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We Have Ruined Childhood

nytimes.com

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Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#311

Post by exhaze »

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…

Why don't you just find a WFH job where you don't make so little money that you consider yourself "poor"? I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to spend time with your kids, and I know life is about trade-offs, but it seems a bit extreme to decide that the only way to spend quality time with your kids is to move to a remote village, completely sacrifice earning ability, and reject smartphone technology (I have a smartphone and I have no problem not using it at all during dinner time or when I'm hanging out with friends).

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#312

Post by jaclaz »

dgellow wrote: post #297
aiyodev wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which countries still allow children to grow up free?

Any country in Western Europe.

Yep, but still the amount of kids "roaming free" is far less what used to be (Italy here), in the old days (I am talking og the '70's) - with some due exceptions - after school we had lunch, spent maybe 1 hour doing homework and then (from the age of 6 or 7) "roamed free", usually on bycicles, till there was enough light (or the time was a quarter to 20:00, whatever came first).

A as a side note, most kids wore shorts until roughly 13, the long trousers were reserved to "official" occasions, holiday visits to relatives, (rare) lunches at the restaurants, and similar.

And it was not common to see a kid with both knees not-bruised or non-orange, a much used item was, besides hydrogen peroxide, mercurochrome.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#313

Post by barry-cotter »

code_duck wrote: post #298
oska wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to re-read your comment. At first I thought you were saying you had one hour of homework per night. One hour per class per day is insane. I regularly avoided doing homework throughout my school life. The only thing I think that suffered was my understanding of physics & chemistry. I doubt I would have better understanding now in any other subject area if I had done more homework, including maths and the foreign…

I would rarely do any homework, because I was way more interested in using my Amiga, but I paid close attention in class. For many classes, the way the grading worked out would be that I would get an A for participation, an A for all of the quizzes and tests because I was paying attention knew the material, and an F or D homework, which would work out to a D (65%) in the class. It doesn’t really make any sense consid…

School is not about learning, it is about ranking. Usually it's about ranking people by some weighted sum of intelligence, conscientiousness and conformity. Obviously your school placed a high weight on conscientiousness and conformity.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#314

Post by dougmwne »

honzzz wrote: post #306
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"?

You could be arrested or your children could be taken away from you.

http://www.freerangekids.com/category/child-protective-servi...

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#315

Post by parrellel »

honzzz wrote: post #306
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"?

From multiple previous news articles, Child Protective Services hounds you, possibly takes your children for a bit, and then sticks you on a list for if there's ever any sort of repeat 'trouble'.

Given, these things probably get to be news because they're so extreme, but it pops up every few months. Look up the Maryland family that got in trouble for letting their kids walk to the park for the prototypical example.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#316

Post by lotsofpulp »

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

There are plenty of good organizations out there still, providing good data. You have to use logic to rule out the impossible and improbable, look for biases, and support initiatives for open access to data.

America’s true success was in having a large contingent of people trustworthy enough to cultivate a society that didn’t get bogged down in small transaction costs like needing to bribe town officials or worry about deliveries or food/vehicle/road/etc safety and quality. If we lose that trust in America for each other overall, then we will unravel.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#317

Post by furi »

higherkinded wrote: post #140

>Youngsters these days What a marvelous start, good luck looking trustworthy. It's straight up the same as it was generations and generations before. I also love the emphasis on video games imposed in this article, from the very beginning. I have a different opinion on this. While I can confirm that some team-based games can tilt someone, it's unlikely that it contributes to mentioned suicide rates in any meaningful…

I'm a little lost here. The article doesn't mention video games anywhere that I can see, the words "video" and "game" don't even appear in it. There's a handful of passing mentions of "screens" but the article fairly clearly dismisses that convenient explanation and classifies it as a symptom rather than a cause.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#318

Post by nocitrek »

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…

Same like with everything else in life. They cannot get the job done.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#319

Post by johnisgood »

parasubvert wrote: post #282
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…

This is all pretty US-centric. Kids are allowed a fair amount of freedom in Canada and Europe, where I still see a lot of kids around malls, or parks, playing basketball in courts (which still happens in NYC), or wooded areas. Sure, more are on their phones etc. But it’s really not that different from the 90s IMO, in many locations. The biggest change is there aren’t so many clusters of “neighbourhood kids” as there…

We have built large parks/playgrounds for kids here in Eastern Europe, and we have upgraded most of our playgrounds. There are many of them. Kids can freely be kids here still. :)

What is happening in the US is quite depressing to me. Your kid can be shot for having a toy that the cop perceives to be a gun. It is crazy! Things like that never happen here, even if that toy is a toy gun.

Re: We Have Ruined Childhood

#320

Post by piker »

maxheadroom wrote: post #303
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 exis…

No, that's generally incorrect. If your property is surrounded by others' private property in the US, an "easement by necessity" will generally be automatically granted which allows you access to your property through the surrounding private property.
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