From: Barbara Lamar (altamiratexas@earthlink.net)
Date: Sat Dec 30 2000 - 19:42:33 MST
Mihail wrote:
<<I just wonder about the above statement (nothing else then wonder).
Is this a "new trend" in being a great parent or is just overkill? Is
quite
possible that Emlyn's daughter is a "little genius" but what about
the other
kids? Should we (parents and grand parents) read them bed time stories
full
with microbiology and astronomy scientific explanations or should we
just
"let the fables to tickle their imagination"? >>
I can't see that it would be any healthier for a child to live in a fantasy
world than for an adult. Telling a kid the truth about the world doesn't
necessarily mean reading bedtime stories filled with scientific
explanations, but if the kid's interested it seems a shame not to satisfy
his or her curiosity. In some cases the parent may not know the answer to
the kid's question (as Emlyn didn't about the bacteria). That's happened to
me from time to time ever since my daughter started talking, and I've
handled it by helping her learn how to do research the fun way, as a joint
mother-daughter project. Morgana had a chance to learn a couple of valuable
lessons when her dad didn't immediately know the answer to her question:
first that it's okay to not have all the answers and second that if you
don't have an answer you can sometimes find it.
Emlyn wrote:
>It's a fair question. Maybe it's too early to learn real information about
>how the world works? Maybe we should let them live in a fantasy world until
>some later age, when we determine that they are ready for the real thing?
>
>I don't believe that, quite obviously. Also, I'd dispute the dichotomy. You
>can very easily do both things at once.
Fantasy stories are great, and normal kids are smart enough to know the
difference between fantasy and reality, unless adults mislead them.
However, she's also interested in the real thing. I don't think this is
>anything specific to her; I've talked to lots of kids here and there about
>science/techie stuff; they really like it.
Same here. And I've often found that my understanding of how things work
increases as a result of answering kids' questions.
>I object to the fairytails-only mental diet fed to many kids. It seems to be
>mostly about delivering a package of standard memes, to infect the kids in
>just the way the adults desire.
Or worse, to blindly infect the kids in ways the adults never really
stopped to think about.
>I can't help feeding my kids my own beliefs, just like every other parent.
>I'm trying to counter that by giving them as much independant access to real
>information as I can. That means encouraging them to learn to read as early
>as possible, encouraging them to ask questions and find things out. It also
>means relatively unfettered internet access as soon as it is useful (ie:
>when reading is at a high enough standard) - that's a bit scary, but I
>couldn't justify not doing it.
I've never limited my kid's access to the Internet, books, TV, or
movies.And I've let her make her own choices about life in general for the
most part (although with my guidance if she wanted it). As she's grown up
she's gotten into less trouble and been far less rebellious than kids whose
parents were stricter. I've noticed this same thing with other kids whose
parents haven't tired to limit their knowledge of the real world.
Barbara
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