I just got this email from my 12 year old son's primary teacher.
Dear Parents,
Having a couple of days off has given me a chance to collect my thoughts, and there is something I feel is important to bring up to you.
At PTC, I was struck by the number of parents who told me that they felt their child did not have any close friends in the class, friends to play with after school and on weekends. It seems that it's a large majority that feels that way.
From my point of view in school, there is a lot of friendship and normal social interaction in school.
I feel that what is happening is that children today have a challenge that none of us had when we were children. The amount of stimulus that a child finds online today is extremely enticing, and it's just not as exciting to travel over to a friend’s house to play when there is a fun electronic world at your fingertips.
How often does a child play board games today, of two to four players?
How often do they go biking/exploring?
It's not a class problem. It's a generation problem.
The children will try to convince you the solution is more screen time 🙂 They will give you examples of other children that have a ipad/switch/xbox etc.
But if we want our children to have real friendships we need to encourage them to play in the real world with each other, and reintroduce them to classic ways of having fun.
A solution may be to reach out to each other and blindside your children with a playdate that includes no screen time. Hopefully some of that friendship we see in school can spill into the afterhours as well.
Speaking with so many of you, I know how hard you work to set guidelines and boundaries and it's not easy. Good luck in all your efforts!
With best wishes,
I'm not going to politicize this (yet).
Just wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts.
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@sh76 saidWhy don't you play
I just got this email from my 12 year old son's primary teacher.
[quote]Dear Parents,
Having a couple of days off has given me a chance to collect my thoughts, and there is something I feel is important to bring up to you.
At PTC, I was struck by the number of parents who told me that they felt their child did not have any close friends in the class, friends to play wit ...[text shortened]... ote]
I'm not going to politicize this (yet).
Just wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts.
ball with your child?
The electronic world can benefit many children who are poor or who live in a dysfunctional household.
By "playing" in the electronic world the child can be whoever they want to be and nobody can see their quality of life which can be embarrassing.
I grew up poor with alcoholic parents and my father who raised me thought it was perfectly fine to litter the yard with old broken down cars and junk and crap. It felt like I lived in a junk yard.
I never had school friends over because it was embarrassing.
Getting on the bus every morning would put me on the receiving end of cruel jokes by the other kids.
This made me tough and capable of trash talking right back to anyone who made fun of me so their was some benefit 😉
Because of my "hillbilly country house" childhood I left at 17 for the city and never looked back.
So I think the electronic world is a way for all kids to be in an equal setting.
@sh76 saidWhen the world outside your apartment is hostile, everything owned by someone else, paranoid people constantly calling the police on "suspicious people" who then get shot, streets packed with cars driven by enraged people who are running late - it makes sense.
I just got this email from my 12 year old son's primary teacher.
[quote]Dear Parents,
Having a couple of days off has given me a chance to collect my thoughts, and there is something I feel is important to bring up to you.
At PTC, I was struck by the number of parents who told me that they felt their child did not have any close friends in the class, friends to play wit ...[text shortened]... ote]
I'm not going to politicize this (yet).
Just wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts.
Would I like to explore in my neighborhood? Sure. But what happens when I do? Cops get called on me and paranoid residents tell me they have guns.
Would I like to drive around and have fun? Sure! But that is insanely expensive and legally dangerous! So much easier to play GTA or Ring of Elysium and drive around virtually.
Would I like to dig holes and build stuff? Sure! But on whose property? Easier to do it in Minecraft or Fortnight.
Would I like to shoot at people with paintballs? Sure! But again, expensive and legally dangerous. Better to play America's Army and do it virtually.
Would I like to have fights and practice my skills? It's tempting. But dangerous, illegal, expensive to pay for the damage. Better to play Street Fighter II.
Etc.
The Legend of Zelda was created by a man who wanted to give Japanese children who had nowhere to play a virtual garden to roam around in. It's not the screens causing people to avoid the outside - the outside just sucks because the people out there suck.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tamir_Rice
Electronics have been blamed for childhood problems for generations. First, it was "TV rots your brain". Then it was "video games rot your brain". Now it's "phones are rotting kids brains" or whatever social ills people want pin on electronics.
Such problems are usual social. Perhaps a lack of parenting, either on the parents of the lonely child or the parents of ill-mannered children that child wants to avoid. Maybe there's a lack of places for children to play; maybe parents don't have time to watch their children as they play outside, either due to working long hours, health issues, or personal problems of their own.
Before buying my house, I lived in a townhouse where there were a lot of kids who ran around the complex. On my new block there are much fewer children, so we have to adjust and sign them up for activities. They just completed a week of ice-skating lessons and we are looking at getting them into soccer; unfortunately, a lot places are already booked up due to Covid-induced capacity limits.
Thankfully, they have a pretty large family full of children to play with, on my wife's side, who all live nearby. This is a luxury that many parents may not have.
@contenchess saidGood post.
The electronic world can benefit many children who are poor or who live in a dysfunctional household.
By "playing" in the electronic world the child can be whoever they want to be and nobody can see their quality of life which can be embarrassing.
I grew up poor with alcoholic parents and my father who raised me thought it was perfectly fine to litter the yard with ...[text shortened]... ver looked back.
So I think the electronic world is a way for all kids to be in an equal setting.
💪doosh