what you see the difference to be.
Sharing and taking turns is interpersonal generosity which works very well in the real world. Socialism and collectivism is enforced resource allocation typically requiring authoritarian rule which typically becomes oppressive when manifest in the real world.
Says you. Some of us believe that sharing and taking turns is a social obligation -- not a generosity -- necessary to living in a functioning society.
Even more of us believe that a small minority should not be allowed to hoard all resources for themselves while others have nothing.
Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)
#107Seems like they could have solved the problem by never retaining any state. After you are done playing with legos it goes back in the box, and anyone can use it again.
Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)
#108I feel visceral disgust reading this article. It seems like the kids were playing with each other in a healthy way and the teachers interposed themselves to change how the kids were playing for political and ideological reasons. This is disgusting to me because I think it's analogous to physical abuse. A teacher hitting a child is bad not just because it's a violent crime, but also because children are especially vul…
If you had actually read the article, you would know that this is a private after-school program whose participants are "upper-middle class and socially liberal." Your comment sounds like "MY values aren't being taught so this is child abuse!" Maybe some parents don't agree with your values? Maybe they want their children to learn about cooperation and empathy instead of blindly accepting hierarchical power structure…
[deleted]
Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pretty much. It's a basic story of teaching kids about unfairness and how to play nicely with each other. The hysteria in some of these comments is baffling.
But I think the issue is the reliance on "the system" to correct that for you. You can't build the best structure if the system doesn't like it You just wait for hand outs, the system will make it correct for you. In a non-ironic way, this sort of regulation came from ethic systems like a sense of community it the dreaded religion system (help the poor, tithe 10% gains for God) but are now being trained to be replace…
except the children made the system. they decided on the rules that would apply to them. there is no "system" beyond their own agreement!
Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)
#110I know people who worked there a few years after that article was written, and there was no such ban in place. I have to assume the ban was lifted shortly after it was put into place.
The article ends with the ban being lifted.