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Why We Banned Legos (2006)

rethinkingschools.org

371–380 of 440 posts

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#371
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except it wasn’t the legos causing the trouble. It was a few kids. Instead of correcting those kids that were being selfish jerks they blamed the toy and punished everyone. Well those kids will still be selfish jerks, the problem remains.

Kids aren’t selfish jerks because they are inherently bad, but because as kids they have strong emotional responses and poor emotional control, are self centered and bad at interpreting/understanding other people’s feelings, and haven’t learned effective alternative strategies for solving problems yet. Luckily, these are substantially trainable skills. Removing the toy that is the focus of a lot of interpersonal dram…

> Removing the toy that is the focus of a lot of interpersonal drama is (sometimes) a quick way to diffuse the immediate conflict. Then talking together about how different people are feeling in a particular circumstance and getting group feedback on ways to solve problems constructively is the way to help kids improve at the skills they are lacking.

If all possible source of conflicts are removed than when significant conflicts are going to arise and be learned from? This is self-contradicting.

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#372
post #333
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is hilarious and horrifying that people will read a story about teaching kids the importance of sharing and decry it as a slippery slope towards mass genocide.

The communist regime being mentioned by name in this discussion is Cuba. I'm not aware of any genocides attributed to Cuba, so where do you get this talk of genocide? Answer: It's your strawman.

> I'm not aware of any genocides attributed to Cuba

Communist regimes are known for the opacity and media suppression. It's not like they'll tell the whole world about it.

And contrary to what is believed, Cuba is not totally sealed off the world and still relies on capitalism to survive (cigar, rum and tourism), which mainly prevented it from going full North-Korea.

https://www.therichest.com/shocking/the-15-worst-atrocities-...

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#373
post #183

Stuff like this is why we get parents claiming that teachers are trying to indoctrinate children.

I mean, yes. That’s why we send them to school right? So we don’t all have to do it ourselves.

You deconstruct the concepts of parents and raising their kids and teachers only to conflate them as one and the same because both are shaping the minds of human beings.

The problem is that they do not have the same scope and responsibilities even if they are note entirely exclusive. The teachers of the article clearly overstepped their bounds and the trust most parents have in teachers not to shape the mind of children with political beliefs.

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#374
There will be multiple situations in adult life where a resource or a position can't be shared (e.g. winning a competition, love interest, getting promoted, etc.) and physical and social competition is the only way to acquire those. These teachers are preparing these children for a fantasy world of their own that does not exist.

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a very distinct strain of American thought that says freedom means the biggest or richest get whatever they want. Which is ironic because that’s actually exactly what tyranny is. But in that framework, fairness is tyranny, because they see themselves as the strong and feel that it is their birthright to take what they want from those they see as weak.

> There is a very distinct strain of American thought that says freedom means the biggest or richest get whatever they want. Where did you get this idea? How do you reconcile it with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights?

Well its pretty apparent in the state of American society today, and exemplified by companies like Facebook and Tesla flagrantly and repeatedly violating the law without substantive consequence

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#376
post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The communist regime being mentioned by name in this discussion is Cuba. I'm not aware of any genocides attributed to Cuba, so where do you get this talk of genocide? Answer: It's your strawman.

> I'm not aware of any genocides attributed to Cuba Communist regimes are known for the opacity and media suppression. It's not like they'll tell the whole world about it. And contrary to what is believed, Cuba is not totally sealed off the world and still relies on capitalism to survive (cigar, rum and tourism), which mainly prevented it from going full North-Korea. https://www.therichest.com/shocking/the-15-worst-a…

Batista also committed a lot of atrocities from a fairly capitalism-based position in collusion with Cuba’s wealthy landowners. Not that the previous regime excuses the current communist regime, but opacity, media suppression, and human rights violations are of course not exclusive to communism.

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#377

this tells me that even 8 year olds will organize themselves into a capitalist hierarchy without any prior understanding of what they're actually doing. You had a few wealthy landowners that ruled the majority of resources, and a bourgeois fighting for whatever pieces they could get their hands on. quite interesting indeed.

To me, that just suggests it's a shortsighted and underdeveloped way to go about business lol

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you miss this part? > 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. I'm sure that the children of the Nintendo generation frequently discussed the power dynamic of King Koop…

I say, let the kids learnt these dynamics naturally without adult suggestions. These political ideas emerge from fundamental ways of social behavior. Let the kids learn these from a bottom up approach rather than a possibly flawed and skewed top down approach.

my early adulthood was totally screwed because of just that. I learned some bad coping mechanisms, because nobody took what happened seriously.

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#379
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the evidence is pretty clear that is the case.. well maybe not "indoctrination" but for sure many many school systems do not share the value system of the parents sending their kids to the schools The question then becomes who's value system should "win", IMO it should be the parents, the parents should have the final say in their child's upbringing not the schools or "community".

What if the parents believe in god's creation of the universe and the science teachers want to teach evolution? Or vice-versa?

You can list 100's of topic for which people will disagree with each other on how children should be educated. I still believe it should be in the parents corner.

That is not to say the parents should direct what the schools teach on a individual level that is however to say I believe in 2 main principles for schools. First and foremost schools should be completely transparent, all parents should have access to copy's of every lesson plan, workbook, assignment, paper, etc. Second I believe in "Backpack" school funding, meaning funding for schools is not done on a geographic area, it is done by enrollment, and parent can choose to enroll their child in the public schools, or a private school or yes even a religious school at which point that school would get the funding for that student.

Re: Why We Banned Legos (2006)

#380
post #333
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is hilarious and horrifying that people will read a story about teaching kids the importance of sharing and decry it as a slippery slope towards mass genocide.

The communist regime being mentioned by name in this discussion is Cuba. I'm not aware of any genocides attributed to Cuba, so where do you get this talk of genocide? Answer: It's your strawman.

Where did Cuba come into this thread?

Is the man with a sword a specific person? What are you talking about?

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