Quote:
Originally Posted by snowy
I think one of the things that might address the root of this issue is parenting classes. Despite what others might think, learning to parent is not entirely about fuzzy, warm feelings. A good chunk of any class on parenting is about positive discipline--how to teach your child to behave so that they understand why they need to behave that way, and how to do it in a way that solves the problem directly. Further, it teaches parents how to teach things like responsibility to their children.
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This is kind of what I was trying to get at last night. If we look at previous generations it wasn't uncommon to expect children to carry their own weight to support the family, that didn't necessarily mean getting a job but rather chores around the house or farm. From a very young age a child learns that life isn't a free ride and by the time he reaches adulthood (or close to it) he's been conditioned to accept that life isn't all about fun and living for the moment. I wonder if in today's world the those values are being lost through letting junior spend Saturday playing video games and not mowing the lawn (or whatever). It almost seems like our modern world is emphasizing the nurturing but not the discipline. The warm and fuzzy.
Education is similar and only made worse by parents foisting their responsibility on the educators and the educators demanding the parents do the work, meanwhile nobody really wants to take responsibility for raising the child. Teachers are coddling teenagers through assignments/tests and not doing enough to teach these kids that safety nets don't always exist and they may have to succeed or fail on their own merits. If the parents aren't doing that either why should we expect that when our kids grow into adults they are going to know any better?
Anyway I agree that we need to adjust our philosophy towards raising kids to better reflect what we know about the human brain and how learning really works but we can't forget that what we do now will impact the type of adult we produce.