The sissification of our kids, part MCMXXIV

mad_machine wrote: My niece, whom I am the father figure to (her real father lives 5 miles away and cannot be bothered to do more than send support) recently was suspended from school for psychological reasons. The reason: she used the word suicide in a poem. She was deemed "a threat" and I had to go over there, talk to the school psychologist, and take her home. She needed to be evaluated by a certified outside psychologist before she would be allowed back. I admit, my niece did not have a good life before my mom took custody, and her poem reflected that. But if they had actually bothered to read what she wrote, they would have seen it was actually a positive poem. Instead, they got hung up on the word "suicide"

OMG quick ban all dictionaries, that horrendous word is in that book.

1984 seems to be just 30 late

madmallard wrote: In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker: corporal punishment is nothing more than another tool in the disciplin tool box. like any tool it can be used correctly or incorrectly. I am super skeptical of others impressions of corporal punishment because its so subjective to their own experiences. In your case, asking someone if they want to receive corporal disciplin is about the stupidest thing I've heard, and it sucks all the meaning out of it to nothing more than a planned battery, to me. i would consider that a very very poor implementation....

All corporal punishment taught me was that if I was going to get my ass kicked (and I did) I might as well make it worth my time.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: I just bought my 10 and 13 year old boys Airsoft guns and safety glasses, and sent them outside to shoot each other.

My kids loved those until they finally wore out the cheap plastic ones. One bit of advice - buy the huge tub of biodegradable ammo and don't let the neighbor kids come over and shoot the cheap plastic ones either. I had tens of thousands of those little yellow plastic ones covering my whole yard and the leaf sucker wouldn't pick them up. It took a lot of raking and shopvac time to learn that lesson.

The ammo I ended up with is not only biodegradable, it's green, and it fluoresces under a blue light. I gave them limited ammo, if they want to keep shooting, they have got to get it out of the yard. The lights came with the guns. They have spent a couple of evenings collecting ammo for the next day. It also teaches an important lesson in ammo conservation. Make your shots count, it keeps the pellets in our yard.

Like I said, I'm mean.

Oh, and fair warning to anyone considering the purchase of an Airsoft gun. They will put a hole in vinyl siding. That necessitated a few rule changes.

Here's where I like living in the redneck section of the county... kids playing in yards and streets... riding bikes around... making noise... I'm sure they're all told to, "stay away from that strange single man with all the weird cars..." but I think it's great.

If recess doesn't result in somebody bleeding, the day is a failure.

We see this with my wife's niece and nephew. Not as bad as we live in the country as do they but god some schools have gone nuts with this crap. We are seriously considering home schooling when we have kids. I still can't get over the whole not keeping score in sports thing.

I am sure these days my parents would have been arrested for child endangerment for how I was raised. I remember returning home after a long hard afternoon of playing, covering miles of wandering and bike riding with no supervision and half the time having some sort of bleeding injury.

fritzsch wrote:

aussiesmg wrote: We all know that a majority can never be wrong, like election time.

What? I don't even know where you are going with this.

then you either aren't trying ... or don't want to know ... I'm pretty sure you're smart enough ... assuming you want to understand as opposed to trying to ridicule him

mad_machine wrote: My niece, whom I am the father figure to (her real father lives 5 miles away and cannot be bothered to do more than send support) recently was suspended from school for psychological reasons. The reason: she used the word suicide in a poem. She was deemed "a threat" and I had to go over there, talk to the school psychologist, and take her home. She needed to be evaluated by a certified outside psychologist before she would be allowed back. I admit, my niece did not have a good life before my mom took custody, and her poem reflected that. But if they had actually bothered to read what she wrote, they would have seen it was actually a positive poem. Instead, they got hung up on the word "suicide"

what would have happened if you had said that you couldn't afford, absolutely couldn't afford an outside psychologist ... would she just have stayed home ?

In reply to mad_machine:

I had to go to "counseling" with a shrink when I was in elementary school due to "not playing well with others" and being "violent"........I happened to read his notes one day, and decided he was a berkeleying idiot. Turned out my behavior was due to prescription allergy medicine I was taking.

It was amusing though, because if they had paid attention, it was only on days when pollen/dust content were high, but no......they live to waste time & money.

FWIW I was an Honor student through grade school, and normally scored highest on standardized tests.

madmallard wrote: In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker: corporal punishment is nothing more than another tool in the disciplin tool box. like any tool it can be used correctly or incorrectly. I am super skeptical of others impressions of corporal punishment because its so subjective to their own experiences. In your case, asking someone if they want to receive corporal disciplin is about the stupidest thing I've heard, and it sucks all the meaning out of it to nothing more than a planned battery, to me. i would consider that a very very poor implementation....

It is what it is.

I am a product of a system that believed that violence solves problems. We turned out a whole era of children who resort to it when frustrated, scared or just plain fed up. Just like we were taught. I won't shy away from the fact that I've used a little of it to make due over the years. Fear and intimidation work. So do other methods.

I am always amazed that people really don't understand where the violent culture comes from.

You would think, that we would own it and cull the fringe who take joy in it... you know... to improve the herd. But we didn't. We don't have the stomach for the noose or the chopping block anymore. Maybe we should get out of the business altogether. Who knows.

My wife teaches at a private elementary school, for 25k a year the kids can climb trees as long as they can get back down on their own, if they need help to get down, they're banned from trees for a week or somethin. But no sticks being used as pretend guns and no "killing talk".

When I was a kid, every outdoor recess was a war for the boys, and the girls were used for espionage, using their feminine wiles to infiltrate the other side and get info or provide misinformation. I liked to pretend I was the predator, with that shoulder mounted lazer cannon, and the blade deal on my arm. If the three dots ended up on you, you were berked.

We turned out fine, no violent crime from any classmates in all these years.

Lesley wrote: It's sad. I know there are children in my neighbourhood, but I never see them. We used to go outside after breakfast and not come in until dinner. Does anyone build tree forts anymore. How about climb trees? Or is that forbidden? Remember walking to school and making friends with that dog that loved school children? Now kids don't walk to school and dogs aren't allowed off their leashes. Sigh. I am officially old.

My kids are 4 and 8, and climb trees like damned monkeys. We live in the ghetto, so they're not outside alone much, but the wife and I get them out of the house as much as possible. Lots of long woods walks and trips to the better area playgrounds, after school/weekend morning gymnastics and swimming lessons, I refuse to raise introverted couch potatos.

carbon wrote: I liked to pretend I was the predator, with that shoulder mounted lazer cannon, and the blade deal on my arm. If the three dots ended up on you, you were berked.

I was the Xenomorph.

Complete with "SCREEEEEEEEE"