Video games have been under attack by the fear-mongers ever since they first appeared, and the attacks have not diminished. If you Google around the Internet using harmful effects of video games as a search phrase, you will find all sorts of frightening claims. If you look into the actual research literature, you find very little if any evidence supporting the fear-mongers claims, and considerable evidence against those claims.
Tag: children
Unschooled Kids Will Be Different
A concern I’ve heard regarding unschooled kids is that “they’ll be different”. What is meant by this is that they won’t have the same education, the same experiences, the same memories, the same cultural influences, yadda, yadda, yadda, as their “peers”. In my opinion, that’s just dandy.
Words Poorly Used #74 — Education
The experience of school teaches the same thing as prison does, that survival is dependent on maximum control of the hierarchy. The warden/principal must make sure that all aggression goes down the structure, not up. Neither bullies nor rapists are of any real concern, to the upper tiers, since the lower in the hierarchy a victim stands, the higher the penalties for upsetting the order.
The Broken Infant Fallacy
The period between birth and roughly the age of five is troublesome for central planners. As long as children remain dependent on their parents — and not “society,” as controlled by the state — there’s a risk of them developing habits that will become impossible to break once they enter a state-sanctioned institution, i.e. Kindergarten.
A Parental Right?
Whenever I hear people saying things like “Unschooling obviously wouldn’t work for everyone, but parents should have a right to choose what’s best for their kids,” or one of the hundred other variants on that same sentiment, I always feeling a niggling sense of unease. It’s never a statement I’ve agreed with. But until recently, I wasn’t entirely sure why it bothered me!
28 Signs That U.S. Public Schools Are Rapidly Being Turned Into Indoctrination Centers And Prison Camps
If we continue to allow all of the liberty and freedom to be systematically drained out of our school children, then there is not going to be much hope for the future of this nation. The following are 28 signs that U.S public schools are being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps
Child Labor In School And Out
School-days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense and common decency. It doesn’t take a reasonably bright boy long to discover that most of what is rammed into him is nonsense, and that no one really cares very much whether he learns it or not.
What is Freedom?
Using the dictionary definition of freedom, we can then start looking at freedom not from a philosophical perspective, but from an objective scientific perspective. Regardless of one’s moral view, we can all agree that someone in chains does not have freedom. Meaning that there is an object in their way restricting their movement. The hard part is what happens when they are released from their chains. If the newly freed individual is hungry and has no money to purchase food, are they free?
Freeing Butterflies: A Grandmother’s Journey to Homeschooling Acceptance
“I’ve had it, Mom—the last straw has landed. I’m taking Shaun out of school this week and I’m going to have him learn at home. And I’m never going to send Patrick and Molly to school. And if Ian wants to homeschool, he can, too!” With those words, I let my mother know I’d taken the drastic step I’d been contemplating and researching for months.
How to Unschool
1. Give your love generously and criticism sparingly. Be your children’s partner. Support them and respect them. Never belittle them or their interests, no matter how superficial, unimportant, or even misguided their interests may seem to you. Be a guide, not a dictator. Shine a light ahead for them, and lend them a hand, but don’t drag or push them. You will sometimes despair when your vision of what your child ought to be bangs up against the reality that they are their own person. But that same reality can also give you great joy if you learn not to cling to your own preconceived notions and expectations.