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Where do the children play?

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Re: Where do the children play?

#241

Post by hombre_fatal »

rayiner wrote: post #198
reeredfdfdf wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a middle-ground between a big city and full countryside. I lived my childhood in a place with about 4000 people in it. School, friends and everything else I needed was within walking, or at least biking distance. My parents didn't have to drive me everywhere. Obviously there weren't as many possible hobbies and events as in big cities, but mobility wasn't an issue.

Right. Most people in "rural" places live in small towns. My wife went to high school in a rural Iowa town with 2,000 people. You can walk from the high school to anywhere in town in 30 minutes.

All the rural towns I've been to in Texas are just farm roads that you'd never want to walk down and towns with no real centers/plazas to hang out at (and you'd have to drive there anyways).

Then I moved to Mexico and they were on to something there: small towns have central plazas that are heavily used for social activities, young men and women can walk around meeting each other, and they build densely enough to where you can walk around the town.

So I envy anyone whose rural US upbringing is like your wife's. I didn't think we had that as an option anywhere in the US except for movies.

Re: Where do the children play?

#242

Post by pavel_lishin »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #241
rayiner wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Most people in "rural" places live in small towns. My wife went to high school in a rural Iowa town with 2,000 people. You can walk from the high school to anywhere in town in 30 minutes.

All the rural towns I've been to in Texas are just farm roads that you'd never want to walk down and towns with no real centers/plazas to hang out at (and you'd have to drive there anyways). Then I moved to Mexico and they were on to something there: small towns have central plazas that are heavily used for social activities, young men and women can walk around meeting each other, and they build densely enough to whe…

Samesies. It wasn't until my friend group in rural Texas got enough licenses that we could actually drive somewhere to hang out that spending time together outside of school became plausible.

Re: Where do the children play?

#243

Post by em-bee »

devilbunny wrote: post #236
em-bee wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the unfairness criticism is nonsense. it's just politics. and it doesn't even apply here because the existence of different school types would be unfair as well. splitting kids up by ability is not unfair. forcing them in different schools however is. because switching schools takes a lot of effort and it gets harder the older you get simply because the curriculum diverges to much. so even if i am bored in a lower ti…

All the levels of education at my high school happened in the same buildings. There were people in my graduating class of 86 people that I never said ten words to in six years in the same school. I was never in the same classes and didn’t live near them. Which is to say that tracking of any kind is going to end up with this, whether they are separate physical schools or separate curricula within one school.

i get your point, but i have a different experience. i also believe you are missing that once you made friends, switching tracks will only make it slightly more difficult to keep in touch. i didn't make many friends in school, but the friends i did make were not limited to my class and track. i can still see them during breaks, and we still share the same routes to and from school, ad we may still participate in the same extracurricular activities or clubs. those things would not change when switching tracks.

separate physical schools however may mean that i may never see some of these friends ever again. different school routes (even if we live in the same neighborhood). no chance to meet in breaks, etc. that's a whole different world.

Re: Where do the children play?

#244

Post by joshtbradley »

As someone who grew up physically _and_ digitally sheltered, I am grateful for this article. It helped me articulate what I had wanted so badly, to be a kid.

Reading the comments gives me hope that there are still places safe enough and parents brave enough to let their kids run free. I hope to be this parent. And if I’m not, I at least hope I remember how important a digital friend can be for a kid who feels alone.

Re: Where do the children play?

#245

Post by ghc »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #241
rayiner wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Most people in "rural" places live in small towns. My wife went to high school in a rural Iowa town with 2,000 people. You can walk from the high school to anywhere in town in 30 minutes.

All the rural towns I've been to in Texas are just farm roads that you'd never want to walk down and towns with no real centers/plazas to hang out at (and you'd have to drive there anyways). Then I moved to Mexico and they were on to something there: small towns have central plazas that are heavily used for social activities, young men and women can walk around meeting each other, and they build densely enough to whe…

Most small towns in New England are laid out like those towns in Mexico. I wonder if it's a question of age? The pressure to create town squares must have been a lot higher before the automobile came around.

Re: Where do the children play?

#247

Post by famahar »

I feel both unfortunate and lucky to have grown up in a subsidized housing development. In school I was always seen as the poor kid from that "sketchy area", but as a child, this place was a haven for unplanned adventures and low friction hanging outside with friends. All the housing units were surrounded by a large greenspace area full parks, hills, and a community centre where they ran morning breakfast programs and afterschool clubs.

I have countless childhood memories growing up there. All I had to do was step outside and some fun adventure was going to happen among the kids in the area. As online gaming started to become more popular, the area got much quieter. Not sure what it's like now that there's an abundance of online distraction. I do see the social value in online spaces like VR chat though.

Re: Where do the children play?

#248

Post by [deleted] »

gwd wrote: post #32
emil-lp wrote: post #6

> Consider some statistics on the American childhood, drawn from children aged 8-12: 62% have not walked/biked somewhere (a store, park, school) without an adult This is really not representative for other Western countries. Where I'm from, I would say that 75% of 6 year olds walk/bike to school alone, and 100% of older kids do. > In physical space, Western children are almost comically sheltered. I think the author…

> Where I'm from, I would say that 75% of 6 year olds walk/bike to school alone, and 100% of older kids do. When I was growing up in the 80's in the US, I walked to school alone; but there was institutional support for that. There were adults paid to help kids cross major roads, and there were older children ("safetys") who wore an orange sash, trained and assigned to help younger kids walk to school. I don't see tha…

[deleted]

Re: Where do the children play?

#249

Post by mothballed »

rcpt wrote: post #227
pmg101 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did the cops say?

They followed them to school and told the teachers that someone called the police for escort. There's nothing illegal about this and nobody got in trouble but it still sucks.

You are lucky they called the police and not CPS.

CPS have nearly unlimited ability to fuck with your family, whereas police generally can't fuck with you without probable cause a crime has occurred. There is no such process or due process with child protection services as breaking apart families and tossing kids into the abusive foster system is considered 'civil.' CPS doesn't require a criminal law be broken to take action and can declare weaknesses in your parenting for things as simple as dirty dishes in the sink or your refrigerator empty because you're at the end of your grocery cycle.

Re: Where do the children play?

#250

Post by AnnikaL »

prmoustache wrote: post #238
jddj wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DLR at some hours between some stops is practically a school bus. I guess it's possible they're small but not <12yo

Are you calling 12y olds small? That is an age many female already have their periods. My youngest daughter is 12y old and almost 1m70 (5'7"). In some countries and even US states this is already an age you can marry.

Without court approval, no one under 16 can get married in any US state.
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