351–360 of 367 posts
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What’re you referencing? I have not heard of any such thing.
He's an idiot who thinks every trans person is mentally ill or forced into early transition by their parents because there cannot possibly be any such thing as "gender dysphoria." Granted, there is a sort of gender trend/craze going on right now, but I think it's important to be compassionate to people who do suffer from gender dysphoria.
Off topic: Though Will is better known for his role in Star Trek, my favorite work of his is a low budget film from the 80’s called The Curse. It is an adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s Color Out of Space, and IMO it’s the best Lovecraft adaptation ever made. (trust me, I’ve seen a lot)
Will Wheaton was impressively good in the popular 1986 movie Stand By Me , also with River Phoenix and Kiefer Sutherland. I believe this was the role that made him famous, years before Star Trek . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_by_Me_(film)
Stand By Me is one of my favorites!
Crazy that’s a Stephen King adaptation!
I liked Joaquin Phoenix’s brother’s character better in that film, though. He plays a child from an unstable family. He died an untimely death :(.
I loved watching TNG as a kid, but Wesley's scenes always made me cringe. Maybe this is why.
I think for me, it was because he was about my age, and acting in the smarmy teacher's-pet way that I knew I tended to put on myself. Add on top that the writing was like the Mary-Sue fantasy of a "gifted student" in a small pond, and I had plenty of reasons to cringe at myself reflected in Wesley Crusher. Wil Wheaton, on the other hand, sounds like a pretty decent guy.
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Ooh, this definitely struck a chord in me, as I fall right into that stereotype. I was forced to play piano for 10 years and to do all those recitals and music theory tests. I could never wiggle myself out of it because of all the guilt-tripping. So of course, I went to college and promptly dropped all of it. And unexpectedly, nearly a decade later, this pandemic thing happened, I returned to piano, recently bought a…
> my parents failed to recognize that for 10 years (as evidenced by never presenting the option of finding someone else) Well, in this case tho, did you ever suggest it? I mean, if it was a matter of disliking the material or the teaching style, but otherwise those lessons weren't in bad form, abusive, etc., so they couldn't see anything bad about them, how would they know?
mkl's reply described it the way I would have explained it. There is that inherent power dynamic between parents and children that can make it difficult to speak up. In addition, piano teachers teaching children are effectively in a parental role for that time.
That's something to keep in mind for anyone who finds themselves in a position of authority over children, who are still in the early stages of expanding their perspectives of the world they live in.
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At the same time, I understand it. There are some things simply out of reach, music you literally cannot play because those wires weren't built when you were younger.
Exactly... at the elite level activities nowadays are simply out of reach to individuals who were not wholly absorbed in it from a young age. Federer - 8. Nadal/Djokovic - 4. S. Williams - 3. L. Hamilton - 8. M. Schumacher - 6. Verstappen - 4. Phelps - 7. Messi - 4. C. Ronaldo - 7. M. Carlsen - 5. Lebron - 9. S. Curry - 6 Some people are just lucky to be good at the things they love doing. The others have to be conte…
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I had piano and clarinet lessons as a kid, and kept them up into my teens. I rarely practiced except when I was forced to, and I wasn't very good at practising when I did. I don't consider this abuse by the way, I was "forced" to go to school lessons too (not that I'm questioning Wil Wheaton's experience, which sounds quite different). Ultimately I found the repetition required in practising extremely boring, and I d…
> But I was given every opportunity, had lessons for years, and didn't prioritise it. I just accept that it wasn't for me. I have a similar story to yours, just with clarinet and flute. Our school (outside the USA) had mandatory lessons and practice, so there was some degree of being forced to do it. I took some piano lessons as an adult and enjoyed it. My piano teacher told me something that really stuck with me. "P…
It feels obvious now that kids should not be on tv at all, by the same logic that they can't consent to sex. They can't consent to the huge ramifications of public exposure.
I don't think Will's experience supports that. It's not that he gave some consent that, looking back on it, wasn't valid. Instead, he repeatedly and explicitly did not consent, and was ignored.
she made me to go her commercial agency and tell the children’s agent, “I want to do what mommy does,” which she has lied to herself about for 40 years. I clearly remember sitting at the kitchen table at our house in Sunland, while she coached me on how the meeting was going to go. She played the agent and I was me. She gave me commercial copy to practice. She coached and prepped me and I went along with it because I WAS SEVEN.
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It's a tough one. If you discover a passion for something as an adult, you'll often wish your parents had pushed you into it as a kid. I feel this way about music, zero education as a kid, started late as an adult, but feel I'll never catch up. Though there's no way of knowing whether I'd have felt the same as a kid, or pushed back against it at the time.
When I was a small child I begged my mother to ask my teacher to excuse me from school music lessons. They were recorder lessons. And 20 children with recorders were giving me a literal headache every week. My teacher excused me but reached out to my mother with the business card of a piano teacher she knew, as she considered music to be important. I am eternally grateful that she did, and that I gave it a try, becau…
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As I have young children of my own today, I'm faced with these questions. What is a healthy amount of pushing vs too much? What about not at all? The only thing they need to be good, not even best, is the studies that will enable them to work. Just help them if they're falling behind. Os support them if they seem to have a passion for something in particular. But otherwise, let them have a life.
I wrote about this in a sibling comment to yours, but I think kids should be pushed at least some amount. I wish I could play piano today, but I was too lazy/unfocused to practice as a kid, and so my mom canceled my lessons and I never learned. It's something I wish my mom had pushed me to do back then. Kids don't always know what's best for them, and they will sometimes take short-term satisfaction (not having to en…
I didn't "push" my son. I did teach him myself what I knew, for years. He can play with both hands and sing along. We visited one nearby conservatory where one of his friends was going to study and talk with some teachers. He finally decided to pass.
Yes, he's been playing much more Minecraft than piano since then. But now he's finished his second Maths year with flying colors and we're both happy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯